Charles Chang
President and founder, Sequel
Naturals Ltd. (DBA
Vega)
L
ike many startup stories before his,
Charles Chang's tale begins in a base-
ment with a shoestring budget of his
own savings and an idea that could
disrupt an industry. Chang launched
Sequel Naturals in 2001, first selling health
supplements, and then plant-based nutri-
tional shakes. The second—and business-
defining—chapter for his company came in
2003 after meeting vegan endurance athlete
Brendan Brazier, with whom he collaborated
to launch Brazier's formula for a whole-
food nutritional shake, which became the
foundation of the Vega brand. "If you think
about what Vega stands for today—being
plant-based, gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-
free—12 years ago, no one even talked about
those things," says Chang. "It's actually quite
visionary."
Over the course of 13 years, drawing on
the skills he developed in his previous role
as vice-president of sales and marketing for
Great Little Box Company, Chang has grown
his company from a single-product distribu-
tor to a formulator and marketer of health
and sport performance products sold in
more than 5,000 retail locations throughout
North America. In 2013, Vega saw annual rev-
enues of $33 million in the U.S. and $39.2 mil-
lion in Canada, and international expansion
plans mean the bottom line is only poised to
grow. "We want Vega to be an iconic brand,"
says Chang.
Impressive sales numbers and growth
opportunities aside, Chang says he measures
Vega's success based on a triple bottom line:
people, performance and planet. Having
expanded Vega's distribution to include
mainstream mass retailers such as London
Drugs, Loblaws and Overwaitea, Chang has
now shifted his focus to building a team that
can run the company without him. "I went
from always wanting to be the best at every-
thing to wanting to make sure that I had the
best people for everything," he says. —K.H.
OctOber 2014 BCBusiness 63 PAUL JOSePH
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