Acosta Sales & Marketing

What Acosta Sales & Marketing does

Acosta Sales & Marketing is a privately held, outsourced sales and marketing agency headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, founded in 1927 and operating with 10,000+ employees across more than 40 U.S. office locations and a Canadian subsidiary. The company represents consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers in front of retailers, delivering headquarter sales, connected commerce, merchandising, space and category management, business intelligence, revenue growth management, order-to-cash, and supply chain services. Marquee clients include The Coca-Cola Company, Tyson, Mars Food, Barilla, KAO, Kikkoman, The Honest Company, Hostess, and Freshpet, alongside a dedicated Ignite vertical for emerging natural and organic brands.

The company's service stack is supported by proprietary technology, most notably Acosta Relay — an Order-to-Cash platform that processes roughly 1.5 million claims and one million orders annually and manages $3.2 billion in trade dollars — plus the ForeSite UNFI Wholesale Power BI Dashboard, a Predictive Forecasting Engine built on historical point-of-sale data, and a National Shelving Study and Space Analysis tool. These systems, combined with a proprietary Shopper Community of 40,000+ respondents and IBM-powered analytics, underpin its business intelligence and revenue growth management offerings.

Acosta makes money as a professional services sales agency, earning fees for headquarter sales representation, in-store merchandising, business intelligence, revenue growth management, order-to-cash processing, and supply chain support across virtually every major U.S. retail channel (grocery, mass/club, natural, convenience, drug, military, wholesale, pet, independent, Hispanic) and the full Canadian retail landscape. Channel coverage includes Kroger, Walmart, Target, Amazon, Whole Foods, Costco, Albertsons, Ahold-Delhaize, Publix, H-E-B, Meijer, Sprouts, wholesalers UNFI/AWG/SpartanNash/C&S/Lipari, DeCA, and AAFES. Strategic actions over the past 15 years include the acquisitions of TrueDemand Software (2009), Anderson Daymon Worldwide (2014), IGNITE Sales Management (2016), Contemporary Foodservice Marketing (2017), and ESM Ferolie (2021), supported by an investment from Berkshire Partners in 2003.

Name

Acosta Sales & Marketing

Legal name

Acosta

Website

https://acosta.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1927

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

Acosta Sales & Marketing is a privately held, outsourced sales and marketing agency headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, that represents consumer packaged goods brands to retailers across the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 1927 and operating with 10,000+ employees, it delivers headquarter sales, merchandising, business intelligence, order-to-cash, and supply chain services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

CPG Sales Agency Services

NAICS

Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418)

akta.pro primary industry

Channel/Partner Sales Support (Reseller Enablement, Deal Reg) (BPAAADAH)

Keywords

• CPG sales agency
• Retail merchandising services
• Headquarter sales representation
• Trade promotion management
• Shopper insights analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Jacksonville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices42 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Sales Agency Services: Acosta acts as a sales agency representing CPG brands to retailers, earning fees for headquarter sales, merchandising, business intelligence, revenue growth management, order to cash, and supply chain services. The company serves as an extension of brand sales teams.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels11 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Acosta is an outsourced sales and marketing agency that represents consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands to retailers, executing headquarter sales, in-store merchandising, space and category management, business intelligence, revenue growth management, order-to-cash, and supply chain services across grocery, mass, natural, convenience, drug, wholesale, military, and pet channels in the U.S. and Canada. The firm operates proprietary technology including the Acosta Relay order-to-cash platform and a 40,000+ member Shopper Community used to drive analytics and trade promotion execution on behalf of its brand clients.

