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Zane Caplansky opened what's considered Toronto's first pop-up restaurant — a deli inside a dive bar in Little Italy — and turned it into one of the city's most beloved institutions. Along the way he appeared on Dragon's Den three times, got featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and You Gotta Eat Here, ran a food truck, a catering empire, and a College Street restaurant that had lineups for years.
Then his landlord locked him out at midnight — rent paid, no warning — and it cost him $100,000 in legal fees and nearly broke him.
But that gut punch turned out to be the pivot that changed everything.
Zane joins Phil and Kenny to talk about the full arc: the scrappy pop-up beginnings, the Dragon's Den pitches (including Jim Treliving famously not understanding what a food truck was), the public humiliation of the lockout, closing the deli, moving to Tofino, becoming a dad at 53 — and why reviving the Caplansky's mustard brand as a CPG product might be the smartest thing he's ever done.
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What do you do when the brand you built to over $100 million goes bankrupt — and then you get the chance to buy it back? That's exactly what Amelia Warren and Kyle Vucko did with Epicure.
In this episode, Phil and Kenny sit down with the co-managing directors of the relaunched Epicure — a Canadian spice and seasoning brand with a fiercely loyal customer base, a surprising MLM origin story, and a bold new omnichannel strategy.
Amelia served as CEO of the original Epicure for 17 years. Kyle co-founded Indochino before joining Epicure as COO. Together, they acquired the brand's assets out of bankruptcy in April 2025 and relaunched it by September — rebuilding the supply chain, re-engaging customers, and moving the brand into retail for the first time.
Check out Epicure here: https://epicure.com
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Phil and Kenny sit down with Bonnie Joyce — the photographer and web designer behind some of the best headshots This Commerce Life has ever had (which, admittedly, is a low bar). Bonnie runs Bonnie Joyce Creative Studio, a photography and Wix web design business based in Eastern Ontario, where she's built over 500 websites and shot everything from brand sessions to adoption hearings.
In this episode, we get into why Bonnie chose Wix over WordPress — and why that decision actually makes more sense for small business owners than the industry gives it credit for. We talk about the real cost of being locked out of your own website, how AI is reshaping both photography and web design (and where it absolutely cannot replace a human), and what it means to intentionally not scale your business.
Bonnie also shares her winding path from political science and copywriting at Zulu Alpha Kilo in Toronto to building a creative studio that she genuinely loves showing up for every day. It's a great conversation about building a business on your own terms — and ignoring everyone who tells you you should be doing more.
Check out Bonnie's website and services here: https://www.bonniejoycecreativestudio.ca/
You can find Bonnie here as well: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnie-joyce-7215a64/
If you missed our last episode on Expo Antad - you can find it here: https://youtu.be/TnzKD1KBhtw?si=Aqlda7CAFFHmhONd
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The survival math behind Vancouver's independent restaurant scene — and why cheap food is never actually cheap.
Phil and Kenny sit down with Robert Belcham — a 35-year Vancouver chef, restaurateur behind Campanolo, Monarch Burger, and Poppina Canteen, and board member of the Chef's Table Society of BC — for one of the most candid conversations about the business of food we've ever had on This Commerce Life.
Robert pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to keep a restaurant alive in one of Canada's most expensive cities: the unforgiving margins, the perception-of-value trap that operators fall into, why independent restaurants are chronically underpricing themselves, and what it would take for the whole industry to collectively raise prices and survive.
Check out: https://chefstablesociety.com/
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Julie Therrien has spent 28 years selling Canadian cookies to the world — and she's got the stories to prove it. As Western Canada Sales Rep for Biscuits Leclerc (the family behind Celebration Cookies, Go Pure bars, and that iconic air travel snack you definitely know),
Julie joins Kenny and Phil to talk about her unlikely path from Quebec City to Guadalajara to Vancouver, what it really takes to break into export markets, and why the Canadian food industry's tight-knit community is one of its greatest competitive advantages.
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If you're a Canadian food or beverage brand wondering why retailers keep asking for a distributor, this episode is your answer.
