BUFF Bison Meat Snacks - Stories Worth Telling
BUFF
All Buff No Fluff
BUFF meat snacks were created to feed today's on the go families, athletes, health conscious eaters that know high quality products when they find them. Big Rock Bison are fed only 100% grass. The bison and beef used in our BUFF sticks are from reputable, upstanding farming operations that allow the animals to graze naturally.
Unlike 99% of meat snack products on the market today, Buff is fermented. This is the process of lactofermentation that allows natural bacteria to feed on the sugar and starch in the food which creates lactic acid. This preserves the food, as well as creating beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids, enzymes, b-vitamins and probiotics. All of this allows the products to be shelf stable without chemicals or other unwanted ingredients.
BUFF - Fast Facts
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Your name: Heather and Mark Shouldice
Year the company was started: 2014
Where are the products made: BUFF.ca is based in Shallow Lake ON and our product is made in Listowel ON
What is the ‘key ingredient’ that makes your product line special? 100% Canadian ingredients most importantly Bison |
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Interview with Mark Shouldice, President of Buff
LCG Foods sat down with the President of Buff, Mark Shouldice, and asked him some questions to better understand the brand's vision, core values, and other topics that we thought potential retail partners would want to know.
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What motivated you to start your company and create the products that we see today? After working in manufacturing and marketing, we both switched carrers comptley to find a match that would allow us to work together and from home. And with 2 small children at home Heather went back to school for nursing to explore that option. During those early days of nursing the idea of a meat snack came up. We started researching and bringing in meat products from all over north America to find one we love. After a lot of taste testing we found our winner and started the process of creating one that we would LOVE and want to share. After a few years of working in a provincial facility and selling mostly locally we decided to make the jump and commit 100% to BUFF and its success. We rebranded, updated our packaging and website and moved into a federal production facility to open our sales doors and we haven’t looked back since.
What are your company’s core values? a. Create quality from nature b. Maintain utmost respect for our the lands, the animals and our customers c. Strive for food innovation d. Serve wellness orientated customers who make mindful purchases to maintain a healthy lifestyle e. Put a premium 100% Canadian product on the market that we are proud to produce and people will be proud to support.
If you could tell a retailer three things about what makes your brand different, what would they be? a. Bison based – first to be available nationally in Canada b. Fermented and Cold Smoked – First and only in Canada product available in Canada nationally. Other products are fermented but with a heat based process it essentially “cooks” good and bad bacteria out. Our process keeps the good and gets rid of the bad. c. Lean and Clean – We were very mindful in selecting our ingredients to maintain a stand out nutritional profile.
What are some of the challenges that you've overcome to bring your business to its current state? We started this product to solve a problem in our lives – finding a top quality, lean and clean meat snacks to serve our family. So we started researching and creating. We had no idea that while we were in the testing phase that we would end up with such a unique looked for Canadian product as well as becoming actual bison farmers along the way. We worked through the challenges of creating packaging etc as well as working through production changes moving from a Provincial processing facility into a federal processing facility. Creating such a unique product has also required focusing on educating our consumer on why its different than what is on the market. Always a challenge but one we take on with enthusiasm. Talking about Bison is our passion and teaching people about the nutritional and taste differences is one of the best parts of our job, along with creating lasting relationships with our customers and vendors. What do you enjoy doing outside of work? We are a very active family. Mark is a competitive flat water kayak athlete. We are on the run for AAA hockey, dance etc. As a family we generally plan our outings around where we can bike, hike, or fish. Heather loves to cook and entertain. We enjoy our time as a family and our life on the farm that we created.
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Check out all the items from BUFF Here!
Why LCG Foods?
If you own or manage a health food store, you know it’s hard work to maintain a successful business. From developing customer loyalty, to managing costs, to staying competitive with the big grocery store down the street, we get that you want your suppliers to work as hard as you do.
At LCG Foods Distribution, we carefully curate a lean wholesale catalog of only the hottest natural food products, with new product launches every few weeks. Whether your store values organic, non-GMO, vegan, gluten-free, or keto, we have the products your customers are looking for, before they know they’re looking for them.
We offer straightforward, no-nonsense pricing, and ordering can be done easily online, by email, or over the phone with your account manager. All orders are processed on-demand from our distribution centres in Ontario and British Columbia, with Canada-wide service.
Get started today by browsing all the Buff Bison Sticks, or take a look at our full product offering, then, if you'd like to explore wholesale pricing for your business, simply complete the form below and an LCG Foods representative will get in touch with you within 2-4 hours during the work week.
Request Wholesale Pricing - Account Setup