PlantX Grows Out in More Directions

Reflecting the ever-blurring lines across the omnichannel, a legacy department store in Canada is making room for a café and market operated by PlantX, a plant-based platform that sells its products to retailers, including Walmart in the U.S.

The new XMarket Café inside Rideau Hudson’s Bay Canada’s capital city of Ottawa features carefully-crafted vegan beverages and plant-based food options with ingredients sourced from Ottawa businesses. Additionally, PlantX has opened signature XMarket shops at both Yorkdale and Rideau, offering a curated selection of plant-based products spanning grocery, home, personal care, pets and more. With these moves, the plant-based provider from British Columbia is adding to its overall retail collaborations while building its own brick-and-mortar presence.

“Having a retail presence in Hudson’s Bay’s locations offers incredible opportunities to exert our plant-based impact and build on our retail efforts. We’re thrilled to have physical spaces within Ottawa and Toronto communities to offer a more direct and dynamic PlantX experience,” said Sean Dollinger, PlantX’s founder.

PlantX is also on the march in the United States. After acquiring the plant-based market and e-commerce platform Peter Rubi in December, PlantX plans to convert that company’s physical stores in the Chicago area to XMarket locations.

In its bid to be a one-stop shop for everything plant-based, the platform is busy on the R&D side as well, planning to introduce its own water brand  in the near future. In December, the company rolled out a new PlantX Shop mobile app available to customers in Canada and the United States.

PlantX’s market and brand expansion is mirrored by growing partnerships with established U.S. retailers. In 2021, the provider became a seller on the Walmart Marketplace, offering more than 500-plant based grocery products from a host of brands.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart operates approximately 10,500 stores under 48 banners in 24 countries, and e-commerce websites, employing 2.2 million-plus associates worldwide. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.