Why the CPG Industry Is Still Stuck in Spreadsheets—and What Comes Next
Still Running CPG in Spreadsheets? It’s Slowing You Down.
I’ve spent over a decade in the trenches of the CPG industry—launching products, managing retail accounts, building broker relationships, and growing brands across Canada and beyond.
And if there’s one truth that continues to frustrate me, it’s this:
Too many teams are still running multi-million dollar businesses on spreadsheets, emails, PDFs, and disconnected systems.
It’s 2025. Yet across CPG, the tools haven’t kept up with the pace and complexity of the industry. And we’re paying for it—in time, in talent, and in lost opportunities.
Let’s talk about it.
The Hidden Cost of Legacy Systems in CPG
When we talk about "legacy systems," we’re not just talking about the old software you bought 6 years ago—we’re talking about the stitched-together mess of:
Spreadsheets for pricing, SRPs, and trade plans
Email threads for approvals and execution
PowerPoints for retail pitches
PDFs for sell sheets
Disconnected task management tools (if any)
And that’s just the brand side. Brokers? Often managing 20+ brands with no central place to track what’s happening where. Retailers? Reviewing decks buried in inboxes and relying on manual back-and-forth just to get basic product info.
This isn’t just inefficient. It’s unsustainable.
What It Looks Like in Real Life
A brand misses a retailer’s cut-in date because the task was buried in someone’s inbox.
A broker sends out the wrong pricing because the spreadsheet version was outdated.
A buyer passes on a great product because the sell sheet was missing ingredients or case pack details.
A founder spends their weekend building a new presentation… that Toodu could generate in seconds.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve all been there. And it’s time for something better.
Enter: Toodu – Purpose-Built for CPG
We didn’t build Toodu as a general SaaS tool trying to force-fit into CPG. We built it from the inside out—with deep roots in the industry and a real understanding of how people work.
Toodu brings three critical solutions together under one roof:
Toodu Business – Your CPG Command Center
This is your operations platform. It’s where brokers manage brand portfolios, where brands manage retailers, and where both sides can track products, tasks, pricing, promotions, and performance—without the chaos. One login, one dashboard, one source of truth.
Brandfeed – Modern Product Discovery for Retailers
Forget endless PDFs and outdated sell sheets. Brandfeed is a live, digital profile for your brand. Retail buyers can access your product info, images, pricing, and marketing assets in real-time—filterable, downloadable, and always up to date.
Toodu AI – The Smart Assistant CPG Has Been Waiting For
Need a sell sheet? A trade spend forecast? A call summary turned into next steps? Toodu AI can do that in seconds. It’s like adding a strategy team, a sales analyst, and a content creator—without adding headcount.
It’s Not Just About Efficiency—It’s About Growth
The brands and brokers that win in today’s market are the ones who move fast, stay aligned, and operate with clarity. That only happens when your tools support the way you actually work.
Toodu helps you:
Scale without adding more admin
Stay on top of retailer timelines
Create better accountability across teams
Free up your smartest people to do high-leverage work
The Industry is Changing—Let’s Lead It
The next era of CPG isn’t about who has the biggest team or budget. It’s about who’s built the best system.
If you’re still trying to grow on top of spreadsheets, you're playing defense.
Toodu puts you back on offense.
