Target’s New Director Built Clif Bar. Her Seat Signals What Canadian Wellness Brands Will Face at Target

Target added about 1,500 wellness items in one quarter and has put the executive who sold Clif Bar on its board. For Canadian wellness brands, the U.S. pitch now runs into store brands, a 50 per cent tariff and a label switch. Here is what health stores should settle first.

By Olivier Fel., November 12, 2026

Target is betting its recovery on wellness and new brands. The board just added someone who knows how to build both, and that changes the pitch for every Canadian brand eyeing a U.S. shelf.

Target added about 1,500 wellness items in a single quarter this year, and growth in those aisles doubled. Sally Grimes, the executive who sold Clif Bar to Mondelēz for US$2.9 billion, joined the Target board on November 12 as an independent director.

When a brand that a Canadian health store helped build wins Target’s 2,000-plus doors, its price points, pack sizes and launch dates start being set in Minneapolis. This appointment makes that pull stronger.

Target’s turnaround now runs through food and wellness

The retailer’s recovery is being built in the aisles where natural health brands compete. Net sales fell 1.7 per cent to US$104.8 billion in fiscal 2025, before Michael Fiddelke took over as chief executive on February 1. First-quarter 2026 sales then rose 6.7 per cent to US$25.4 billion, with comparable sales up 5.6 per cent.

The second quarter added 5.3 per cent growth, to US$26.5 billion. Food and beverage and beauty both grew at high single-digit rates.

In January, Target said it would expand its wellness assortment by 30 per cent in 2026, with thousands of items under US$10. The company says more than 70 per cent of its shoppers already buy wellness there, and it plans to refresh about 40 per cent of that assortment this year.

The brands taking those slots are ones Canadian supplement buyers know: AG1, Momentous, Seed, Cymbiotika and Lemme. Once a brand sits on a Target endcap at a mass price, that price becomes what its shopper expects at the specialty counter.

Sally Grimes brings Target 25 years of turning trends into brands

Her record reads like a brief for the products Target wants more of. After a decade at Kraft, she ran Tyson Foods’ Prepared Foods segment, a US$10-billion business with 25,000 employees.

At Clif Bar from 2020 to 2023, she wrote a 10-year growth plan and pushed the brand past bars, including CLIF Bar Thins, a Walmart exclusive. Clif had more than US$800 million in sales and was aiming for US$2 billion when Mondelēz bought it in 2022.

The deal paid US$2.9 billion up front, plus an earnout of up to US$2.4 billion if Clif beat its projections. Grimes then ran Diageo’s North American business from October 2023, and has sat on the Beyond Meat board.

Fiddelke credited her with turning consumer trends into products and brands. That skill matters to a retailer that added 3,000 new food items in the first quarter. Those items grew sales more than 50 per cent against the assortment they replaced.

For a supplier, the brief is plain: bring a trend, a brand story and the supply to fill more than 2,000 stores at once.

Good & Gather is the competitor inside the buyer’s office

Every national brand pitched to Target also competes with Target. Owned brands make up about one-third of sales, more than US$30 billion a year. Good & Gather, the food label launched in 2019, is on track to become Target’s first US$4-billion owned brand.

Owned labels follow proven demand. A protein bar or gut-health gummy that proves a niche can invite a store-brand version within a few resets.

Target also showed in May how fast its standards can move a whole category. It switched its entire cereal set to products without certified synthetic colours.

A brand that wants to last needs something a store label cannot copy quickly: clinical data, a licensed branded ingredient, a founder with credibility. The same assets sell in Canadian specialty stores.

Canadian brands are crossing into a 50 per cent tariff zone

Canadian wellness brands are already in Target, and the border just got more expensive. Cizzle Brands’ CWENCH Hydration launched in 109 Target stores in February. Montreal’s LOOP Mission began a national Target rollout in August. Brüst, a Canadian protein coffee brand, is preparing a U.S. debut with Target and Meijer.

