A 100% Canadian participant entering the condiment wars

Ontario-based Primo hoping support for locally produced food will help its ketchup compete

John Porco wants to talk about ketchup which, on its face, seems a bit after the fact, given the smackdown between French’s and Heinz.

French’s appeared victorious in that public relations war — and in high demand, if an unscientific study of sold-out grocery store shelves is any indication.

Ontarians want Ontario ketchup, even if the French’s version, constituted of Leamington tomatoes, is processed in Ohio. Well hold on, says Porco, who has just launched a 100-per-cent made-in-Canada ketchup. The “sell sheet” for the product uses the 100-per-cent Canadian pitch no fewer than six times, from its all-Canadian ingredients (Leamington tomatoes), to the company’s 100-per-cent Canadian ownership, to its fully Canadian processing to “100 per cent Canadian pride.”

Porco is chief operating officer of Primo Foods Inc. You know the name: pastas and pasta sauces. Sister company Unico is also in that trade, with a long list of additional products ranging from whole roasted peppers to canned diced tomatoes to tinned tuna. Parent company Sun-Brite is still family owned: Henry Iacobelli purchased an old cannery in 1973 and the company was built from there.

This year Sun-Brite has contracted for 186,000 tonnes of tomatoes from Leamington farmers, making it by far the largest tomato buyer, now that Heinz is out of the game.

When Heinz was in town the view was, “how do you fight the goliath, right?” says Porco, adding that the U.S. company was a great local employer.

“Once they closed the plant and pulled the production to the U.S. that gave us a different perspective.” (Highbury Canco, which took over the plant, still produces some products for Heinz, but not ketchup.)

As much as ketchup seemed an obvious complement to the Primo/Unico lineup, the decision to enter the category was not easy.

“In the categories we compete in, there are a lot of big multinational players who have deep pockets,” Porco says. “That’s really how the game is played. For us it was like, we’re going to get into this but we’re going to get killed here.”

It was the social media firestorm over French’s that gave the company the needed push. “When we saw all the support behind Canadian made products we thought this is the right time to move forward.”

The condiment wars have thus far been a battle between two global behemoths. French’s is owned by the U.K.-based Reckitt Benckiser Group, a conglomerate that reaches into hundreds of countries through more than 60 operating companies, selling everything from pharmaceuticals to fabric softener to that ballpark yellow mustard.

After French’s started its move into retail ketchup, dominated by Heinz, Heinz moved into mustard, dominated by French’s.

We’re talking big money. French’s is the largest mustard brand in the world and, according to Bloomberg, has 60 per cent of the U.S. market in the “yellow category.” So the top-line story is really a global battle, which extends into the burger wars too, for those who remember McDonald’s announcement that it was going to cease using Heinz ketchup after 3G Capital bought Heinz.

Into the fray enters Sun-Brite, an all-Canadian company which is actually based in Ruthven, Ont., just a kick west of Leamington. The farmers who supply the company’s tomatoes all till fields within a one-hour radius of the plant. Leamington, as you know, has exceptional conditions for tomatoes, with its extended growing period through the shoulder seasons of spring and autumn. And all that glorious sunshine.

Porco paints a picture of local farmers trundling their tomatoes to the plant right up until Thanksgiving. By the end of this week, Primo ketchup will be on the shelves of about two dozen stores in southwestern Ontario. “It’s a slow build,” Porco says of the test marketing. Company sales reps are meeting with the major grocery chains, where support would have to be won if Primo ketchup has a chance of success. “The fact we’re made in Canada, hopefully they’ll support that and look at it as a positive.”

The high-cost barriers to entry, from listing fees to marketing and advertising, are daunting. And Porco, who sits on the Food and Consumer Products of Canada board, knows how tough it is for smaller companies, promoting homegrown product, to battle against global imports. “All we want is to be given the opportunity, that’s really what we’re after.”

Perhaps Premier Kathleen Wynne will give the upstart ketchup a chance. Perhaps it’s time for another photo op, with the premier purchasing a bottle of truly all-Ontario ketchup. jenwells@thestar.ca