Bloom Nutrition, the greens-powder brand that built its base in the U.S., entered Australia, France, and the United Kingdom in a single year, according to Modern Retail. The company created a VP of Global Growth role and hired Joel Contartese to run the expansion. That single hire changed the timeline from years to months.
Contartese did not launch everywhere at once. Bloom sequenced the rollout: one country, then the next, then the next. Each market required different regulatory clearances, different fulfillment partners, and different pricing structures. By assigning one person to own the entire process, the brand avoided the chaos of running three simultaneous launches across departments. Contartese coordinated U.S. product teams, international freight, local compliance, and market-specific digital ads from a single desk.
The mechanism is organizational, not tactical. Most direct-to-consumer brands treat international expansion as a side project for the U.S. marketing lead or the operations manager. Neither has time, so the work stalls. Bloom separated the function. Contartese's only mandate was to get the product into new countries and make the unit economics work. That clarity let him move fast. He did not need to choose between a U.S. product launch and filing French regulatory paperwork. The French paperwork was the job.
Sequencing also let Bloom learn. Australia went first. Contartese saw which fulfillment partner worked, which ad creative converted, and where the friction sat in the checkout flow. He applied those lessons to France, then to the U.K. Each market got a tighter playbook. The brand did not waste budget on three simultaneous experiments. It ran one controlled test, then replicated it twice.
A small brand with no international revenue cannot hire a full-time VP of Global Growth. But it can dedicate one person to international for 90 days. That person's only task: pick one country, file the regulatory paperwork, set up fulfillment, and run the first order. The founder handles U.S. operations. The international lead handles everything else. Split the work, or it never gets done.
Start with Canada if you ship from the U.S. The regulatory burden is lighter, shipping is faster, and the audience speaks English. Use a cross-border fulfillment service like Stallion Express or FlavorCloud to avoid setting up a Canadian entity. Price in Canadian dollars, not U.S. dollars. Run Meta ads targeted to Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal with the same creative that works in the U.S. Ship 50 units in the first month. If they sell, ship 200 the next month. Do not build a warehouse. Do not hire a country manager. Prove demand first, then add infrastructure.
Once Canada works, apply the same model to the U.K. or Australia. Use a local fulfillment partner like Huboo in the U.K. or Shippit in Australia. Register for VAT or GST. Translate your product pages if you go to France or Germany, but test English-speaking markets first. The lesson from Bloom is not the specific countries. The lesson is the dedicated role and the sequence. One market, then the next. One person responsible for all of it.
The broader pattern: growth happens when someone owns it full-time. Bloom did not expand internationally because the product was better. It expanded because one executive had no other job. If you want a new channel, a new country, or a new retailer, assign it to one person and take everything else off their plate. Otherwise, it sits in the backlog forever.
The takeaway
Bloom hired one executive to own international expansion and sequenced three countries in one year instead of launching simultaneously.
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