Phil and Kenny sit down with Stacey Kravitz, President of UNFI Canada, for one of the most important conversations we've had on the show. Stacey brings 20+ years at Kraft and Kraft Heinz — and nearly 10 years leading UNFI Canada through COVID, supply chain chaos, and a rapidly consolidating grocery landscape — to give brands a rare, unfiltered look at how distribution actually works in this country.
Whether you're still selling out of your car, just hit your first retail listing, or you're scaling nationally — this episode will reshape how you think about distribution as a growth strategy, not just a middleman.
🎯 Key Takeaway: Retailers don't want more vendors. They want trusted distributor partners who can bring them curated, ready-to-sell innovation. If you don't have a distribution strategy, you're leaving listings on the table.
Connect with UNFI Canada: unfi.com Follow This Commerce Life: thiscommercelife.com
Mentioned in this episode:
UNFI Canada's Up Next Incubator Program Canadian Grocery Sector Code of Conduct ItSo Coffee (brand shoutout from Stacey) Rob Mortenson — go-to-market strategy servicesIf you're looking for online retail classes, we're building our first class already! contact us at [email protected]
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Most small business owners think they have a brand. What they actually have is a collection of decisions made in a hurry — four shades of blue, six different fonts, and a website built room by room without a blueprint. Sound familiar?
In this episode, Phil and Kenny sit down with Kevin Sotto of Sotto Digital — the digital strategist behind the This Commerce Life rebrand — to talk about what branding actually is, why so many Canadian food and CPG brands get it wrong, and what it takes to build a digital presence that earns trust.
Kevin shares his journey from engineering at McMaster, to RBC, to health-tech startup life, to running his own digital marketing and branding consultancy. He also pulls back the curtain on his experience working with TCL — from cleaning up a messy website to uncovering the three core pillars of the brand and why that "editorial navy" is doing more work than anyone realized.
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What does it take to turn a house-made restaurant dressing into a multi-SKU CPG brand with distributors, Power Bowl mixes, and a brand-new line of high-protein soup mixes? This week, Phil and Kenny sit down with Joanna and Stephanie, the co-founders of Umami Crave the Fifth, a Kelowna-based food brand making waves across BC and beyond.
Joanna and Stephanie pull back the curtain on the full journey: starting with a beet quinoa salad dressing at BNA Brewing, surviving a pandemic launch, building their own production facility, and navigating the brutal reality that getting into a store is easy — getting off the shelf is hard.
They share hard-won lessons on SKU naming disasters (50,000 pouches ordered before rebranding), sourcing Canadian pea protein, competing in a crowded condiment category, and why their vegan Worcestershire sauce accidentally became their fastest-growing product.
Check out Umami Crave the Fifth here: https://www.umamicravethefifth.com/
Find out more about the Big Cheese Festival in Armstrong here: https://www.aschamber.com/thebigcheese.html
Find out more about Basin Food Summit here: https://basinfood.ca/
If you want to sign up for one of our classes, email us at [email protected]
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What does it take to leave a 30-year career at one of the world's biggest consulting firms — and bet it all on a 65-year-old condiment brand that had been sitting dormant for a year?
Marc Whitmore is the CEO and owner of Dennis Horseradish, Canada's only horseradish producer. A former Senior Partner and global leader at Deloitte, Marc walked away from corporate life in his 50s to become a food entrepreneur — and ended up finding his business for sale on MLS.ca like a cottage listing.
In this episode, Marc shares the full journey: the failed hops venture that came first, why he bought a brand with no active customers, how Dennis went from zero to 1,000+ stores across four countries, and what growing 25% looks like when you're still reinvesting every dollar back into the business.
We also dig into the realities of Canadian food entrepreneurship — why you need to "get in the flow" to find deals, how to think about exporting before you've even figured out your own backyard, and why Marc says the best reason to build a business is for Canada itself.
