R U N N E R † U P
f r a n k d e n n i s
[ P R E S I D E N T A N D C E O , T E N P E A K S C O F F E E C O M PA N Y I N C . ]
OCTOBER 2015 BCBusiness 39
T
ony Singh didn't plan
to start a grocery
empire when he and
his new bride, Navkiran,
came to Vancouver as
tourists in 1993. He had
his pilot's licence and
thought he'd return home to
Montreal, but he quickly saw
opportunity within Surrey's
Indo-Canadian community.
Home cooking is central to
Indian families, but there was
nowhere to buy the guava,
mangoes, sugarcane and
other South Asian favourites
they had grown up with.
Singh sank everything
the couple had into the first
location of his Fruiticana
grocery store in Newton in
1994. A weekend gig stock-
ing shelves as a student was
his only prior exposure to the
industry. After six months,
he opened a second store,
and by 1997, he had six
across the Lower Mainland.
Today, Fruiticana Produce
Ltd. employs 500 people in
18 stores across B.C. and
Alberta, with annual sales
that exceed $100 million.
"Whatever I do, I want
to take it to the highest
level I can." –D.H.
R U N N E R † U P
T o n y S i n g h
[ P R E S I D E N T, F R U I T I C A N A P R O D U C E LT D . ]
OCTOBER 2015 BCBusiness 39
E O Y
F o o d + B e v e r a g e D i s t r i b u t i o n
T
he break room at
Ten Peaks Coee
Company Inc.'s
Burnaby headquar-
ters would set the snobbiest
coee geeks' hearts a"utter.
Equipped with a two-group-
head espresso machine,
Hario pour-over cones and
an Aeropress, the only thing
missing is a tattooed barista.
The company's main prod-
uct, however, won't quicken
anybody's pulse—it's decaf.
Ten Peaks (which also
runs a coee handling and
storage operation) owns
Swiss Water Decaeinated
Coee Company Inc., which
the company's president and
CEO Frank Dennis spun out
from Kraft Foods in 2000.
Dennis had worked for
Kraft for 10 years, running
its coee division for about
half that time. Swiss Water's
chemical-free method
removes caeine from
unroasted beans. Originally,
the company aimed to pro-
cess beans for high-volume
producers like McDonald's
Corporation, but "the big
players just didn't pick
up the phone." So around
2006, Dennis and his team
decided to focus instead on
upping quality and target-
ing specialty coee roasters
to capture the exploding
ultra-specialty niche. Small
roasters loved the results,
and eventually larger com-
panies such as Tim Hortons
Inc. followed suit. Ten Peaks'
net income soared from
$800,000 in 2011 to $3
million in 2014. —D.H.
Corporation, but "the big
up the phone." So around
2006, Dennis and his team
decided to focus instead on
upping quality and target- upping quality and target- upping quality and target
ing specialty coee roasters
ultra-specialty niche. Small
roasters loved the results,
and eventually larger com-
panies such as Tim Hortons
Inc. followed suit. Ten Peaks'
