Opportunity Knocks: With PTL1 | Startup CPG Webinar

Airports, cruise ships, resorts, casinos, and theme parks are a retail channel most emerging brands never think about, and it plays by different rules than grocery. In this Startup CPG Opportunity Knocks webinar, Caitlin Bricker talks with Rasheda, General Manager of PTL1, a 43 year old distributor that serves travel and leisure destinations, to explain what the company is looking for and how to pitch it. Speaking live from a trade show floor, Rasheda shares where she sees white space (better for you food and eco friendly products), why travel size matters, and why pricing for this channel has to account for expensive retail real estate. She explains the two things every brand should think through before applying, price and marketing strategy, and what a pitch should look like when she has 11 companies to manage. Takeaways: • PTL1 distributes to travel and leisure destinations only: cruise ships, casinos, hotels, resorts, airports, gift shops, water parks, theme parks, and museums. • White space includes better for you food, which is hard to find in this channel, and eco friendly, earth friendly, and body friendly products • Customers need travel size and compact formats, so a 12 to 16 ounce shampoo bottle doesn’t fit • Prices that work for a grocery retailer won’t work here, since the distributor marks up to a suggested retail that is usually higher, and retail real estate in these spaces is expensive • PTL1 does not market products. Marketing happens only through its website, catalog, and trade shows, so brands need their own marketing strategy. If accepted, PTL1 will send a newsletter to its customers and can include your sell sheets • Keep the pitch simple: what the product is, why it belongs in this space, what it costs, then book a meeting. • She sometimes sends pricing free pitch decks to her own customers to gauge interest before calling the brand • The best time to pitch is September through January. February to September is the busy season, and the down season is when PTL1 reviews products and brings in new ones • To be PTL1 ready, a brand needs finished product, a UPC it owns, and enough inventory to supply hundreds of stores. PTL1 sells in inner packs, so consider your inner pack size multiplied across thousands of customers. PTL1 has over 3,000 customers • Economics are buy cost plus markup, with no pallet, return, or spoilage fees • Only shelf stable products are accepted. There is no refrigeration. Most customers are hotels at $200 a night or above, selling through planogram gift stores •Two warehouses, in Pompano Beach, Florida and Henderson, Nevada, reach customers in two to three days. Typical lead time to get product in is 7 to 14 days • Emerging brands that have done well include Emergency Panties and Buganic, an eco friendly mosquito repellent made of cotton stickers infused with essential oils Key Topics: 00:00 Welcome and introduction from Caitlin Bricker 00:20 What PTL1 is and Rasheda’s role 01:26 White space PTL1 is seeing 03:20 Categories PTL1 isn’t looking for 04:40 What a successful partnership looks like: pricing and marketing 06:24 How to stand out when pitching 08:12 Where to send a pitch deck and the Opportunity Knocks campaign 08:38 Emerging brands that have succeeded with PTL1 10:36 What makes a brand PTL1 ready 12:34 Q&A: hair care 13:12 Q&A: sharing customer lists for marketing 13:49 Q&A: warehousing and shipping 14:29 Q&A: lead times 14:59 Q&A: case and inner pack sizes 15:22 Q&A: refrigerated and frozen products 16:29 Q&A: economics and fees 17:45 Q&A: average price points 18:26 Q&A: coolers and ready to drink products 19:04 Q&A: hotel tiers 19:31 Closing and Opportunity Knocks reminder Connect with our guest: Rasheda, General Manager, PTL1 Linkedin:   / rashedajackson   About Startup CPG: Startup CPG is the largest community for emerging brands, with 40,000 plus Slack members, the number one podcast in CPG, over 100 events per year, and award winning resources to help brands grow. Join free today at startupcpg.com/sign-up If you found this helpful, subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. Stay connected: Instagram:   / startupcpg   LinkedIn:   / startupcpg   #StartupCPG #CPG #OpportunityKnocks #TravelRetail #CPGDistribution #CPGBrands #EmergingBrands #BetterForYou #EcoFriendly #RetailStrategy #CPGCommunity #2026Trend