When Obi Linton gears up to submit products to a retailer via RangeMe, the former detective in him comes out. He investigates every aspect of that retailer: Its goals, values, the buyers in his category. He’ll purchase data to see what’s selling in the markets the retailer serves and how competitive products are moving.
Armed with this information, Linton, the Co-Founder & CEO of Nicobi Foods will fill out the product submission form, highlighting why his line of seasonings and sauces should be on the shelves from the perspective of the category manager’s needs and objectives, and the white space those products fill.
When one of Linton’s submissions are approved and he moves onto an in-person or virtual buyer meeting hosted by ECRM, the people skills he developed conducting investigations on the streets of Baltimore come into play, only in this case they are deployed in building relationships and learning how he can best serve the retailer.
Indeed, Linton’s law enforcement background has certainly worked well for Nicobi Foods, and by using them in conjunction with the tools provided by RangeMe & ECRM, this True Detective of the CPG industry has landed deals with the likes of Walmart, Wakefern and Ahold USA – just to name a few – and has landed them in the No. 2 slot on RangeMe’s Top Brands in Food & Beverage list, published earlier this month in MMR magazine.
“RangeMe is a tool,” Linton wrote recently in a LinkedIn post. “You have to understand how to work the platform, use the database and come to it prepared. When you do, the right doors can open.”
From Baltimore detective to restauranteur
Linton always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Even when he was a detective in the Baltimore Police Department he couldn’t resist the urge to start businesses. “I just couldn’t shake the idea of creating something,” he says. “I tried to use that energy in law enforcement, but there was a cap on what I could do. The freedom of being able to create is what made me want to be an entrepreneur; to create something, make it real, and then give it to somebody.”
There was a burrito restaurant he frequented while on the job, and one day he took some time to observe its lunchtime traffic. Approximately 300 customers walked through the doors. Seeing this, the entrepreneur in him took over and he imagined different ways he could launch such a business and improve on it.
After experimenting with some recipes with the help of his wife, Nicole, he traded his badge for a chef’s uniform, moved to Harrisburg, Pa., and launched Soul Burrito, which operated restaurants as well as food trucks selling burritos that featured ingredients and flavors that he and his wife developed.
“It was interesting seeing the public from that perspective,” says Linton. “As a law enforcement officer, everyone you interact with is having a bad day. When it comes to food, it’s a good day. You are feeding people versus locking someone up.”
The Lintons operated Soul Burrito for 15 years, and while the business was financially reliable, they sought a new line of income – one for which they did not have to be on site as much as was needed in the restaurant business. So they started a line of packaged burritos that they could sell at retail.
Sales at retail were solid, but then got a huge boost with the pandemic. In fact, with everyone in quarantine, the retail business started bringing in more money than the food trucks and restaurants. It provided just the push the Lintons needed to transition fully into CPG, and Nicobi Foods was born.
Nicole and Obi become emerging CPG brand-owners
Nicobi Foods, a combination of the Linton’s first names, offers a line of Soul Dust all-purpose seasoning as well as its Jerk Sauces, each combining bold flavors and natural ingredients that reflect each of the Co-Founder’s individual palates: Nicole’s love for American soul food and Obi’s love for African, Caribbean and Haitian flavors.
“That’s why our slogan is, ‘Flavored by Love,’ which is on the packaging of our products,” says Linton. “Each combines what Nicole and I love into every bottle. They have been battle-tested for the past 15 years as ingredients in our restaurants and food trucks, so we were confident that people would love them.”
Starting out as full-time brand-owners wasn’t easy. While Linton knew about the foodservice industry and the local market of Harrisburg, Pa., he wasn’t familiar with mass retail on a national scale, nor how to reach potential customers nationwide via marketing and social media.
Out came the detective.
“I need lots of input, and I get it from all different areas,” says Linton. “My goal was to get a good understanding of the industry and how to reach the market, and this included humbling myself to learn from younger people in the case of social media, for example.”
He also – as you have no doubt noticed – became very active on LinkedIn. What he discovered was that many CPG brand owners are very open to sharing information and helping each other out, and that you can learn from everybody, even competitors. “The category is big enough for everybody,” he says. “We support each other, and I look up to and inspire to be like some of the successful brands out there.”
