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Ameen Fadel | Cedar Valley
90 Plays9 months ago
Taste is king when it comes to many of the choices we make in the grocery store, and when those wow flavours combine with a great founder story, it’s easy to become a loyal consumer.
In this episode of Aisle 42 we’re going behind the scenes of Cedar Valley, a Lebanese inspired pita chip company. The conversation with co-founder Ameen Fadel (who recently found himself on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, takes through some of his entrepreneurial journey, and we talk about authentic flavours, ethical food production and injecting some tradition back into our snacking life.
Amen talks about his humble “school project” beginnings in food making, his working partnership with his Mom and their mission to bring community into the workplace and to the dinning table.
Learn more about the brand and products at www.cedarvalleyselections.ca and see who's behind Aisle 42 at www.ethicalfoodgroup.com.
Here are the highlights:
Vision for the Future Grocery Store:
Ameen envisions a future grocery store filled with innovative, health-conscious brands, minimal ingredients like those made at home, locally sourced products, and a strong focus on supporting small, local businesses.
The Importance of Showcasing and Experience:
Both discuss the importance of grocery stores creating a destination-like experience by showcasing local and unique brands. This approach can make shopping more of an experience rather than a chore.
Changing Shopping Experiences:
Ameen reminisces about a time when grocery shopping was a community experience, suggesting a desire to bring back this culture.
Cedar Valley's Unique Selling Propositions:
Ameen talks about Cedar Valley, a company making authentic-style pita chips with clean, minimal ingredients and no inflammatory seed oils, focusing on simplicity and health.
Cedar Valley’s Culture and Manufacturing:
The conversation touches on the company culture at Cedar Valley and the decision to do their own manufacturing to ensure quality and control over the production process.
Sustainability Efforts:
Ameen discusses Cedar Valley's sustainability efforts, including minimizing food waste by partnering with local chicken farms and food banks, and efforts towards sustainable packaging.
Canadian Identity and Local Sourcing:
Emphasis on the importance of being a Canadian-made product, sourcing ingredients locally as much as possible, and the positive reception from consumers and retailers.
Dragons’ Den Experience:
Ameen shares his experience on "Dragons' Den", securing a million-dollar deal with Arlene Dickinson, and the impact of this exposure on Cedar Valley.
Community and Culture:
The importance of community and creating a positive culture within Cedar Valley and in their approach to business is highlighted.
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Transcript
Introduction to Cedar Valley and Amin Fadal
00:00:00
Speaker
This is aisle 42. Taste is king when it comes to many of the choices that we make in the grocery store. And when those wow flavors are combined with a great founder story, it's easy to become a loyal consumer. In this episode of aisle 42, we're going behind the scenes of Cedar Valley, a Lebanese inspired pita chip company.
00:00:23
Speaker
This conversation with co-founder Amin Fadal, who recently found himself on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, takes us through his entrepreneurial journey, and we talk about authentic flavors, ethical food production, and injecting some tradition back into our snacking life. Amin talks about his humble school project beginnings and food making, his working partnership with his mom, and their mission to bringing community into the workplace and to the dining table. Here's Amin from Cedar Valley.
00:00:54
Speaker
I mean, I've been looking forward to this call for a long time. Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast. Thank you for having me. You're always a pleasure to talk to. So I'm super pumped to be on. It's just because I'm very animated and I wave my hands around a lot in audio format. You don't quite get, but at least we see each other in this case. The energy is there. The energy is there. Got to have energy. Got to have it. So kick things off here.
Vision for Future Grocery Stores
00:01:18
Speaker
If you were to imagine the perfect grocery store of the future, what would it look like?
00:01:23
Speaker
Ooh, that's a tough question. The perfect grocery store of the future? Probably just Cedar Valley all over the store, Peta Chip Land, you know. You're so typical. You're the typical CPG founder. That was a typical answer, right? No, I would say the perfect grocery store in the future.