Check out Dennis Horseradish here: https://dennishorseradish.com/
If you're a brand and you need help to scale, or you know a brand that needs help - send them to us! www.thiscommercelife.com
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After 37 years running the same grocery store, Peter Boyd is stepping away from the floor — but he's nowhere near done. In this episode of This Commerce Life, Phil and Kenny sit down with one of the most beloved independent grocery operators in the Okanagan to talk about what it actually takes to build a loyal customer base, why kindness isn't the enemy of profit, and what comes next for Peter as he turns his energy toward food banks, local vendors, and community infrastructure.
This one hits different. If you've ever wondered what separates the retailers that champion small brands from the ones that don't — this is the conversation.
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What does it look like to bootstrap a CPG brand from your kitchen, survive an acquisition, and then pivot into a category that barely existed? Melissa L'Heureux-Hache, co-founder of Vegain — a Vancouver-based plant-based sports nutrition company — shares the full story with Phil and Kenny on This Commerce Life.
From launching a vegan hemp skincare brand in Toronto (with zero ability to advertise on any major digital platform), to doing 40+ trade shows in a single year, to getting acquired by a public company in 2019, to co-creating Surge — North America's first clear vegan protein in a can — Melissa's entrepreneurial journey is one of the most honest and energizing stories we've told on this podcast.
And if that wasn't enough? She also opened a café and retail storefront on Vancouver's Seawall. Because why not.
In this episode, we get into:
How Melissa and her partner Eden bootstrapped and sold their first CPG company with no science background The challenge of advertising a hemp-based product when the internet thought you were selling drugs What it actually feels like to go through an acquisition and work for the acquiring company for a year The origin story of Vegain and why they launched with one of the most niche SKUs possible — a vegan mass gainer The accidental innovation behind Surge — and why they pitched it at CHFA Launchpad before the product even existed Why they opened a café (and what it taught them about food service, staff culture, and community) The retail expansion push and what's next for VegainConnect with Vegain: 🌐 vegain.ca 📍 Find them on the Vancouver Seawall
Connect with This Commerce Life: 🌐 thiscommercelife.com 📱 Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube
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Phil and Kenny pull up a chair for a candid check-in — no guest, no agenda, just an honest conversation about where This Commerce Life has been, where it's going, and why what they do matters more than ever for Canadian food and beverage brands.
After 460+ episodes and eight years in, Phil and Kenny reflect on a pivotal shift: This Commerce Life was never just a podcast — it was always an education platform, and they're now building it that way. From a refreshed website and updated brand positioning to formal curricula, national accelerator programs, and a growing roster of food association partnerships, TCL is levelling up.
In this episode:
Why TCL is repositioning as a retail education platform — not just a podcast The honest truth about how most CPG brands fail (and what to do about it) Why brokers and distributors should be sending unready brands their way TCL's plans to bring retail fundamentals workshops to Ontario, the Maritimes, and Newfoundland Partnerships with BC Food & Beverage, Food & Beverage Manitoba, and beyond Their upcoming trip to Expo Antad & Alimentaria in Guadalajara, Mexico (May 19–21) — why Canadian brands can't ignore the Mexican market Why SIAL Paris is next on the radar — and what European trade intelligence means for Canadian exporters The loneliness of running a food brand — and why community is the underrated competitive advantage TCL's real download numbers (15,000 in a week — yes, really), and why Kenny still doesn't believe itWhether you're a food entrepreneur just getting started, a broker looking for retail-ready brands, or a food association supporting Canadian CPG — this episode is your invitation to work with Phil and Kenny.
🌐 Visit: www.thiscommercelife.com 📩 Reach out if you're a brand under $1M trying to grow, or a food association looking for a teaching partner.
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What if you could invest in promising Canadian startups for as little as $5,000 — and help a food or CPG brand scale to retail shelves at the same time?
In this episode of This Commerce Life, Phil and Kenny sit down with Jesse Wiebe, Community Development Manager and key figure at Startup TNT — an Edmonton-based angel investing syndicate that's democratizing early-stage investment across Canada.
Jesse shares his unconventional path: from growing up on a Saskatchewan farm to working in Gordon Ramsay's kitchen, bartending through an economics degree at York University, and eventually returning home after COVID wiped out his job, his apartment (fire above his unit), and his relationship — all at once. Out of that reset came a mission to activate Canadian capital and build a real startup ecosystem outside of Toronto.
