Background & Opportunity
My American Shop’s case is a study in channel extension rather than a simple change of product or brand. Founded in 2020 by Antoine Libois and Maxime Loison, the company began with an online proposition focused on American and Asian specialty foods. Its official positioning later described the business more broadly as an online store for American, Asian and international foods. That positioning gave the company a distinct place in the market: it organized products that may be difficult for consumers to find through ordinary local shopping and made them available through e-commerce. The initial model was D2C. Consumers visited the website, selected products, placed individual orders and received them through the company’s fulfilment system. This route created direct customer relationships and allowed the company to test demand across a wide product range. By about 2023, My American Shop had accumulated approximately 350,000 individual customers. That number was a substantial commercial asset. It indicated that the company had learned how to attract consumers to an international-food proposition and had built a recognizable base around the assortment. Yet a large customer base does not automatically remove the structural limits of a consumer-only model. D2C growth requires continuing acquisition, repeat purchase and efficient fulfilment. Revenue comes through many individual transactions, and the business must balance marketing expense, delivery economics, inventory availability and customer service. If the assortment is imported, the operating burden can be even greater because the company must coordinate supply, product information and availability across international categories. The financial history showed why the model needed to evolve. In 2022, the company reported a net loss of approximately €558,200. In 2023, turnover was approximately €10.897 million and net profit approximately €94,300. Those results suggest that the company was growing and had improved from the earlier loss, but they also show that rapid expansion had not yet produced a comfortable earnings base. The strategic issue was not whether consumers wanted the products. The approximately 350,000 customers provided evidence that they did. The issue was whether the company could use its existing capabilities more efficiently and reach demand through more than one channel. Management chose to retain the consumer store and add a B2B route. Around 2023, the company launched Planet Foods as a B2B food brokerage and distribution business. The intended customers were large supermarkets, wholesalers and specialist retailers. This was a meaningful change in the commercial model because the company was no longer relying only on direct orders from individuals. It could present its international assortment to professional buyers who controlled access to larger retail and wholesale networks. Gondola reported that the company planned to use Planet Foods to enter channels including Intermarché, Cora, Delhaize and Delhaize’s specialist format Delitraiteur. The precise commercial arrangements with those named retailers are not detailed in the verified facts, so the safe conclusion is that they were targeted or intended channels, not that every listed account generated disclosed revenue. The logic of the move was nevertheless strong. A consumer website and a B2B distribution unit can share knowledge about products, customer preferences and sourcing. The D2C business can reveal which international products attract interest. The B2B business can then offer a curated and professionally supplied assortment to retail buyers. Conversely, broader distribution can make the products more visible and accessible outside the company’s own website. The strategy also created the possibility of better use of supply and inventory. A product relationship or importing capability need not serve only one kind of customer. It can support consumer sales, wholesale orders and specialist retail placement, provided that volumes, margins and service expectations are managed carefully. Planet Foods did not mean that the company’s operational complexity disappeared. It increased in several ways. Professional customers generally expect dependable availability, clear commercial terms, timely delivery and consistent product information. Supermarkets and wholesalers can also exert stronger bargaining power than individual consumers. They may request competitive pricing, promotional support, specific pack or assortment requirements and high service reliability. Imported food adds another layer of responsibility because the company must maintain dependable sourcing and appropriate market information. The B2B strategy therefore required infrastructure, not just a sales presentation. Around 2023, the company moved its warehouse from Floreffe to a new distribution centre in Nivelles. My American Shop’s official LinkedIn communication described the new facility as approximately three times the size of the former warehouse and said it included 300 square metres of modern offices. This is concrete evidence that the company was building capacity in parallel with its channel strategy. A larger distribution centre could support more products, higher throughput and better separation or coordination of different order types. The offices could support the staff and planning needed for commercial accounts, importing and distribution. The facts do not prove that the facility alone caused the later financial result, nor do they establish its precise utilization. They do show that physical capacity was treated as part of the growth design. The 2024 outcome was materially stronger. Companyweb data based on Belgian National Bank filings reported turnover of approximately €19.114 million, up 75.4%, and net profit of approximately €426,100, up 351.9%. RetailDetail separately reported approximately €19.10 million of turnover and 75% growth, and identified Planet Foods as one of the growth drivers. The filed financial figure is used here because it is more precise, while the media figure provides corroboration at a rounded level. The comparison with 2023 is important: turnover increased from approximately €10.897 million to approximately €19.114 million, and net profit increased from approximately €94,300 to approximately €426,100. The company therefore moved from modest profitability after the 2022 loss to a substantially larger and more profitable reported year. However, the evidence has a clear boundary. The public financial information does not separate Planet Foods revenue from My American Shop revenue. It is therefore not valid to say that Planet Foods independently generated the whole 75.4% increase or that the B2B unit contributed a known percentage. The verified record supports a more careful statement: Planet Foods was publicly identified as an important growth lever within a wider expansion that also included employee growth, product expansion and broader European market coverage. That distinction is strategically important. A dual-channel model can create attractive growth while also consuming working capital and management attention. Large accounts may lengthen payment cycles. Imported inventory can tie up cash. A wider assortment can increase complexity and slow stock movement. Professional buyers can pressure margins even as they increase volume. These risks mean that management should evaluate B2B not only by turnover, but also by contribution margin, working-capital requirements, service levels, stock rotation and account concentration. Those measures are not disclosed in the case facts, so they should be treated as management questions rather than invented results. The company’s decision remains coherent because it connected a demonstrated consumer proposition with a plausible professional distribution opportunity. It did not throw away the D2C asset. It added a channel that could make the product and sourcing platform more productive. The strategic lesson is not that every online retailer should become a wholesaler. B2B requires different capabilities, a different sales cycle and a different negotiation balance. The lesson is to examine whether a company’s existing advantage can solve a second customer problem. My American Shop’s advantage was access to international specialty foods, knowledge of the category and an established route to demand. Planet Foods converted those capabilities into brokerage and distribution for professional customers. The larger Nivelles facility aligned operations with the new ambition, and the 2024 results showed that the combined model could scale. The best interpretation is therefore a disciplined success: the company broadened its channel architecture, reported strong consolidated growth and improved profitability, while the public evidence still requires caution about the exact standalone contribution of Planet Foods.