00:01:40
Speaker
Oh, that's tough. Just super innovative brands bringing products that are better for you. So I'm a big believer in no seed oils and just very minimal ingredients when it comes to creating products just like you would make it in your own house. So I'd really love to see just products that are very identical and mimic what you would make in your kitchen and really just use simple, natural, clean ingredients that are locally sourced as best possible and as best feasible.
00:02:04
Speaker
And really just see a big focus on supporting the small guys and supporting our local communities. I think that would be the perfect grocery store in the future. And I guess bringing a little bit more personality to the stores, if that makes sense. And really just showcasing brands and showcasing the people behind the food.
00:02:24
Speaker
Love it. Great answer. Yeah, I think the showcasing. There are some market size or smaller retailers that do that really well. And they do it in such a way that I think, to be honest, almost make a destination like experience for shopping.
00:02:40
Speaker
And though a lot of us feel as consumers can feel like that isn't, you know, sometimes we just need to get in and we need to get out. We need to fill our cart to feed our families on the way home from work or whatever. So, you know, there's different places and spaces for everybody. But when retailers take the time to really highlight
00:02:57
Speaker
Local brand or really unique brand or better for you or a food as medicine type brand where someone can really get really excited about what's in it what it tastes like and how they can use it in their regular life I think it's a really remarkable experience. I agree and I think I feel like nowadays It's almost like everyone's in a rush everyone goes into a grocery store. They're like get out of my way I just need to get my stuff and leave don't want to talk to anybody but I feel like
00:03:21
Speaker
I mean, I'm young, so I don't really know back in the day, but back in the day, it's almost like you run into everyone that you know at the grocery store. It's more like, like you said, it's like an experience and you feel like you know everyone there and all the store owners are talking to you and the staff are talking to you and just making great conversation. And I think if we can bring that back and just showcase again, the people who are making these products as everyone across Canada is, you know, starts in a little kitchen and they start with the
00:03:47
Speaker
What's an idea and you know to get our grocery stores across the country is pretty you know phenomenal achievement and if we can. I guess just make it more more of a community setting where you walk to the grocery store to feel like you're part of it. I don't know I'm lost for words but it's like corny a little bit right but I know I just feel like.
00:04:06
Speaker
You're talking about culture. Yes, culture. Yeah, there you go. You're talking about creating an experience around grocery shopping, and I think a lot of us who care about this stuff crave it, like deeply, to the point that when we walk into a large grocery store, we kind of feel our souls die a little bit, that you talk about lighting. Just the lighting alone, not to mention the physical space of the aisles. It's just like, ah, there's just a bit of a groan that can happen.
00:04:32
Speaker
There's lots of different ways to go about this, but yeah, the future could be brighter with a more curated, localized experience.
Cedar Valley's Unique Pita Chips
00:04:40
Speaker
So for those that don't know Cedar Valley as well as I do, and you don't eat your product as often as I do, confession here, you know that. Why don't you just talk for a moment about what you guys make and why in the hell you make it.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah. So Cedar Valley is a Canadian food manufacturer of authentic-style pita chips made with better-free ingredients. So really, the core of our business is we don't use any inflammatory seed oils in any of our products. So our pita chips are made in 100% pure coconut oil. And again, no preservatives, no added sugars, and just very, very minimal ingredient deck. Our sea salt pita chip, for example, has five ingredients. It has flour, unbleached flour, and it comes from Hamilton, which we're super proud of.
00:05:21
Speaker
Salt, yeast, and coconut oil. I haven't seen many CPG products get simpler than that. The business really started as a high school project when I was 16 years old, and I got a $3,000 grant to start my own company. I always knew I had that entrepreneurial spirit, and so when I was trying to think of what could I start and what could I bring to the market that's actually going to impact people's lives and really help people live a better life?
00:05:44
Speaker
you know, I was reminded of a family friend who recommended that we bottle my mom's salad dressing recipe and packaged repeated chips. And so I said, you know what, we're going to take a shot and see what happens. So I partnered up with my mom and we brought her original family recipes to the market.