Product overview

Acosta Sales & Marketing is an omnichannel retail growth catalyst offering a comprehensive suite of sales and marketing services. The platform combines core capabilities including Headquarter Sales, Connected Commerce, and Business Intelligence, supported by specialized verticals for Merchandising, Space + Category Management, and Revenue Growth Management. Operational excellence is delivered through Order to Cash and Supply Chain services. A dedicated Emerging Natural and Organic Brands division (Ignite) addresses the natural channel. The company operates proprietary technology including Acosta Relay for order processing and claims management, and ForeSite UNFI Wholesale Power BI Dashboard for wholesale analytics.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ignite Sales Services: Sales services for emerging natural and organic brands seeking market expansion.
• Impact Natural

Products and services

• Headquarter Sales Connects brands with retailers through direct sales team engagement, executing go-to-market strategies and maintaining buyer relationships at the retail shelf level for CPG clients.
• Connected Commerce Converts shoppers at every stage of the purchase journey across physical and digital retail channels, optimizing brand presence in e-commerce and omnichannel environments.
• Emerging Natural and Organic Brands (Ignite) Specialized sales service delivered through Ignite Sales Services to fuel the successful expansion of natural and organic brands in natural and specialty retail channels. Originated via acquisition of IGNITE Sales Management in April 2016.
• Merchandising Brings brands to life at shelf across thousands of stores nationwide through in-store execution, product placement, and visual merchandising services.
• Space + Category Management Increases accuracy, saves time, and uncovers sales opportunities through planogram optimization, shelf space analysis, and category planning services.
• Business Intelligence Optimizes decision-making with deep insight into retail trends through data analytics, predictive forecasting, and actionable business intelligence powered by IBM analytics and the 40,000+ member Shopper Community.
• Revenue Growth Management Boosts profitability and improves market competitiveness through pricing strategy, trade promotion optimization, and revenue growth analysis.
• Order to Cash Streamlines operations and speeds up cash flow through promotional contract generation, order processing, claims management, and deduction resolution powered by the proprietary Acosta Relay technology platform.
• Supply Chain Seamlessly manages inventory movement for accurate forecasting and delivery through supply chain scorecards, inventory tracking, and logistics coordination.

Quantifiable outcome

• Mars Food saved $1.3M in slotting fees with 34% increase in distribution points
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers17 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• The Integer Group: The Integer Group is a sales and shopper marketing agency that combines brand marketing, retail activation, and shopper insights for CPG brands, comparable to Acosta's omnichannel sales and connected commerce offerings.
• Crossmark: Crossmark provides retail services including headquarter sales, in-store merchandising, and analytics to CPG manufacturers, overlapping directly with Acosta's core service lines and customer base.
• Anderson Merchandisers: Anderson Merchandisers provides retail merchandising services to mass merchandisers, drug, and grocery channels, competing with Acosta for in-store execution mandates from CPG brands.
• Premium Retail Services: Premium Retail Services is a specialized retail-merchandising and in-store execution firm serving CPG manufacturers and retailers, overlapping with Acosta's merchandising service line.
• Advantage Solutions: Advantage Solutions is the largest direct competitor to Acosta, offering outsourced sales, merchandising, and marketing services to CPG brands and retailers across the U.S. with a comparable headquarter-sales, in-store execution, and category management offering.
• SAS Retail Services: SAS Retail Services delivers retail merchandising, resets, and field execution support to CPG brands, competing head-to-head with Acosta for in-store execution mandates.
• Driveline Retail Merchandising: Driveline is one of the fastest-growing direct competitors in retail merchandising and resets, serving many of the same CPG and retail customers that Acosta targets with field execution services.

Broad incumbents

• Daymon (now part of Advantage Solutions): Daymon provides brokerage and consumer intelligence for retailers and CPG brands, historically overlapping with Acosta's headquarter sales and shopper insights service lines within the Advantage Solutions portfolio.
• News America Marketing: News America Marketing offers a broader suite of in-store advertising, digital media, and shopper marketing services to CPG brands and retailers, with overlapping shopper insights capabilities relative to Acosta.

Regional players

• Centris (Canada): Centris is a Canadian retail sales and marketing services provider comparable to Acosta Canada, offering headquarter sales and merchandising services across Canadian grocery and convenience channels.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/acostagroup
• Xx.com/AcostaSales
• Facebookfacebook.com/AcostaSales

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles22 records

Subsidiaries5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors1 record

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

M&A10 records

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Acosta Sales & Marketing