Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing

What Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing does

Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing, Inc. is a US-based food brokerage firm that represents premium specialty food, natural food, perishable food, and confection manufacturers to retailers, wholesalers, and distributors. The company traces its roots to 1995, when Three Crown Sales (acquired by Stewart Reich in 1994) merged with Hanson Faso Associates. Its 51-100 employee organization operates from headquarters in Lisle, Illinois, with regional sales and merchandising teams covering Midwest, Central, East, and West US regions across six trade channels — Grocery, Natural, Mass, Club, Drug, and Alternate Channels — and multiple food categories including Center Store, Perimeter, Deli, Dairy, Frozen, and General Merchandise/HBC.

The firm delivers a portfolio of brokerage services organized into six core competencies: Sales and Program Execution (distributor/retailer presentations, promotional planning, planogram verification), Customer Service and Order Management (price verification, quantity exception reporting, order expediting), Administrative Support (new vendor and item setup, cost change management, customer portal management), Supply Chain/Logistics/Inventory Management, Sales Analytics (gap and void analysis, POD analysis, syndicated data), and Deduction Management and Resolution (dispute filing, trade spend analysis). Underpinning these services are two internally developed proprietary systems — a sales and inventory management platform and a sales analytics software — both developed in-house, with CCO Michael Reich playing a key role in the analytics platform.

Hanson Faso earns revenue through brokerage commissions, taking a transaction-fee cut on sales volume generated for its client brands. The go-to-market is enterprise field sales, with sales representatives and regional sales managers executing against retailer, distributor, and wholesale relationships. The company is privately held with no external PE or VC ownership evidenced; leadership is structured around founder/CEO Stewart Reich (Specialty Food Hall of Fame inductee, 2019) alongside his son Michael Reich (CCO), with CFO Karen McPherson overseeing finance, HR, business intelligence, and data management. Customer acquisition relies primarily on industry reputation, trade show presence, Specialty Food Association committee participation, and direct outreach, rather than performance marketing.

Name

Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing

Legal name

Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing, Inc.

Website

https://hansonfaso.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing is a privately held US food brokerage firm that represents premium specialty, natural, and perishable food manufacturers to retailers, wholesalers, and distributors across Grocery, Natural, Mass, Club, Drug, and Alternate Channels nationwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Food Brokerage Services

NAICS

Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers (4244)

SIC

Wholesale-Groceries & Related Products (5140)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYCRAFAAAF

Wholesale/B2B Generalist Marketplaces

Consumer Products & Retail/E-commerce & Marketplaces/Generalist Online Marketplaces

Keywords

• Food brokerage services
• Specialty food distribution
• Natural foods brokerage
• Retail sales representation
• Trade marketing services

Headquarters

HQ city

Lisle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Brokerage Commissions: As a food brokerage firm, Hanson Faso earns revenue by representing food manufacturers and brands to retailers and distributors. They earn commissions based on sales volume and successful program execution for their client brands.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing is a B2B food brokerage firm that represents premium specialty and natural food manufacturers to retailers and distributors across multiple U.S. trade channels including Grocery, Natural, Mass, Club, Drug, and Alternate Channels. The company provides a suite of services covering sales and program execution, customer service and order management, administrative support, supply chain/logistics/inventory management, sales analytics, and deduction management and resolution, earning revenue through brokerage commissions based on sales volume and program execution.

Product overview

Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing is a food brokerage firm with a sixty-year history that offers a portfolio of sales and marketing services to food manufacturers. Rather than a unified software product, the company provides a suite of service offerings including Sales and Program Execution, Customer Service & Order Management, Administrative Support, Supply Chain/Logistics/Inventory Management, Sales Analytics, and Deduction Management and Resolution. The company also maintains proprietary internal technology systems for sales analytics and inventory management to support its brokerage operations. The firm specializes in premium specialty and natural food products across multiple trade channels including Grocery, Natural, Drug, Mass, and Alternate Channels.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sales and Program Execution

Named customers6 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Crossmark: Sales, marketing, and retail services agency serving CPG brands across grocery, mass, and drug channels. Comparable in representing food brands to retailers and offering in-store execution and analytics, but operates at broader scale and scope.
• Acosta: Major North American CPG sales and marketing agency serving grocery, mass, drug, and club channels. Directly comparable business model of representing brands to retailers, with a broader national footprint and broader service portfolio than Hanson Faso.
• Advantage Solutions: Largest US CPG broker and retail services firm (formerly Advantage Sales & Marketing, parent of Daymon). Comparable as a full-service broker covering grocery, natural, club, and mass channels, but operates at much greater scale with a public-market orientation.

Regional players

• KeHE Distributors: Specialty food and natural products distributor serving North American retail. Adjacent rather than direct—KeHE is a wholesaler and Hanson Faso is a broker, but both sit in the specialty/natural food go-to-market ecosystem serving the same retailers and brand principals.

Direct peers

• Weller Partners: Independent specialty and natural food broker. Closely comparable as a mid-sized broker focused on premium and natural brands, competing for the same principal brands in the natural, grocery, and mass channels.
• The Food Partners: Independent CPG brokerage and consulting firm representing food brands to retailers. Closely comparable in model—commission-based broker representation, multi-channel coverage, and emphasis on analytical sales support for branded principals.
• Presence Marketing: Specialty and natural food broker with deep roots in the natural channel. Closely comparable to Hanson Faso in focus on premium, natural, and specialty brands and multi-channel (grocery, natural, mass) representation, making it a near-direct competitor for the same principal brands.
• Daymon: Specialty private-label and branded CPG broker (now part of Advantage Solutions). Overlaps with Hanson Faso in specialty food and natural channel representation, though Daymon leans more heavily into private label development services.
• Pinnacle Sales Group: Specialty food and natural products broker covering grocery, natural, and mass channels. Comparable in size and in focus on premium/specialty brand representation, often competing for the same natural-channel set placements.

Others

• UNFI: Largest US distributor of natural, organic, and specialty foods. Not a broker, but a key channel partner whose go-to-market relationships with natural brands intersect with Hanson Faso's representation work in the natural channel.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hanson-faso-sales-and-marketing

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles17 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing