Who We Are

Canada's only national network providing suppliers with innovative and measurable distribution, marketing, selling and information solutions to retail and foodservice

The Canadian marketplace with respect to the Retail Food Industry is dominated by the large vertically integrated retail/wholesale grocery chains. Similarly, the Foodservice Industry has become increasingly concentrated with large corporate Foodservice distributors focused on the high volume, chain end-users.

ITWAL Limited, with its national network of independent, diversified retail and foodservice wholesale distributors, provides a competitive distributor alternative. ITWAL’s member distributors from coast to coast, provide a full range of products to support business operators of all sizes, whether they be retail convenience stores, drug stores, gas bars, independent grocers or foodservice restaurants, institutions and other end-users.
ITWAL Limited was founded in 1966 by a small group of independent wholesale distributors in Southern Ontario. They formed ITWAL to combine their collective buying power, thereby enabling them to compete effectively for the benefit of their customers.
Since those early days, ITWAL has evolved into a national distribution network of wholesale distributor members operating 100+ warehouses covering all of Canada from Victoria, BC to St. John’s, NF in both urban and rural markets, both large and small.

It is this national distribution network which gives ITWAL its strength and importance with suppliers.

With the support of suppliers, ITWAL distributors are able to offer competitive, valued-added services and pricing which their retail and foodservice customers require in order to survive in today’s ever-increasingly competitive market place.
Notwithstanding the large buying power of the group, ITWAL is positioned as a “selling group” - an extension of the suppliers’ selling and distribution investment. This functional partnership with suppliers is based on ITWAL distributors getting sales and distribution of their products more efficiently and effectively than suppliers could do on their own.

Originally the ITWAL group was made up of tobacco and confectionery distributors, and to this day, they still represent the largest distributor base in Canada for these products. However, evolving with the changing dynamics of the market place over time, new members who specialized in either retail grocery or in foodservice products, joined the group .

The expanded member base along with the diversification of existing members enables the group to offer a wide product mix supported by a combined sales force of over 500 sales personnel nationally.

ITWAL provides buying and inventory support to its member distributors through a large 250,000 square foot high cubed consolidation center in Brampton, Ontario. ITWAL’s corporate headquarters are located in this facility.

The corporate office represents the group with suppliers, and provides marketing, sales and other corporate resources for the benefit of cost efficiencies at the member level.

ITWAL’s mission will continue to be that of reinforcing the profitability of our members while at the same time, delivering the sales and distribution objectives of our suppliers.