City soup company dips spoon into U.S. market
Canyon Creek testing Pho Bo Vien kit in ethnically diverse Los Angeles
When the Canyon Creek Food Co. enters the American market for the first time in January, the soup maker could be better known in Los Angeles than in Edmonton where its products are made.
The food processor produces refrigerated soups and side dishes for grocery retailers under their own store brands and supplies commercial and institutional customers such as restaurant chains and health-care facilities.
“There’s a variety of customers that we work with that we do private label, so they don’t want it disclosed that we’re actually making it for them and they put their own label on it,” said Terry Alty, president and CEO of Canyon Creek Food.
But Canyon Creek also makes and markets products using its own name, including its new Pho Bo Vien kit, a refrigerated soup kit that includes broth, Vietnamese meatballs, fresh noodles, sriracha sauce and hoisin sauce that will be launched next month in the U.S. after two years of research and development.
“I believe it’s probably the first fresh pho kit in North America,” Alty said.
The company has signed a letter of commitment from a large U.S. retailer to launch the kit in an initial 16 stores in Los Angeles. Canyon Creek’s first foray south of the border will be an opportunity to test the product in a large, ethnically diverse market before marketing it elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada, Alty said. The retailer doesn’t want to be named, he said, for competitive reasons.
Publicly held Canyon Creek, which started in 1996, had sales last year of about $2.25 million, according to Alty.
Sales this year look to be up significantly due to stronger relationships with retailers and expanding its institutional business by providing mashed potatoes and sweet potato mash to patientcare facilities across Alberta, he said.
The company is also partnering with Canadian celebrity chef Lynn Crawford to develop other food products, Alty said.
Although Canyon Creek makes its food in a south Edmonton facility with a staff of about 25, it doesn’t
I believe it’s probably the first fresh pho kit in North America.
TERRY ALTY, CEO, Canyon Creek Food
currently sell any items under its own brand in western Canadian retailers.
But products are coming to shelves in Edmonton soon, Alty said.
“We’re going to introduce some products to the marketplace very shortly in the next month,” the CEO said.