Launching in the U.K. Market: Our Segue into Europe!

It may sound cliche, but it’s the truth: This journey just keeps getting better and better. 

This past week has been filled with varying emotions launching RangeMe into the U.K., as part of the path we’ve been laying for our future, as well as for our incredible community of buyers and suppliers. This new endeavor is a continuation of our mission to deliver an amazing experience for them and the CPG industry as a whole. 

The amount of growth and transformation we’ve undergone in the past 18 months would ordinarily have taken years. But the pandemic accelerated the pace of change beyond measure, on just about every level in the CPG industry. This pandemic has taught us that while the world has become a smaller place, there are still vast gulfs for forging cross-border relationships between buyers and suppliers.

RangeMe’s mission has always been to connect buyers and suppliers from every corner of the globe to enable greater access, efficiency, and opportunity. However, this pandemic has shown us that greater global access isn’t just something we want—it’s something we need. And because of this, RangeMe has accelerated our own offering, and we are pleased to announce that we are now a global marketplace.

We have launched our platform in the United Kingdom as the first step of RangeMe’s expansion into Europe. It is exciting for me to see the realization of a major goal we tasked ourselves with—before the pandemic turned the world upside down—come to life. Before COVID swept the globe, I traveled to the U.K. to meet with retailers, and soon after countries went into lockdown, those retailers I’d met with were knocking on our door, looking for a solution to discover new suppliers locally and overseas.

On a personal note, our launch in the U.K. market is a little bit like a homecoming for me. In my early 20s, I moved to London to work in the FMCG/CPG market. I lived there for almost two years and loved every minute of the experience of working with flagship British brands and retailers who were leading the way when it came to category management strategy and innovation. I was fortunate to work on the iconic Bisto gravy brand and launched the first sachet packet format into the U.K. market. I also worked for Britvic and launched the Britvic mixers and J20 into the market. So for me to now be leading the largest global product discovery marketplace and launching into a market I used to work in—a leading market in Europe, at that—is a bit of a pinch-me moment! Working alongside retailers I once sold Bisto, Britvic and J20 to is a little bit surreal. Amazing, but surreal.

The past year and a half has shown the entire CPG industry where the gaps are. Those gaps are opportunities, and we are thrilled to be in a place where we are not only ready to pursue opportunity, but we know without a doubt we can create success out of them as well. I am so grateful for our tremendous team of more than 100 passionate and dedicated RangeMe employees and our broader ECRM team for getting us to this amazing milestone. It’s astounding that we are able to simultaneously achieve this milestone of broadening RangeMe’s reach and help extend the reach of so many buyers and suppliers during such an important time. I’m so thankful to be on this journey to help open up the world of trade. Most importantly, we are excited about creating this access, accelerating innovative products getting on the shelves, and meeting the needs of today’s ever-changing consumer! 

We are truly looking forward to working with the U.K. suppliers and buyers joining the RangeMe community, and seeing you across the pond!