This Commerce Life

Kristyn Carriere went from running taste panels at Cadbury and formulating for Godiva to founding her own Canadian chocolate brand. This is what happens when a real food scientist decides to build a CPG company.

On this episode, Kristyn Carriere of Seven Summit Snacks joins Phil and Kenny to talk about turning deep R&D experience into a grab-and-go energy chocolate — and why a big-company background changes how you launch.

We get into the science of chocolate (conching, flavour optimization, why the same bar tastes different in five countries), the consumer-led product development that got the recipe right in three tries instead of hundreds, and the packaging and branding choices that help the bar stand out in two of the most saturated aisles in the store. Kristyn also shares the deeply personal story that gave the brand its name and brought her back home to Canada.

There's a real lesson in here for founders: making something in your kitchen is one thing — knowing the industry, the iterations, and the science behind market fit is what actually moves a brand forward.

Find Seven Summit Snacks at https://sevensummitssnacks.com/, on Amazon, and in retailers like Running Room, MEC, and Community Natural Foods.

In this episode:

From Disney on Ice to food science to global chocolate R&D

Inside Cadbury and Godiva: how big chocolate really formulates

The origin of Seven Summit Snacks and the story behind the name

Consumer-led development: nailing the recipe in three tries

Building for two customer types — online buyers vs. in-store shoppers

Winning the aisle with packaging, iconography, and clean ingredients

A big thank you to CHFA for sponsoring This Commerce Life. CHFA is the voice of Canada's natural health and organic products industry, and their trade shows are where the best emerging brands and buyers connect.

Heading to Toronto? Sign up for CHFA East and be part of it: https://www.chfanow.ca/toronto

🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. Learn more at https://sevensummitssnacks.com/

Katie Young moved to Whitehorse, Yukon in 2007 for the adventure — dog sledding, mountains, and a winter practicum — and ended up building one of the North's most beloved CPG brands. 

In this episode, she sits down with Phil Chang and Kenny Vannucci to tell the full story of Klondike Kettle Corn: from taking over a popcorn kettle at the local farmers market, to testing packaging at Christmas markets, to landing on shelves and now pushing for national distribution.

 

It's a candid, funny, and genuinely useful conversation about what it actually takes to scale a food brand from one of the hardest logistics environments in Canada — where you can't grow the corn, shipping air isn't cheap, and there's exactly one Save-On-Foods and one Superstore in town.

In this episode:

Growing a business and a family "up alongside each other" at the Whitehorse farmers market

Why the Yukon is both the challenge AND the secret advantage (single-store markets, fierce local pride, built-in test population)

The move from farmers market to retail: learning wholesale vs. retail pricing on the spot

The Venture Park Accelerator, the Sobeys Local conversation, and "get into my competitor first, then come back"

Landing TJX and going coast-to-coast fast — and why a Kamloops co-packer made it possible

Filming Dragon's Den, the hometown watch party, and the e-commerce boost that followed

The reality of the national grind: brokers, funding, and trusting-but-verifying your numbers

Whether you're a founder in a remote market, a CPG operator, or just love a great Canadian entrepreneur story, this one delivers.

Thank you to CHFA for sponsoring this episode. Make sure you're signed up for CHFA East! https://www.chfanow.ca/toronto

🎧 This Commerce Life — Canada's longest-running commerce podcast.

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When Shaw's Ice Cream announced it was closing its doors in 2001, three sisters — Christine, Kelly, and Kim — made a decision most people would call reckless: they dropped out of university and bought the shuttered 1950s manufacturing plant. Their logic? "We know retail. How hard can manufacturing be?"

Twenty-five years later, Shaw's is a Southwestern Ontario institution — and one of the best "green, naive, and figured-it-out" founder stories we've had on the show.

In this episode, Phil and Kenny sit down with the sisters behind Shaw's Ice Cream (based in Tillsonburg & St. Thomas, Ontario) to unpack how they rebuilt a brand from nothing, survived on a two-week crash course and a wrench, and grew into a three-part business spanning retail, wholesale, and co-pack/private-label manufacturing for other brands.

Whether you're a founder, a CPG operator, or just someone who loves a good Ontario road-trip-and-ice-cream day, this one's a treat. 🍦

check them out here:  https://www.shawsicecream.com/about-us/

Thank you to CHFA for sponsoring this episode. https://www.chfanow.ca/toronto

🎧 This Commerce Life — Canada's longest-running commerce podcast.

 

#ShawsIceCream #OntarioMade #CanadianCPG #IceCream #FoundersStory #FoodAndBeverage #ThisCommerceLife #Tillsonburg #FamilyBusiness #RetailPodcast

Phil Chang and Kenny Vannucci sit down with Sylvia Bennett, founder of SURCH Foods (that's S-U-R-C-H), a B2B search platform built to solve a problem the food industry has quietly lived with forever: there is no good way to find ingredients, packaging, co-manufacturers, or expertise. 

Sylvia spent her career in the industry — starting in a Sobeys bakery, then product development and private label at Sobeys and Walmart, then R&D at a cookie plant — and kept watching sourcing managers dig through old business cards because "I know a guy" was the only system available.

We flipped this episode on its head. Instead of starting with Sylvia's story, we start with the platform, walk through it live, and then back into why someone with her background decided to build it.

 

The honest takeaway: a search engine for food ingredients shouldn't be revolutionary in 2026. But it is — and it only works if the industry actually shows up and gets listed.

Find Sylvia at surchfoods.com or sylvia@surchfoods.com.

🎧 This Commerce Life is Canada's longest-running commerce podcast — 450+ episodes on food, beverage, and retail.

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#FoodIndustry #CPG #Sourcing #FoodManufacturing #SupplyChain #CanadianFood #FoodAndBeverage #Procurement #FoodStartup #ThisCommerceLife

Trish, founder of Kettle & Hive, joins This Commerce Life to share how a coworker's break-time basket of lemons, ginger, and honey sparked the idea for a fresh, spoonable lemon and honey tea — made with just two ingredients, no corn syrup, no thickeners, no shortcuts.

From her first job as a day baker at Tim Hortons to quitting her job after one exhausting-but-successful farmers market season, Trish walks us through the real journey of building a small-batch food business in BC: honing recipes 20 jars at a time, using baker's math to scale batches, moving from a home kitchen to shared commercial kitchens to her own facility with a 60-gallon steam kettle — and learning the hard way what it costs to sell out and cancel a Christmas market because production couldn't keep up.

Whether you're still selling at craft fairs or eyeing your first distributor conversation, this episode is a masterclass in growing a CPG food brand the right way — one honest customer conversation at a time.

Find Kettle & Hive:

🍋 Shop online: https://kettleandhive.com

📍 Available at independent grocers and health food stores across Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland — full store and market list on the website

Thank you to Maritime Good Food for sponsoring this podcast. https://maritimegoodfood.ca/