With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/325830
bcbusiness.ca July 2014 BCBusiness 53 per cent ("150 per cent," says Day) of his time. Devante is a boutique investment bank based in Vancouver that helps companies secure funding and manage transactions in addition to providing general fi nancial guidance. As invest- ment bankers go, Sidwell is very much your hands-on variation. When Yves Veggie Cuisine undertook its success- ful expansion into the U.S. under the brand name Gardein, he was involved on numerous levels. "My role was as managing director," Sidwell says. "I helped Yves raise the capital, recruit the management team and expand dis- tribution in the U.S." Luvo began to take shape in 2011, but there would have to be darkness before there could be light. Sidwell today looks svelte and healthy, but fl ashback a year or two earlier and the investment banker was f lying too much, exercis- ing too little and eating too poorly. He'd put on some pounds, about 45 of them, and that was aff ecting his health and well-being. Concerned, he enlisted his wife to cook an enhanced diet, but that exercise proved to be an immense amount of work that satisfi ed neither of them. Finally he decided to engage a private chef, and put an ad on Craigslist looking for an appropriate candidate. The annals of Craigslist hookups are extensive, but there have been few more portentous than the one that transpired between Sidwell and Stephen Ford. Ford was a recent UBC graduate in nutritional sciences then working with Langley-based HLS Foods, where he was helping to develop cured salmon vari- ations. He was as interested in food sustainability as he was in cooking delicious, nutri- tious meals. Sidwell hired Ford to cook three meals and three snacks every day for three months. He requested 1,600 to 1,800 calories a day and a full nutri- tional complement. On the other hand, he was willing to suff er a little if the food didn't completely measure up in the taste department, as he expected would be the case. But in fact, the food proved to be delicious, and a happier and much more svelte Sidwell found himself wondering why everyone couldn't eat that well, including people without a personal chef. "I don't know very much about food," he says today about his thought process back then. "But I know how to start a company, I have some capital, I know how to raise capital—I'm going to do this." The light bulb had been switched on, and it wasn't about to go off. So Sidwell went ahead and launched his new food company—only in 2011, the company wasn't called Luvo. Instead, he got to work starting a restaurant chain intended to deliver on Ford's promise of nutrition combined with fl avour, call- ing it Lyfe Kitchen. He quickly enlisted a couple of former McDonald's execu- tives: Mike Roberts, who'd been global president and COO, and Mike Donahue, McDonald's U.S.A.'s chief of corporate communications. Then came Art Smith, Oprah's former chef, and Tal Ronnen, a talented vegan chef. Ford too joined the team. The fi rst Lyfe Kitchen opened in 2011 in Palo Alto, California, since followed by seven more in Colorado, Texas and D elicious, nutritious dishes that anyone can heat and serve, conceived in the French tradition by celebrity chefs and endorsed by the stars—is Luvo the Lululemon of the food world, a B.C.-bred and -based monster hit in the making? To nd out, we quizzed Darren Tristano, an executive vice-president at Chicago-based Technomic, a leading food- industry consulting rm. HOW BiG is THe MARKeT FOR THis TYPe OF PRODuCT? The health and wellness market remains a bit of a niche, but there is de nitely a critical need and an opportunity. Right now there are two main targets: the af uent consumer who can afford the higher prices, and those that actually need something like this due to dietary restrictions. WHO ARe THe MAin COMPeTiTORs? There are some smaller brands, but the big companies are way behind. Most frozen food is very unhealthy, and most of the com- petition is not direct. For example, a product like Lean Cuisine com- petes on nutrition but not on taste. WHAT ABOuT CHRisTine DAY As THe neW CeO? Great hire. Lululemon and Starbucks have the same demographic as Luvo, based on lifestyle and af uence. Gener- ally, retailers don't understand food service and vice-versa. Combining the two should be a real advantage. YOuR suMMATiOn? They've done a really nice job. But as the company becomes more and more successful, competitors will come into this space. rating Luvo's Potential Sidwell today looks svelte and healthy, but a year or two earlier the investment banker was fl y- ing too much, exercising too little and eating too poorly. He'd put on some pounds, about 45 of them, and that was aff ecting his health p048-055-Luvo_july.indd 53 2014-05-29 3:58 PM