In this episode:
✅ What Startup TNT is and how their stage-gate investment model works
✅ Why Canada is losing its best founders to the U.S. — and what to do about it
✅ How CPG industry veterans can put their retail skills to work as angel investors
✅ The difference between VC, angel investing, and family offices (explained simply)
✅ How early-stage food and beverage brands can apply for funding
✅ Why "playing Moneyball" is the right strategy for Canadian startups
✅ Portfolio companies to watch: Vegain, Seven Summit Snacks, Toothpod, Scription, and more
If you work in Canadian CPG, retail buying, or food and beverage — this episode is your introduction to a funding model that could change how brands you love get built.
🎙️ Guest: Jesse Wiebe | Startup TNT | Saskatoon, SK
🎙️ Hosts: Phil Chang & Kenny Vannucci | This Commerce Life
📩 Interested in investing or applying for funding?
Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn or visit startuptnt.com
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What do the Canadian Shield, a fourth-generation family business, and a trade show floor in Germany have in common? Wild rice — and one of the most remarkable food origin stories you've never heard.
In this episode of This Commerce Life, Phil Chang and Kenny Vannucci sit down with Matt Ratuski, fourth-generation owner of Floating Leaf Fine Foods, whose family has been harvesting Canadian wild rice since 1935. From his great-grandfather trading fish with First Nations communities in Keewatin, Ontario, to building one of Canada's first wild rice processing facilities, Matt's story is equal parts frontier history and modern food entrepreneurship.
We dig into how Canadian wild rice is still harvested the old-fashioned way — in remote rivers, streams, and bogs across northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario — and why that makes it fundamentally different from the cultivated rice grown in the U.S. We also cover the deep, multi-generational relationships with First Nations harvesters, the wild crop's two-to-three-week harvest window, and why Europe discovered this superfood long before Canadians did.
Plus: why innovation in food always requires education, what it takes to build a Canadian food brand with global reach, and why Phil is about to start cooking wild rice on camera.
check out Floating Leaf here: https://eatwildrice.ca/
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What do you do when the soda you started making to complement your craft brewery ends up outgrowing the brewery itself? That's exactly what happened to Diana, co-founder of Callister Soda.
In this episode, Diana walks us through her unlikely journey — from office worker dreaming of a sustainable farm, to opening Callister Brewing in Vancouver in 2015, to hand-capping bottles and hand-seaming cans as her natural soda line quietly took on a life of its own. She shares the hard lessons of navigating supply chain chaos, a craft beer market in decline, and a rent increase that tripled over a decade — and how a perfectly timed facility opportunity in Port Coquitlam gave Callister Soda the home it needed to grow. If you're a food or beverage founder wondering whether to follow the momentum or stay the course, Diana's story is one you'll want to hear.
Check out Callister here: https://callistersoda.com/
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From Istanbul to Grocery Aisles: Arda and the Hummzies Story
In this episode, Kenny and Phil sit down with Arda, the founder of Hummzies — a hummus-based, chickpea snack that's quickly gaining traction across Canadian retail shelves. Arda shares his remarkable journey from growing up in Istanbul, where a bombing near his high school prompted his family to send him to Canada at just 16 years old, to studying political science at the University of Toronto, and eventually finding his passion in the food industry.
He talks about how his mentor Eyub at Red Crown Pomegranate Juice gave him the foundation to learn the business, how honest advice from distributor Ratan at Jiva led him to his current partnership with Star Marketing, and why doing your own demos and treating your distributor like a true partner — not just a service provider — is the key to building a brand the right way. Whether you're a new CPG founder trying to figure out distribution or just love a great immigrant entrepreneur story, this one's packed with real talk and practical lessons.
check out Hummzies at https://www.hummzies.com/
Thank you to LGDF Wholesale for sponsoring this episode: https://www.lgdfwholesale.com/
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Natasha Chawla spent 25+ years in the corporate world working on brands like Coca-Cola and Unilever before launching Greens&Beans — a line of vegetable-packed, allergen-free pasta sauces born from her own kitchen.