00:05:59
Speaker
I love it. I've met your mom a few times and, man, she is so charming and she lights up every room that she walks into. She's way cooler than me. Oh, she's way cooler than you. But people hang on her every word. People really appreciate the thoughtfulness that she puts into every connection.
00:06:19
Speaker
And clearly, I know from the outside looking in just how your team works and how you guys go about putting your food in packages and getting into stores. There's a culture that you're building there at Cedar Valley that I think is really, really special. Let's go tap into the
00:06:37
Speaker
clean ingredient deck for a second. And that is a lot harder than a lot of consumers realize. Can you just talk a little bit about what it means to source ingredients, to try to source the best quality ingredients, maybe even like non-GMO or organic or, you know, where you can look at that, that transparency of that ingredient, say, okay, we're, we're doing the best we can, or if we know you can't get there, what's the path to getting there in the relative, you know, near future?
00:07:06
Speaker
And yeah, it's definitely a lot harder than people would have initially imagined. And so when we started the company, we really... Honestly, this is how we were making the products at home. We didn't... We weren't frying them in canola oil. And then we're like, okay, we need to bring a better product to the market. It's kind of just how we were doing things at home. And so again, we want to replicate that and bring that to the CPG world and bring that to grocery stores across Canada.
00:07:28
Speaker
Initially, when we started, we were just buying the coconut oil from Costco and we had to go and source. We were getting them in little two-liter jugs, pouring them out. It was very annoying and tedious to work with. We had to go out and find ethical suppliers, which was really important as well because coconut oil
00:07:42
Speaker
You know it's all comes from overseas there's really no place in north america that can you know harvest and make it on a large scale and so overseas there's a lot of shady business when it comes to coco roll a lot of companies will use monkeys actually to pick the coconuts which originally we didn't really know that and so we had to kind of all of our suppliers and make sure that whoever is going to be a supplier cedar valley is running their business in an ethical manner as well.
00:08:04
Speaker
And so we had to vet our coconut suppliers, make sure that we had letters of guarantees, and really just all the T's crossed and the I's dotted and make sure that we're working with good people and ethical people. And so getting a Najimo coconut oil that's at a great price because it is very expensive as well, and making sure that we can source ingredients from great suppliers who are good people that are great to work with was super important to us.
Flavors and Product Range
00:08:27
Speaker
Again, we were super proud to try and keep it as Canadian as possible and source all of our flour from the Canadian mills in Hamilton. And so again, we want to use unbleached wheat flour. That was something that most people weren't doing because we just want to keep it as minimally processed and keep all the chemicals out of the product at the end of the day. And so again, that was just how we were making it at home. And it was super important for us to keep it that way and keep it authentic and as traditional as possible.
00:08:54
Speaker
The flavor that you guys put into your chips is really, it's a punchy in the face flavor. You guys lean into it really hard. And I love it because often a pita chip can either be kind of bland and unremarkable, or it can be a flavor that just feels like you're just dumping salt down your throat. And there's these two extremes.
00:09:19
Speaker
You guys have a really balanced flavor profile, but yet it's still bold. And I think it's really attractive to a lot of people that love chips, love a lot of different kinds of snacking or eating occasions where a chip or a kind of a more exotic cracker makes a lot of sense. But talk to us about the flavoring. How do you guys decide what flavors to use and what ingredients are you using in your flavoring?
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah, you know, that was something that when we started again, we made the pita chips to be as a salad topper. And, you know, that's initially how, you know, we were using them at home. Again, that's very traditional as a fatous salad. You take all the leftover pita bread, you fry it up and throw it in your salads so that you don't waste anything. That's kind of our cultural heritage behind the pita chips.
00:10:02
Speaker
And so we want to bring a product that was both good to put in your salad, but then also a product that you can use with a dip, sorry, and use just as a chip and just eat it by itself. So we really want to create it as versatile as possible and kind of be the end-all, be-all chip so that you can use it in any scenario. And so really finding that balanced flavor profile so that you can enjoy it just out of the bag and eat the whole bag on the way home from the grocery store. No comment. No comment.
