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Digital Promotions are the Secret Sauce for Small Florida Business
Magnificat Holdings (DBA Yo Mama’s Foods) is a digitally native company that gained initial success selling through Amazon before moving into retail. Based in Clearwater, Florida, they make all natural pasta sauces, salad dressings, ketchup and other value-added products. They started using the Southern United States Trade Association’s CostShare program in 2020, three years after launching.
Magnificat Holdings first used CostShare for 50% reimbursement of promotions on Amazon Canada.For instance, if you search for pasta sauce on Amazon.ca, their brand Yo Mama’s comes up in the top search results, which is a sponsored promotion eligible for CostShare reimbursement. They also use CostShare to create content, such as recipe videos, for both Canada and Mexico. Additionally, they translated their website to Spanish for consumers in Mexico, and they now also promote their brands on Amazon in Mexico as well.
“There are so many international opportunities, but when you are just getting started it is all foreign to you. SUSTA breaks it down and helps to navigate the process. Without SUSTA, we wouldn’t be as incentivized to export; and joining SUSTA expedited the whole process of gaining success internationally,” said David Habib, President.
In addition to Canada and Mexico, Magnificat Holdings also exports to Australia and the UK, where they have received CostShare support for creating labels and other promotions. In 2022, 9% of their overall sales were international. Habib would love to grow that to 20%.
“We also appreciate how well-run SUSTA is as an organization. The overall design of the website, the emails and the CostShare Manual make it an easy process to follow,” added Habib.
The majority of their pasta sauces are produced in Florida, but because there are no tomato processors in the state, they have to truck processed tomatoes in from California. This is frustrating to Habib, who is well aware of the excess of tomatoes grown in Florida. He is working to get a processor in Florida this fall so that he can use the roma tomatoes grown nearby and create a more sustainable product and process.