Here is the catch. On August 22, 2026, the U.S. imposed 50 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian goods under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Goods that qualify under CUSMA are not exempt. The list widened on October 30 to include selected cocoa products.

Target itself booked US$994 million in tariff refunds in the second quarter. Those followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s February ruling that struck down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Grimes will sit on the Audit & Risk committee, which oversees that kind of exposure. A Canadian supplier should expect a buyer to ask for landed cost under a 50 per cent duty, and should have the number ready.

An NPN does not cross the border

A Health Canada licence stops at the border. A natural product number (NPN) authorizes a product and its claims for sale in Canada only. In the U.S., the same capsule is regulated as a dietary supplement.

It needs a Supplement Facts panel. Any structure/function claim, meaning a statement about how an ingredient supports the body, must be filed with the FDA within 30 days of first marketing. The label also needs a disclaimer saying the FDA has not evaluated the claim.

There is runway here. A Canadian brand with monograph-backed claims already holds the kind of evidence an FDA substantiation file needs.

The risk runs north as well. U.S. marketing copy is not compliant in Canada unless it matches the claim authorized on the NPN, word for word. That includes shelf talkers in Canadian stores.

Target has no Canadian stores, but its prices still reach yours

The retailer left Canada a decade ago, yet its shelf shapes what Canadians expect to pay. Target closed all 133 Canadian stores in 2015, cut about 17,600 jobs and booked a US$5.4-billion pre-tax loss.

Its influence now arrives through brands and shoppers. A product under US$10 at Target becomes the reference price for a Canadian who checks online before buying. A brand selling into 2,000 U.S. doors will plan production, pack sizes and promotions around that customer first.

Women are the buyer both channels are chasing. A July 2026 Pew survey found 82 per cent of U.S. women take supplements, against 74 per cent of men. Momentous said that skew shaped its choice of Target.

What a mass planogram cannot easily copy is the specialty store’s ground: advice at the counter, practitioner lines and first access to new launches.

Five moves before the next U.S. listing announcement

List the Canadian brands among your top 50 sellers that have U.S. mass plans. Ask each one, before it signs, how Canadian pricing, supply and exclusives will be protected.
Negotiate Canada-first launches or specialty-only formats, such as larger sizes or higher potencies, that a Target planogram will not carry.
Check the NPN on incoming stock, and refuse U.S.-labelled product that lacks Canadian licensing.
Replace price matching with a shelf talker that explains the licensed claim and the advice available in store.
For brand managers: price any U.S. listing with the Section 338 duty built in, and file FDA claim notifications before the first shipment.

Target’s next quarterly report will show whether wellness keeps carrying its turnaround, and how many more Canadian brands it pulls south.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Sally Grimes?

Sally Grimes is a consumer goods executive who led Diageo North America and, earlier, Clif Bar & Company, which she sold to Mondelēz International. She also ran Tyson Foods’ Prepared Foods segment and spent about ten years at Kraft. Target elected her an independent director in November 2026.

Which Target board committees will Sally Grimes serve on?

She joins two committees: Audit & Risk, and Infrastructure & Finance. Outside Target, she has served on the boards of Continental Grain Company and Beyond Meat. She is also executive director of Knowing NOAH, The Noah John Grimes Family Foundation, a family charity she leads.

Can a product with a Canadian NPN be sold at Target in the United States?

Yes, but not on its Canadian label. The U.S. treats it as a dietary supplement, so the brand needs a U.S. label with a Supplement Facts panel, the FDA disclaimer for any structure/function claim, and an FDA claim notification. Health Canada’s licence has no standing south of the border.

Does Target operate stores in Canada?

No. Target opened in Canada in 2013, mostly in former Zellers locations, and announced in January 2015 that it would close every store. Canadian shoppers now reach Target through cross-border trips, while Canadian brands reach its shoppers by selling into its U.S. stores and website.

This is independenteditorial analysis. Brands are named as examples of the category, not as endorsements. Verify NPN status and licensed claims before stocking any product.

Sources

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