00:10:30
Speaker
So many people tell us that they just intended to use it with hummus and just ate the whole bag on the way home. And so it was very important trying to balance those flavors and bring flavors that were a little unique but also kind of in line with pita chips. So we're just trending right now. We're playing with some more flavors that are more chip style that you wouldn't really necessarily think of a pita chip kind of having.
00:10:51
Speaker
but they're very fun and they're very unique and we can't wait to launch those but you've got two flavors right now is it three so we have four flavors now so my gosh yeah four flavors so we just officially brought out our cinnamon sugar which is an all year round flavor now and so that was a seasonal in and out but we have a sea salt a garlic an herb a classic spice which is our original flavor
00:11:10
Speaker
That's just again what my mom was making at home that is has a little touch of cayenne in there So that's personally my favorite and then the cinnamon sugar So those are for all year round and then we were just testing some flavors last week So I'm really excited to showcase a few new ones in the new year. But yeah, and you know, the feedback has been
00:11:27
Speaker
really great around the flavors. And like you said, other pita chips and everything else out there is super bland. There's not a large flavor profile on there. And nowadays, you know, when you go into a bag of Doritos, if you're a Doritos fan, you know, you're looking for the heaviest seasoned chip and people that just love flavor forward products nowadays. And so again, that was really, you know, we thought we were in line with that and we really wanted to target consumers on that side and again, give them a better tasting product that's bold and has that delicious flavor.
00:11:55
Speaker
And in the category that bold flavor actually really helps you guys stand out, not among all the other things you stand out on, but the fact that when you're looking at the PETA chip aisle or section, you know, there's not that many options. We know some of the big players there and you can really get consumers excited around a chip that's going to deliver a lot of flavor.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah. And most people think of a pita chip and it's just like a dry piece of bread, you know, very thick, hard, dry piece of bread. And so now we definitely are excited to bring that bold flavor profile to the market. And again, we're getting great raving reviews about it and people asking for ketchup chips and salt and vinegar chips and all these different crazy pita chips, but they actually taste really good. We haven't tried them all.
00:12:36
Speaker
I will not be voting for ketchup. I've seen some people, you know, like smokey barbecue, okay, maybe, but if it's straight up ketchup, I don't know. What is the deal with the pita chips that they're all kind of mangled and folded over, and why are those the best ones? Why are the weirdest looking chips the best ones? I don't get it.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I guess a little backstory for people listening. So most pita chips in North America, they're all like a single layer, very thick, very hard, feel like they're going to break your teeth. So again, we're keeping an authentic traditional style pita chip. And so we have that really thin pita bread, but it's double layer. So you get every time you take a bite, it's two layers and you're just getting that really satisfying crunch. But because we use fresh baked pita bread, when we cut it through our machine,
00:13:24
Speaker
You know, sometimes we'll have those outer edges of the pita chip kind of wrap over and fold. And then you get just like the most beautiful experience in your mouth. And it's just like, you know, we actually had a review one time. It's the most, the funniest review ever. It was like, I got the corner chip and it was like the double crunchiest crunch of my life. And I've never had a more experiencing.
00:13:43
Speaker
better tasting crunch ever it's just the funniest review but yeah just the crunch and texture flavor profile that our chips bring is on a whole other level and those are absolutely the best ship we actually we framed one of them because it was like the best looking ship ever and sent it to a friend.
00:13:59
Speaker
It must be the, yeah, it's gotta be something about, you know, there's probably twice the coconut oil or twice the flavor or. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's just, it's just, it's doubled up. It's fantastic.
Sustainability and Community Initiatives
00:14:10
Speaker
You guys do all your own manufacturing. We do, yeah. That sounds terrifying, but why don't you talk to us a little bit about what you guys are doing in your pita chip factory and especially on the sustainability side and the environmental side. What are some of the things you're doing?