Among those Linton cites as influences are Dude Wipes’ Sean Riley, Fire Department Coffee’s Luke Schneider and Pholicious’ Joseph Trousdale, each of which started small and scrappy, and slowly but steadily built their brands on a national scale. (Incidentally, each has also leveraged RangeMe and ECRM in their efforts, and I have had the privilege of covering each of these brands in our blogs and videos!).
RangeMe & ECRM: Essential tools for Nicobi Foods’ growth
Linton attributes a significant amount of Nicobi Foods’ growth to connections that began on RangeMe. “RangeMe gives us a centralized, credible way to present our products to retailers, and over time, we’ve used it to sharpen our pitch, understand retailer expectations and build trust,” he says. “We used the free subscription for a year and got into 500 stores. When we upgraded to a paid subscription, we tripled that number.”
However, these wins don’t just happen. You have to work the platform, he says, and just like any other tool, it only works if you use it properly. This includes having a complete and optimized profile with sharp product images, leveraging the data and insights, and actively submitting products.
Linton is extremely active in submitting products, both directly to retailers as well as via Immediate Opportunities, which are available for RangeMe Starter, Premium and Pro subscribers. And, as I noted in the intro, he puts a ton of work into each submission.
“Category managers are looking all the time,” he says. “You need to create your resume before you meet them, and when you submit your products, you need to make sure you do everything that could possibly be done, because if you win one the numbers are huge.”
In addition, Linton points out that RangeMe’s Immediate Opportunities have made him aware of opportunities that he never knew existed, and even get him thinking about new lines of products he can offer.
“This is what happened when I came across the Immediate Opportunity for Love’s Travel Stops. “We started thinking, how can we get our product into that retailer? Perhaps a quick-grab jerk sauce, or Soul Dust in a small container. If RangeMe didn’t exist, I never would have thought of these options. We’ve even started thinking of launching other categories of products because of seeing Immediate Opportunities. You can create a business off of the platform.”
Face-to-face with Obi Linton: ECRM meetings and the power of storytelling
As many of RangeMe’s Immediate Opportunities result in meetings as a part of the approval process, Linton has engaged with buyers and category managers face-to-face, either in-person meetings organized by ECRM or else virtually on the ECRM Connect platform. This is where Linton’s people-skills from his time in law enforcement and foodservice really shine, and move him even closer to getting on the shelf.
When I asked Linton what he thinks have led to his success in these retail buyer meetings, his quote says it all: “I’d rather have a conversation about the product than force-feed it down their throat.”
Sure, the products are an important part of the meeting, but he weaves them into a narrative that focuses on how Nicobi Foods can best serve the buyer’s needs and engage with the retailer’s customers.
Case-in-point: When Linton met with buyers from Wakefern Food Corp. at its Local Supplier Summit, he talked about how he grew up in New Jersey and shopped at Wakefern’s Price Rite stores regularly. He doesn’t just understand their customers’ needs, he was one of their customers. Of course, he took them through his line of products, but in the context of someone who was part of their market.
“You can’t just rattle off your products and say I have this and this and this,” says Linton. “They have been hearing this for the past six hours and you have to be memorable. So because of that, I tell them that I appreciate their time, and ask them how their day is going, and tell our story. And by the end of the conversation they feel that they are talking to a CPG brand owner who is a person who is not shoving something down their throat. Someone who really wants to put something in their store. We want to create a long-lasting conversation.”
Incidentally, Nicobi Foods did land a deal with Wakefern, and ended up in those Price Rite stores. And the buyer remembered the conversation when they spoke months later during a follow up. Stories work.
What’s next for Nicobi Foods
As the company continues to grow, Linton’s focus has increasingly included health – both the health of the communities served by Nicobi Foods as well as his own personal health. Nicole Linton runs Nicobi Cares, which is an organization that runs various initiatives to give back via donations and charitable events like their recent sponsorship of Giant Foods’ recent backpack giveaway at its Harrisburg, Pa. store.
On the personal health front, Linton has dropped 80 pounds since his pitch to Daymond John at Walmart’s Open Call event last year (where they won a Golden Ticket), and is looking to drop more (in fact, we plan on a video interview about each of our wellness journeys when he hits 100 pounds lost). And since his products are low in salt, he happily includes them in his diet. Already he is feeling a lot healthier, and has even more energy (as if he needs more energy!).
One thing is for certain. With all of the momentum Nicobi Foods has been generating, he will put all of that new energy to good use!
Watch our full interview in the video below!