Top 10 finalist of Product of the Year, held October 3rd, 2022 at the Dirty Apron in Vancouver. The competition was a morning of great energy, good food and fantastic people.
Dear Members of the BC Food & Beverage Association,
I’m privileged to address you as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the BC Food & Beverage Association.
Two years ago, I was elected as President of this organization, and it has been an honour to serve you all since then.
I am grateful for your trust and confidence in me, and I am proud of the work we’ve accomplished together.
As we reflect on the past two years, it is clear that the industry has faced a series of almost unimaginable challenges. We’ve navigated a global pandemic, supply chain disruptions, extreme weather events, a challenging labor market, and the effects of inflation and increased interest rates. Despite these obstacles, the BC Food & Beverage Association has worked tirelessly to support its members and help them overcome these challenges, and I am highly optimistic about the future of our industry in BC, because I believe that we have the right leadership, expertise, and vision to continue moving forward.
As a Board, we have also undergone significant changes over the past two years. We have a new 3-Year Strategic Plan, with ambitious objectives and requisite performance indicators to ensure that we remain
on track to achieve those objectives. We have also re-organized ourselves to ensure that all of our directors are engaged and providing their valuable input and expertise for the benefit of the Association. Additionally, we have strengthened our nominations process to ensure that we have a strong pool of talent around the table to support the Association now and into the future. Finally, we have taken important steps to become a more inclusive organization by taking training on recognizing and preventing unconscious bias and micro-aggressions.
I am excited about the path we are on, and I am confident that we will continue to bring our vision to life for our members and our consumers. I want to thank our CEO, James Donaldson, and the Board of Directors for their leadership, energy, and dedication to this organization. I am inspired by the team we have on the Board, and I believe that we have the talent, expertise, and passion to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.
Thank you for your continued support of the BC Food & Beverage Association. Together, we can achieve great things.
Sincerely,
Steve MacIntyre Chairperson of the Board of Directors, BC Food & Beverage Association
BC Food & Beverage is a not-for-profit industry association representing food and beverage manufacturers in British Columbia, whose membership represents approximately $7 billion in industry revenues. We lead, inspire and support, and we never stop moving forward.
To ensure a thriving, world class food & beverage manufacturing industry for British Columbia.
To be a catalyst of success for our members and the food & beverage industry in British Columbia.
James Donaldson CEO
Sumner McCulley Events & Program Specialist
Alisa Hutton COO
Fernanda Rodrigues Project Coordinator
Kelly Gaull Brand Manager
Christina Choy Community Manager
Tyler Hosie, Justos & Marilyn Cordoba, Panela Lemon; winner of the People Choice Award.
Jade Herrmann | CEO & Founder of Yoggu!
“BCFB has expanded my community in this industry- regardless of where you are in your journey, there are great resources and opportunities available through BCFB.”
It’s all about our members!
Welcome to our inaugural Community Report. The BCFB team decided to create this annual update to provide better visibility and engagement with our membership. We always want to feel connected to our members, and more importantly have our members feel connected to BCFB and the larger industry community, not to mention having better visibility to what we’ve been up to!
2022 was noteworthy in large part due to the shroud of uncertainty that we’d all been dealing with lifted. The year started with fears of Omicron, which prompted us to move our long-anticipated foodpro from January to June, but by spring things started to return to normal. Oh, and if you missed it, foodpro22 was AMAZING – so much energy after a 3 year hiatus!
When I take the opportunity to reflect on the previous year, I’m always inspired by how much our small but dedicated team is able to accomplish; how many members we connect with, and the impact we make. As I always like to say, we take pride in ‘punching above our weight class’. I’m happy to share some examples of what we accomplished last year with you!
Now I mentioned foodpro22 already, but it felt so great to see everyone in our first live event since September 2019. We had a sell-out of 400+ people attend and take in our new format, with a number of inspiring speakers sharing their stories with the audience, headlined by Arlene Dickinson.
Last year also saw the return of the BCFB Awards Night. After holding the event virtually the past 2 years, we were excited to bring it back to an in person live event, and since we’re gluttons for punishment changed the format of the Night as well, having more networking and community building time vs. a sit down dinner. So many great winners once again, and we love to hear their stories.
Did you know that BCFB put on over 40 online and in-person events in 2022 in which nearly 1,800 members participated? We also responded to over 3,500 requests from members for assistance on a wide variety of important issues. We also had over 1,500 hours of visits and meetings with our members.
Standing by our commitment to be the Voice of the Food & Beverage industry in BC, we also invested over 500 hours on government relations and advocacy work, addressing key issues like inflation, labour, supply chain issues, inflation, the regulatory environment, and the Retail Code of Conduct.