00:14:26
Speaker
to combat the climate side of the equation and what would you like to do in the future because it is always a journey for people that are deeply committed so i'd love to talk into the manufacturing side of it.
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah, so at one point I actually wanted to add to your earlier question when we were talking about sourcing ingredients and the difficulty in that. When we started the business, we never want to manufacture at all. Like it was the last thing we wanted to do. So we were looking to outsource the product manufacturing and have other people make it for us. We went all over North America. We went to about 20, 25 different suppliers and nobody would make it for us. No one wanted to use our ingredients. No one wanted to do it with our process and no one could do it to our quality. So we said, you know what? We really believe in this product.
00:15:04
Speaker
we think we have something here so we're just gonna take a risk and do it ourselves and so we opened up or sign a lease in 2020 in July. We shipped our first order in January of 2021 and it's kind of been rocket growth from there so you know it ended up being the best decision we ever made and you know being able to control that quality from end to end and
00:15:23
Speaker
eventually as we grow, control all of our sourcing and supply chain is very, very important to us. And we get a little bit extra margin at the end of the day as well to boost into growing the brand and putting it into marketing. So I see it as the best decision we've ever made. It is a lot of work, but it's definitely a lot more fun too. And again, the culture that we've created at Cedar Valley and
00:15:44
Speaker
and the people that we've brought in to really manage and run the facility have been nothing short of amazing. And it's just great to walk into a building and just see the pita chips flowing down the line and being packaged every day. But on your point of sustainability and what are we doing that's better for the environment? And I'll give credit to my mom here because the mother and her, when we opened up the facility, anything that would drop on the floor, or just even at home, something drops on the floor, it's like, you gotta eat it. And so- Five second rule. Exactly, yeah.
00:16:13
Speaker
And so my mom's amazing with that. And so when we opened up the facility, she was trying to figure out every possible way to minimize all of our food waste. Because if things happen, product goes bad, product falls on the floor during production. And it's just tough to throw anything out. And we have scraps as well from production that you can't necessarily use. And so she initially was just having to throw all this stuff out. And we're like, what can we do to really minimize this? And so we actually partnered with local chicken farmers across Windsor Essex.
00:16:40
Speaker
And so anything that scrap, anything that's unsellable, all it's put into a special bin, and it gets donated to local chicken farmers on a weekly basis. And so we have absolutely zero food waste in our facility, and they don't care what it is. So they'll eat the pita chips, they'll eat the spices, they'll eat the coconut oil. These chickens love it. And it's so funny, we did a...
00:16:58
Speaker
We went to the chicken farm last year and we did a little tour and it was just the coolest thing. These chickens come running over for the pita chips. And it was so funny. The one farm that gets our chips, they said that the chickens from the farm over come running over and it's just a little party because they really enjoyed the chips. So it's been amazing to really give back in that way and just donate it. We don't need to make a profit off of it. We'd rather not throw it in the dumpster. And so that's been a really great way that we've been able to give back.
00:17:25
Speaker
as well as just partnering with some local food banks in the area where if we have product that's getting close to short dated or just product that the bag isn't sealed properly or whatnot, we donate some extras to the food banks just to support them. And then kind of from a, I guess, social standpoint, all of our production employees, we hired from the Unemployment Help Centre. And so they're all newcomers to Canada, very diverse, amazing, hardworking team that we're super proud of.
00:17:53
Speaker
None of this would be possible without them. They put in tears and sweat and they work so hard and they never complain and they're just thankful to have a job. But we're super proud to be able to give them a job and give them an opportunity. Because a lot of these people, there's language barriers and they want to get a job otherwise and they have families to support.
00:18:11
Speaker
and a lot of teenagers who are just giving their paychecks to their parents. And we have brothers and sisters and moms and sons who work for us. And it's really amazing just to create a good family culture that gives opportunity and is inclusive for our community. That's amazing. That really is a remarkable way to approach food manufacturing and growing a business in that way. So thanks for doing that. That's awesome. Yeah, thank you.
