Par Leonardo Calcagno

Powered by Pivohub | B2B e-commerce solution dedicated to craft and specialty food & beverages.

In the craft beverage world, passion often leads the conversation: the ingredients, the brewing process, the terroir. But behind every successful brewery, distillery, or food producer lies something very important— logistics.

Orders. Distributors. Retailers. Sales teams. Inventory.

For many producers, especially smaller craft operations, these systems still rely on a patchwork of spreadsheets, emails, phone calls, and handwritten notes. It’s a reality that hasn’t changed much over the past decade, even as the food and beverage industry has exploded across Canada.

That’s where PivoHub enters the picture.

The Quebec-born technology company has quietly built one of the most widely used B2B ordering and sales platforms for beverage and food producers in Canada. Designed to connect producers, distributors, retailers, and agents within a single ecosystem, the platform aims to simplify one of the industry’s most complex challenges: getting products from maker to market.

At the center of that effort is Patrick McFern, PivoHub’s Product Owner, whose job sits at the intersection of technology and the day-to-day realities of the beverage business.

“Producers were making incredible products,” McFern says. “But the sales infrastructure behind it was often messy. We saw spreadsheets, Post-its, emails, and a lot of manual processes.”

The insight led the PivoHub team to build a collaborative digital platform capable of replacing much of that workflow. The goal wasn’t simply to digitize orders but to create a shared environment where everyone involved in a sale could access the same information in real time.

Unlike traditional CRM tools, which often operate within a single company, PivoHub functions more like a network. Producers can connect directly with buyers, distributors can coordinate logistics, and sales teams can track relationships — all within the same interface.

That collaborative model proved particularly valuable in the alcohol sector, where transactions often involve multiple regulated actors.

“Alcohol and food distribution is actually one of the most complex systems you could design software for,” McFern explains. “You have producers, distributors, retailers, licensing rules. We knew if we could solve that ecosystem, the platform could adapt to many other industries.”

Over the past few years, PivoHub has expanded well beyond its original brewery base. Food producers, specialty brands, and beverage companies across Quebec and Ontario now use the platform to manage sales, product catalogs, and client relationships.

The system supports multiple participants in the supply chain — sellers, buyers, distributors, agents, franchise operators, and certification bodies — each with their own view of the data. The result is something closer to a digital marketplace than a traditional management tool.

The company’s growth has also mirrored a broader shift in the industry: the increasing professionalization of craft producers.

Where early craft breweries might have relied on personal relationships and manual processes, today’s producers are scaling across regions and channels. Managing that growth requires better data and more efficient systems.

PivoHub’s onboarding process reflects that reality. Businesses can import client lists, upload product catalogs, and begin managing orders within days.

Everything runs through a web interface designed to work on any device — laptop, tablet, or phone — allowing sales teams to operate from the field.

One of the platform’s newest tools focuses specifically on those teams.

A recently launched sales rep check-in feature allows representatives visiting retailers to instantly access key information about each account: the last order, sales trends, client notes, and potential restocking opportunities.

It’s a small change with significant implications.

“Sales reps walk into a store already prepared,” says McFern. “They know what’s selling, what’s missing, and what the relationship history looks like.”

Since its launch, thousands of retailer visits have been recorded through the feature across Quebec, creating a growing dataset that helps producers better understand their markets.

Still, McFern is quick to point out that technology alone doesn’t guarantee success.

“Software can’t replace a great product,” he says. “But if producers stay organized, track their relationships, and use their data properly, it can absolutely give them an advantage.”

That philosophy reflects the quiet role technology increasingly plays in the craft ecosystem. Consumers may see the finished beer or bottle on the shelf, but behind the scenes, platforms like PivoHub are helping producers navigate the complex path that brought it there.

And as Canada’s beverage and food industries continue to evolve, the infrastructure connecting producers to markets may prove just as important as the products themselves.

For Baron Mag’s Beverage + Terroir series, the conversation with PivoHub offers a reminder that terroir isn’t only about land and ingredients. It’s also about the systems — human and digital — that allow those products to reach the world. 🍻

Baron Mag & PivoHub: New Content and Strategic Partnership

In partnership with PivoHub, Baron Mag is launching a series of interviews and articles highlighting their partners and the food industry landscape in Québec and Ontario. This series will showcase emerging food entrepreneurs and provide insights into the latest trends and best practices within the sector.

Objective: To better understand the food industry and data-driven insights to help businesses improve performance and efficiency.

Partnership with PivoHub

The series will also demonstrate how PivoHub can support your business through its order management and data tools, helping companies optimize operations and gain actionable insights.

Interested?

To discover PivoHub or to promote your food business, contact: [email protected]

For demos and more information: [email protected] or visit PivoHub.

About Beverage + Terroir

As the beverage and beer industries evolve, so too does the media that covers them. For several years, we’ve been reporting on the industry outside of Quebec in English through our Baron Mag and BBQ (Business of Beer of Quebec) podcasts.

With Beverage + Terroir, we’ve expanded our coverage to encompass beer, beverages, and food, providing a comprehensive look at the entire industry and its complex interconnections. The podcast explores not only trends, innovations, and market shifts, but also the people, places, and processes that define the craft, commercial, and artisanal sectors across Canada, the USA, and beyond.

Beverage + Terroir aims to give listeners a deeper understanding of how local ingredients, regional terroir, and industry dynamics shape the drinks we enjoy — from pint to plate.

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• Beer and Brewing — proudly presented by Innomalt, highlighting malt, brewing, and its role in craft and commercial brewing.

• Terroir and Industry — brought to you by Pivohub, showcasing the people, places, and processes that define the food production and industry.

• Beverage  — presented by CanMan, covering trends, technologies, and innovations across the wider beverage landscape.

• Many other things to come.

Together, these partnerships allow Beverage + Terroir to deliver a 360-degree view of the industry, from ingredient to glass, and from local craft to national trends.