The ScalePoint Channel Report
Q3 2026
No. 001
Three Signals
Big brokerage keeps consolidating. Small brands keep getting orphaned.
Impact Group has been absorbed into Acosta. Presence Marketing — the natural channel's benchmark independent — sold to PLTFRM in 2025. Every merger reshuffles account teams, and emerging brands are the line items that fall off the roster first. If your broker just got acquired, ask one question this quarter: who, by name, owns my brand now?
Seed-oil-free is becoming a set-level screen, not a niche claim.
Beef tallow was named Whole Foods' #1 food trend for 2026, and the claim is spreading from chips into every salty and fried set. The gap to watch: brands that pivoted last quarter versus brands with years of formulation behind the claim. Buyers are learning to ask which one you are.
Spice is the fastest-moving flavor trend — and it's still crossing aisles.
Heat has finished conquering snacks and is now landing in sets that never carried it: craft soda, condiments, even sweet bakery. Categories where "spicy" still has zero SKUs are open shelf space for whoever files first. Check your category's set — if there's no heat on it yet, that's a submission, not an observation.
The Number
The share of gross sales emerging brands commonly lose to unchecked distributor deductions — MCBs, spoilage claims, shortages, promo charges nobody agreed to. At the high end, that's an entire margin. Most founders have never audited a statement. We audit them free.
The Move — Before October
Holiday resets are locked in the fall, which means the submissions that decide your Q4 shelf are due now. Two actions this quarter: pull your last three distributor deduction statements and read every line, and confirm your target retailers' review windows before they close. Miss the window, wait a year — that rule doesn't take quarters off.