00:18:37
Speaker
I love the fact that you have chicken farmer approved plant-based position. Exactly. Very solid, very solid. Talk to us about the packaging side of the equation, keeping food safe, keeping food shelf stable for as long as possible, that it makes sense for the product, making it so that it can handle all the rigors of being shipped around and merchandised and all this stuff. It is a really tough game.
00:19:06
Speaker
Where are you guys at right now with packaging and where would you like it to go down the road? In terms of sustainability or just in general? Yeah, in terms of sustainability, like reducing your footprint, whether you're doing anything with it right now or whether you have aspirations down the road. The journey is more important to me than the actual end result.
00:19:25
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely a lot that goes into packaging the product and there's so much cardboard and so much plastic. We are currently examining recyclable packaging. The unfortunate side of that is that the actual recycling industry isn't even there yet. They don't have the technology to be able to recycle a lot of these packages. When it comes to plastic pouches and whatnot, we are currently testing recyclable packaging.
00:19:50
Speaker
biodegradable packaging. Shelf life is a big concern for us, obviously, and as it is for many CPG companies. Thankfully, because we use coconut oil, we get double the shelf life of most pita chips. That's because the coconut oil doesn't go rancid as quickly as the vegetable oils do. And so from there, we already have an advantage.
00:20:07
Speaker
and you know working with these sustainable packaging suppliers we are trying to get our footprint down because again that's the way the world's going and we want to do you know our social part as a business that's been flourishing and we want to do as much as we can to get back and so you know we're really hopeful that that's going to work out and that these will give us a long enough shelf life to
00:20:26
Speaker
you know, implement this packaging in the future, as well as just kind of minimizing what we use in the facility. We actually get a lot of plastic bags in, you know, there's some of our supplies that come in a lot of plastic bags and we actually just give those away as well. So even the chicken farmers, they take those, our employees take them and they reuse them. So again, you know, in our facility, we're trying to minimize as much waste as possible, whether it's food or supplies. So again, we're trying to minimize our footprint and just trying to innovate and you know, whether we can readjust our packaging,
00:20:54
Speaker
make a thinner package or use recyclable packaging. I think that's something that we're very aligned on and something that we want to implement as quickly as possible. Obviously, it's not financially feasible to do everything at one time as a small growing CPG brand, but we do have the aspirations and the plan in place and hopefully we can get there.
00:21:11
Speaker
So good. And you guys are very proud about your Canadian made place in the grocery store. What does that mean to your consumers? What kind of feedback do you get about the fact that you guys are made in Canada and source ingredients from Canada as much as possible? Coconuts aside.
00:21:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think it means the feedback we've seen so far is that it is very meaningful to consumers. Now, it might not be the number one thing that they look for when they're making the decision to buy pita chips or not, or a product in general. But I think it is a factor, and we're super proud again to be... Because we could have went to the States easily and just outsourced this product and had a worse quality product, but we were super proud to keep it in Canada.
00:21:52
Speaker
especially in Windsor Essex. So, you know, where we're from, it's not food and beverage manufacturing at all. It's all tool and die in auto industry. So we were super proud to be able to do it in our home city where there's not a lot of food and beverage manufacturing and showcase that, you know, we can do it successfully. And we're kind of approving grounds for, you know, the other CPG and aspiring CPG entrepreneurs in our area. So it has been really important to us and we want to work with Canadian businesses and we've gotten a lot of support from the retailer side as well. We're trying to showcase more Canadian businesses.
00:22:22
Speaker
But in the petership realm specifically, the markets own 95% by a big US conglomerate. And to be that Canadian alternative in the Canadian market, I think is a key point for us. I think consumers, they want to know the people behind the brands and they want to know the people who are making their foods.
00:22:40
Speaker
And if they can kind of align with that and see a little bit of themselves in the product, I think it's been very critical for us to grow and just connect with the consumer on a more personal level.
