BTS: How Canada Found Us

Canada gets it. Starting last December, its national government banned the manufacture and import of single-use plastics such as grocery bags, takeout containers, and some straws. By the summer of 2024, it will prohibit the sale of these items entirely.

Ultimately, Canada wants to eliminate all plastic waste within its borders by 2030 — a very encouraging trend for a company like Parcel Health, given that we design and manufacture paper-based, plastic-free medication packaging. We want to enable pharmacies to replace plastic pill bottles, which often are not recycled.

Although the Canadian market presents an obvious opportunity for Parcel Health, in the months following the launch of our flagship product, the Phill Box®, we didn’t think we were ready to sell internationally. We just launched in U.S. pharmacies in August 2022 and remained laser-focused on domestic sales.

We were not ready, but the universe had other plans

One morning last fall, however, we woke to an influx of emails and outreach notifications as inquiries from more than 20 Canadian pharmacies — from independently-owned pharmacies to large grocery chain pharmacies– landed in our inbox one after another. The pharmacies all asked how they could get the Phill Box® in their stores.

We were confused… We’d never marketed our product in Canada.

With some sleuthing, we discovered a profile published on Canadian Healthcare Network about Parcel Health: It was just a teeny article — less than 100 words — but that was all it took to spark interest among Canadian pharmacists. The reporter had seen the Phill Box® at our exhibition booth at the National Community Pharmacists Association’s (NCPA) annual convention in October 2022 and took an interest in it.

It was exhilarating that our product resonated so strongly in a new market. But our excitement quickly turned into panic — we realized we had no experience with commercial exporting.

When in doubt, ask for help

We reconnected with an international trade specialist whom we’d met a year earlier through our participation in the AlphaLab Health accelerator. She worked at the U.S. Commerce Department and specialized in helping health tech startups with exporting. Perfect.

She jumped into action after hearing our situation, guiding us through the many details of selling abroad through one-on-one export counseling meetings over several weeks.

It was like drinking from a firehose of information. We researched and identified our export tariff codes and classification, secured Canadian trademarks, and reconciled our terms and conditions with Canadian law. To stay compliant with Quebec law, we even enlisted our product designer’s Canadian grandmother to translate our product labels into French.

It was exhausting — but the scramble was worth it. We closed on 4 large orders of custom-branded Phill Boxes® sales in Canada between November and December alone — a much shorter cycle than we’re used to in the U.S.

The payoff

With the high number of units, we were able to negotiate price reductions on printing and manufacturing costs, and the result was beautiful.

Pace Pharmacy Custom-Branded Phill Boxes®

The custom-branded Phill Boxes® were tailored to each client’s brand image and colors, something that a plastic pill bottle could never accommodate. This experience proved that sustainable products can be better for business, just as it is better for the planet.

Apple-Hills Medical Pharmacy Custom-Branded Phill Boxes®

We also achieved additional savings for our Canadian clients by flat-packing a portion of their shipments for lowered international shipping costs. Our third-party lifecycle analysis shows a 72% reduction in carbon emissions when using the Phill Box® as a replacement for plastic pill bottles — a reflection of our compact shipping strategy, plus our sustainable procurement and manufacturing techniques. At scale, this reduction of carbon emission equates to thousands of cars removed from Canadian and American roadways.

Today, the Phill Box® now appears in four pharmacies in the Toronto area, and Parcel Health is ready to expand further within Canada as the country presses ahead with its campaign to end plastic waste.

We now have a waitlist for international orders, and we can’t wait to send the Phill Box® on its next international trip.