What started as a mom's mission to feed her allergy-prone, hockey-playing son healthy meals turned into a full-fledged CPG brand now landing on shelves across British Columbia and beyond.
In this episode, Natasha shares the real journey: the R&D nightmare of scaling from 10 litres to 300 (when her sauce turned into dessert), the pivot from glass bottles to shelf-stable pouches for e-commerce, and the hard lesson that getting into a store is only half the battle — you still have to sell it.
Kenny and Phil also dig into the practical side of growing a food brand the right way: why training your distributor matters, how to pace your retail pipeline so you don't outgrow your co-packer, and the power of collaboration with complementary brands.
Whether you're just starting out or scaling up, this conversation is packed with real talk about what it actually takes to get a sauce from your kitchen to the shelf.
🔗 Check out Greens & Beans: https://greensandbeans.ca/ 📍
Thank you to LGDF wholesale for sponsoring this episode: https://www.lgdfwholesale.com/
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When Vikki decided to rescue horses with no teeth, she didn't realize it would lead to opening a thriving feed and farm supply business.
In this episode, Vikki and her husband Rob share how Topline Feed and Farm Supply started as a way to "supplement the horses" and evolved into a community hub in Tavistock, Ontario. From navigating the challenges of rural retail and competing with big-box stores to giving back through hospice visits and youth programs, this Ontario Made award-nominated business proves that passion, ADHD-fueled entrepreneurship, and a lot of hard work can build something special.
Plus, we talk about the realities of running a brick-and-mortar store, the importance of doubling down on Canadian entrepreneurship, and why rescuing horses is way cooler than anyone expected.
Find Topline feed here: https://www.toplinefeeds.com/home
thank you to Haddas and Rebecca at Ontario made for connecting us with Vicki and Rob. https://supportontariomade.ca/
Thank you to LGDF Wholesale for sponsoring this episode. https://www.lgdfwholesale.com/
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From Salt Spring Island to Small-Town Retail: Angela Donnelly on Running Raise the Root Organic Market
Angela Donnelly, founder of Raise the Root Organic Market in Caledon, Ontario, shares her journey from working on her parents' mobile produce truck on Salt Spring Island to opening her own natural foods store. Angela talks about learning the produce business at Vancouver's terminal markets, the transition from hippie back-to-the-landers to strategic retailer, and the harsh realities of competing against grocery giants in 2025.
Find Raise the Root here: https://www.raisetheroot.ca/
You can find Angela on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-donnelly-3a73123a/
Thank you to Haddas and Rebecca at Ontario Made for connecting us.
Thank you to LGDF Wholesale for sponsoring this episode. You can find them at https://www.lgdfwholesale.com/
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Andrew Warburton from Peak Beverage Co. joins Phil and Kenny to share his journey building a premium fruit soda brand in BC's competitive beverage market. From launching with minimal research to now being in 175+ stores across Western Canada, Andrew opens up about the realities of scaling a local CPG brand.
In this conversation, you'll hear about Peak's channel strategy—why food service and wineries have been their sweet spot, how Amazon opened up eastern markets without expensive direct-to-consumer shipping, and the importance of staying connected to customers through farmer's markets and demos. Andrew discusses navigating distributor relationships, managing seasonal fluctuations in the food and beverage industry, and why understanding your consumer and picking your spots matters more than being everywhere.
Whether you're launching a beverage brand or scaling a local food product, Andrew's honest, practical approach to building Peak Beverage Co. offers valuable lessons on entrepreneurship, distribution strategy, and staying true to your brand.
Thank you to LGDF Wholesale for sponsoring this episode. You can find them at: www.lgdfwholesale.com
You can find Andrew at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewwarburt0n/
Check out Peak Beverage here: https://www.drinkpeak.ca/
Buy it on Amazon here:
Apple Rhubarb: https://a.co/d/eRoHXAPHaskap Lemonade: https://a.co/d/iXhD0XY
Tell us which one is your favourite here: https://www.instagram.com/thiscommercelife/
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