PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
Shah Trading vice-president of business development Sanjeev Shah poses in the Scarborough plant’s reception area alongside a selection of the company’s private-label products packaged in high-quality plastic bags supplied by its long-time packaging partner Tempo Plastics Limited.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
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Canadian dry foods distributor soldiers on in uncertain times with strong packaging competencies and relentless focus on line efficiencies and product quality By Andrew Snook
CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
he success story of Shah Trading Company is one built on humble beginnings. What started out as a small business operating out of the Shah family’s home in the mid-1970s has grown to become Canada’s largest ethnic food distributor of rice and grains, beans, peas and lentils, spices and herbs, nuts and dried fruits and other specialty Items. “The company was started in 1974 by my dad and his brothers,” says Sanjeev
Shah, vice-president of business development and second-generation family member of the Shah Trading Company. “It started off from the garage of our house, selling at the time to the small Indian community in Montreal. There was a growing population in Toronto, so we started catering to that market—importing some food items that were special to the Indian market. We were more of distributors at that point.” With time, the Shah family realized very quickly that they had the potential to grow beyond serving a single market. November 2021 · CANADIANPACKAGING
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