For more than 25 years, CLF Distribution (CLF) has provided a one-stop shop for climate-sensitive consumers in the health and wellbeing market. The company’s history is indistinguishable from that of its founder and his family. Managing Director Logan Holliday explains: “CLF was founded in 1998 by my father, Robin Holliday. When we lived in America, Robin raced motorcycles and had a sponsorship deal with AST Sports Science. Upon returning to the UK, he established AST Sports Science UK Limited, the UK import and distributor for the brand, and two years later the business began selling to other sports nutrition brands, renamed CLF. It was changed to Distribution Ltd (C, L and F are my and my brother’s initials).
“Since then, the company has grown and moved from our family garage in New Milton, Hampshire to several other locations as we expanded.
Our customer base is changing and our product mix is evolving. Our focus on pure sports nutrition products has expanded to include other healthy lifestyle products such as organic foods, vitamin and mineral supplements, personal care, home care, and pet care. ”
new innovative products
Logan details the growth of his business. “In 2012 we moved to our current 38,000 sq ft warehouse in Southampton. In 2013 we became brand owners and have since produced a large number of products sold to our independent high street retail customer base. All of these brands are exclusive to their customers and are not sold in multiples or heavily discounted online by supermarket retailers to ‘stick’ their customers. There is no need to compete directly with If you like one of our brands, you don’t have to go to the retailer every time to buy it.
“My brothers and I have grown up with CLF and have spent a lot of time contributing to the CLF business over the years. In early 2018, I joined CLF full-time. My first project In July 2018, her sister Fallon also joined the company to develop and manufacture a range of bespoke vegan lunch products aimed at increasing daily foot traffic to retail stores. She started out in a temporary role as part of the customer service team, but now manages the entire department.
“At the beginning of 2022, Robin sold CLF shares to its employees in the form of an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). It is against this background that we have made a number of significant improvements over the past two years.EOT has also introduced monthly profit sharing for each staff member. It means that you can influence.”
This community-driven culture provides a strong foundation for CLF as we continue to diversify our product and service offerings. Logan explains: “Our core business is supplying independent high street retailers across the UK with a catalog of over 16,000 product lines. service can be provided. We provide our products “on the shelf”. This means that most of our portfolio can be ordered in single or fractional units rather than entire cases. Our fleet of vehicles allows us to service most of our customers directly and our reusable tote packaging minimizes waste generation.
“The luxury brands mentioned above are also reliable traffic drivers for many retailers. Just Natural is our largest brand and sells cereals, grains, pulses, beans, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices and more. Comprised of a variety of organic dry products, we are constantly developing our brand to offer retailers points of differentiation: organic, natural ingredients, plastic-free and low mileage. For Natural, many of its products are certified organic by the Vegan Society and are packaged in 100% plastic-free, home-compostable packaging, now under the Just Natural Health & Beauty Brands umbrella. Other CLF brands include Organic Kitchen, Prima Italia, Balanced, and Kurin Oral Care.
“We also service brands that we wholesale. We have a good mix of well-known mainstream brands such as Oatly and Clipper Teas, but the bulk of our catalog is small start-up companies. For many of these small brands, we provide the first route to market. Once listed on our list, their products can be ordered by over 1,200 CLF customers. We and our retailers rely on a constant flow of new and innovative products to keep our products interesting and offer our customers a supermarket difference.
“As we look to the future, I think we will be doing the same things we do today, but on a much larger scale. We expect this trend to continue and we want our in-house brand to grow and establish a strong following of loyal customers.” He concluded.
www.clfdistribution.com