Dragon's Den Success and Cultural Representation
00:22:53
Speaker
And you've just recently been on television. Yes. Give us now that it's sort of out in the public and you're allowed to talk about it, why don't you walk us through the Dragon's Den experience?
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, so the Dragon's Den experience was crazy. So I applied last year, got denied. And this year we applied right before the deadline, just saw someone post about it on LinkedIn. I was like, oh, I'm going to apply again. Give it a shot. Thankfully, we were one of the lucky businesses that made it through. And we filmed May 1st. Our episode aired on November 2nd. So we had to wait six months before we could share the news with anybody. But we weren't guaranteed to air, so we didn't want to say anything too early. So it was probably the most memorable experience of my life.
00:23:33
Speaker
grown up watching the show, it's almost as old as me. So to be able to be featured on it was pretty surreal. And to get a monster deal, a million dollar deal with Arlene, who's the queen of CPG and brings a lot of experience and knowledge. It was just crazy how it all came together. And to experience that with my family and my mother is just something that I'll never forget. And again, being able to represent our culture and our local community.
00:24:02
Speaker
and our heritage just on a national scale just meant so much to us and and there's so many people who have helped us along the way and so many individuals and businesses and organizations who have helped us get to that point and seeing everyone else just be so invested in in it and feeling that they're part of it is just it's just so cool to experience you know with the community we ended up actually doing a watch party with you know we invited everyone who's helped us from getting you know all of our stores all of our suppliers all of our you know family and friends and
00:24:31
Speaker
and my teachers. And so we brought it full circle. We did a big watch party at my high school and it was just amazing. We had about 250 people there. And just to experience that again with the community and all those people who have helped us in the smallest way to the biggest way, it's just really good to just feel the community around it and just see the brand kind of flourish on a national level. So yeah, it was amazing.
00:24:52
Speaker
That's so awesome. And I think the way you lean into the community aspect of not only how you got started, but how you're building the business and the way your team is growing with new Canadians coming in and supporting and working in the plant. And I think there's a lot of upsides for a business like yours that is saying like being Canadian, working locally,
00:25:15
Speaker
keeping that close connection to the places that you work and the people that you work for. Because we all work for somebody, and in your case, it might be investors, but it's consumers, it's retailers, it's your staff, there's this ecosystem. And when it's so beautifully brought together like the way you guys are doing, I think you can be very proud of it. I brag about you all the time and I don't even work for you.
00:25:38
Speaker
but I think it's it's comes out of a place of a good heart and I've seen that in both you and your mom and And it's remarkable. So thanks for doing everything that you're doing.
Market Presence and Availability
00:25:49
Speaker
Thank you. Appreciate all the support and love Where do people find you where do people find your products? Where can they are you? Merchandised right next to the hummus or where in grocery stores do people track down Cedar Valley?
00:26:01
Speaker
Yes, we're in about 1,300 locations across Canada. We got Loblaws, Soviets, Whole Foods. Cost was coming up as well. So a lot of natural independent retailers also. And so you can find us in the Selfie Snacks section as well as the Deli section. So depending on your retailer, you can find us in either or or both. So either in the chip aisle or next to the hummus. And we're also available online at cedarvalleyselections.ca. And you can get us on Amazon too.
00:26:26
Speaker
Awesome. Good deal. I mean, thanks for doing this. Love the brand, love the team, love the story, love the dragons deal. All of these things are good things, but it's just remarkable to see it all come into... It's happening so fast. So fast. It just got going. Oh my gosh, it's happening quickly. So way to go. Nice work. Thank you, Corin. I really appreciate all the love and support. It means a lot.
00:26:52
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode. Please do yourself a favor. Grab a bag of Cedar Valley pita chips the next time you see them, or you're over at their website at cedarvallyselections.ca. The garlic herb flavor is my favorite. And that's a wrap. I'm Corbin Hebert from Ethical Food Group. I'll see you in the future.
00:27:24
Speaker
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