We also took on several important projects to find industry solutions for Supply Chain, Co-packing capacity building, and worked with Associations across the country to develop a connective online community called MiXR.
So, a busy busy year, and something great to build on in 2023.
We’re so proud to do what we do every day in support our members, whether they’re just starting out in Farmers Markets or exporting to dozens of countries. On behalf of the BCFB team I want to thank you for your support, and we hope you enjoy our first Community Report – we promise to keep punching out of our weight class!
James Donaldson CEO, BC Food & Beverage
Aaron Chin | CEO Organika
“BCFB does a great job ensuring all food and beverage businesses are heard and have a united voice at all levels. They have been an incredible resource for our growing company.”
520+ Hours of government relations and advocacy. Addressing key issues like inflation, labour, supply chain issues, and the Retail Code of Conduct.
3560
The number of people we helped through direct inquiries & referrals, which is a ton of impressive questions, emails, and phone calls, when we say we are like google for food & beverage we are not kidding!
85 New company members. That is a cool seven new companies a month!
1550+ Hours of visits and meeting with members. Working to grow the industry!
400 attendees joined in celebrating the leaders, rising stars, and innovative products and companies that make up the BC Food & Beverage industry at the BCFB Awards, November 3, 2022. The event introduced a re-imagined awards evening with new award categories, a shorter ceremony to allow more time for networking, and a unique cocktail reception featuring food and beverage products from BC.
1460 impressions* 780 reads*
The 2023 issue of Cultivate Magazine was published November 2022. The digital version had 653 impressions and 552 reads in November and December 2022 alone. The printed version was distributed to all members.
*all time statistics for the 2023 issue of Cultivate Magazine published in 2022
12 Led twelve innovative industry collaborations.
50 Created more than 50 new partnerships that directly support the BC Food & Beverage industry.
4 Four projects to find industry solutions for Supply Chain and Co-Packing Capacity Building. Collaborated nationally to develop a connective online community called MiXR.
18 Published 18 articles and one referral guide.
The newly launched, Foodpro22, Thrive Conference hosted 400+ attendees on June 9th 2022 at the Parq Hotel in Vancouver. The conference is a mix of Tedx Style talks with a Food & Beverage twist. The attendees took part in a day of meaningful connection, inspirational speakers and an afternoon cocktail reception.
1794 attendees
Along with online events, BCFB successfully launched new formats for their three signature events; Product of the Year, Foodpro and the BCFB Awards.
400 BCFB Awards Attendees
400+ Foodpro22 attendees
42 Online and in person event hosted
38 Total supporting sponsors. Thank you to our sponsors we couldn’t do it without you!
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” - Helen Keller
“As an associate member of BCFB, Laporte was welcomed with open arms by the association and the BC food community from the moment we joined. We have been inspired by its extremely talented and creative members, and are forever grateful for the business opportunities and friendships that we have been developing thanks to our participation.”
David Cyr | Partner, Laporte Engineering
When BCFB was founded in 2004, it was with a vision to become the leader and the voice of a thriving BC food processing industry. To fulfill that vision we need to grow, adapt, and change as the needs and challenges of our diverse membership evolve.
Over the past year, BCFB’s Board of Directors and staff embarked on a process to re-imagine our organization to support our members in meaningful ways and to optimize value to our members.
Through this process, we conducted an in-depth study that gathered feedback from a wide range of members to identify in what ways they leverage their membership, and to better understand the challenges and opportunities our members are facing where BCFB can support.
To measure our performance, BCFB has developed a score card to track and report on our progress and metrics to further inform our members in a yearly community report, creating further insights and visibility.
BCFB identified 4 Strategic Pillars to guide our efforts over the next 3 years
1. Build a stronger industry community
2. Facilitating growth for our members and the industry
3. Be the recognized voice of the food & beverage industry in BC
4. Be the source of industry knowledge development for our members
CORE foundational platform
To evolve the BCFB Business model to fuel stronger support for members
Ally Bharmal, FASKEN
Jeff Novinger, Pita Bread Factory
Kae Woodland, Lifestyle for Life
Colin Henry, Consulting
Jill van Gyn, Founder Fatso
Steve MacIntyre, Fine Choice Foods
Leo Wilson, KPMG
Len Spencer, Direct Plus Food Group
Pamela Ambriz, Vitalus Nutrition
Jasmine Byrne, Big Mountain Foods
Azeem Ahamed, Elias Honey
Stephanie Sang, Granted Consulting
Sherrin Western, Shervin Communications Inc.
New directors will be announced at June 28th Annual General Meeting
Krista Francoeur, Wild Remedies.