Original Problem / Model
The consumer business provided a credible starting asset. Founded in 2020, My American Shop sold American, Asian and other international specialty foods online and had accumulated about 350,000 individual customers by roughly 2023. That base showed that the assortment could attract meaningful demand, but it did not remove the structural pressures of D2C growth: continuous customer acquisition, repeat purchasing, delivery economics, inventory availability and fulfilment quality. The financial record reinforced the concern. The company reported a net loss of about €558,200 in 2022, then reached approximately €10.897 million in turnover and €94,300 in net profit in 2023. Management therefore faced a channel-concentration problem rather than a lack of product-market evidence. A broader route to market could improve scale and use existing sourcing knowledge more productively without abandoning the consumer store or its customer relationships.
Turning Point
The turning point was the recognition that the company’s international-food capability could serve professional buyers as well as individual consumers. In 2023, turnover reached about €10.897 million, but net profit was only about €94,300 after the 2022 net loss of approximately €558,200. My American Shop therefore needed a way to broaden demand and improve operating leverage without discarding its established D2C base. It launched Planet Foods as a B2B food brokerage and distribution business for supermarkets, wholesalers and specialist retailers. The move opened a second commercial route, with targeted channels including Intermarché, Cora, Delhaize and Delitraiteur. These were reported as intended or targeted channels, not as separately verified revenue accounts.
Core Decision
Planet Foods was launched around 2023 as a B2B food brokerage and distribution business. It targeted large supermarkets, wholesalers and specialist retailers, with channels including Intermarché, Cora, Delhaize and Delitraiteur. This created a second route to market while My American Shop remained active for consumers.
Execution / Model / Acquisition Changes
Execution required more than adding a B2B sales label. Around the time of the channel expansion, the company moved its warehouse from Floreffe to a new distribution centre in Nivelles. Official company communication described the facility as approximately three times the size of the former warehouse and said it included 300 square metres of modern offices. The relocation aligned physical capacity with the demands of brokerage, importing, distribution and professional account servicing. A larger site could support broader product coverage, higher throughput and coordination between consumer and business orders, although the verified facts do not quantify its utilization or incremental capacity. The B2B model also introduced requirements for dependable availability, consistent product information, commercial terms and delivery performance. Supermarket and wholesale buyers could apply stronger price and service pressure than individual consumers, while imported food required careful supply and market coordination. Thus, infrastructure and operating discipline accompanied the channel decision.
Measurable Results
The measurable outcome was strong at the consolidated company level. Turnover increased from approximately €10.897 million in 2023 to about €19.114 million in 2024, representing growth of 75.4%. Net profit rose from roughly €94,300 to approximately €426,100, following the 2022 net loss of about €558,200. RetailDetail independently reported about €19.10 million in 2024 turnover and 75% growth, providing rounded corroboration of the filed figure. It also identified Planet Foods as one of the company’s growth drivers. The evidence supports a materially larger and more profitable reported business after the dual-channel expansion. However, public financial information does not separate Planet Foods revenue from My American Shop revenue. The 75.4% increase therefore cannot be assigned wholly to B2B. The defensible conclusion is that Planet Foods was an important reported growth lever within broader expansion, alongside product, workforce and European market development.
Lessons
The case supports disciplined channel extension rather than automatic wholesale diversification. My American Shop retained a proven D2C proposition and used its international assortment, sourcing knowledge and operating base to approach professional customers through Planet Foods. The Nivelles facility showed that the strategy required physical and organizational capacity, not merely a new sales message. Reported 2024 turnover and profit improved substantially, while public reporting linked Planet Foods to growth. Yet separate B2B revenue was unavailable, so the evidence does not justify claiming that the subsidiary caused all performance gains. The practical lesson is to expand toward adjacent customers when existing capabilities travel well, then measure contribution margin, working capital, service levels, stock rotation and channel concentration separately. Growth should be evaluated alongside the additional complexity and bargaining pressure created by supermarkets, wholesalers and specialist retailers.