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This Commerce Life

This Commerce Life

Hosted by Phil Chang / Kenny Vannucci

BusinessEntrepreneurshipEducationExplicit
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Episodes

480

Latest episode

Jun 2026

Language

EN-CA

About the show

A Canadian Podcast, focused on Canadian brands, determined to talk about Canadian success stories. We are retail educators and experts, teaching Canadian businesses how to build, grow, and scale in retail. As industry connectors, Kenny & Phil bring decades of experience as buyers, sales strategists, and marketers into delivering practical, actionable education grounded in real-world application.

Listen to episodes

60 recent
June 16, 202658 min

From Health Food to National Grocers: How Canadian Brands Should Think About Distribution | Matthew James

If your brand is trying to scale across Canada, this episode is essential listening. Phil and Kenny sit down with Matthew James, President & CEO of Purity Life Health Products — Canada's largest and only full-service wellness distributor covering dry, frozen, and refrigerated products across all channels, coast to coast. Matthew shares his 33-year journey in the Canadian natural health industry — from sales rep at Quest Vitamins in 1993 to leading a management buyout of Purity Life in 2012, and now completing the landmark acquisition of Horizon Limited in 2025 that added three new warehouses and unlocked national cold chain distribution.   Check out Purity Life here: https://puritylife.com/ Find Matthew James here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-james-67803421/

June 9, 20261 hr 2 min

He Closed Toronto's Most Iconic Deli and Moved to Tofino. Here's What Happened Next. | Zane Caplansky

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.

June 2, 20261 hr 4 min

Epicure's Comeback: From $100M MLM Brand to Omnichannel Relaunch | Amelia Warren & Kyle Vucko

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

May 26, 202653 min

Brand Photography, Wix vs WordPress, and Why AI Can't Replace This | ft. Bonnie Joyce

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

May 12, 20261 hr 3 min

Vancouver Chef Robert Belcham on Restaurant Survival, Pricing Truth & Why Cheap Food Costs Someone Dearly

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/

May 5, 202654 min

The Queen of Cookies on 28 Years at Leclerc, Breaking Into Mexico & Why Independents Still Matter

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.

April 28, 20261 hr 0 min

Why Retailers Want a Distributor (Not You) — Inside UNFI Canada with President Stacey Kravitz

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 services If you're looking for online retail classes, we're building our first class already! contact us at podcast@thiscommercelife.com

April 21, 20261 hr 0 min

Why Your Brand Looks Like Frankenstein (And How to Fix It) ft. Kevin Sotto

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.

April 14, 20261 hr 2 min

The Real Cost of Getting Into Stores — Umami Crave the Fifth's Retail Journey

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 podcast@thiscommercelife.com

April 7, 202658 min

From Deloitte Partner to Canada's Only Horseradish Producer | Marc Whitmore

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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