Customer Spotlight: Grandpa J's Seasoning

Our next customer spotlight is on Grandpa J’s Seasoning, a local manufacturer specializing in seasoning blends. We’ve been working with Grandpa J’s for over twenty years now since founder Jim Voulides reached out to us for labels for his incredible original seasoning blend in 1998. They currently sell 40 tons of this seasoning annually across Canada!

1) Tell me a little about Grandpa J's Seasoning and what you can stand for.

When you hear Grandpa J's, you don't expect to see two women! 

Grandpa J's was started in 1995 by our great-uncle Jim Voulides, who worked for Hy’s Steakhouse as an Executive Chef. When he retired, he decided to create his own wholesale seasoning without MSG and named it Grandpa J’s Seasoning, selling wholesale to restaurants and suppliers through his contacts in the restaurant industry.

After our great-uncle passed away, we were approached to buy the company, and we did so in 2004. We wanted to continue his legacy and keep growing.

2) What are you most proud of as a company?

The fact that food industry veterans, chefs, and food bloggers have all consistently said the same thing: that we absolutely nailed the flavour profile of the Greko Lemon seasoning. That says it all because it’s very hard to do, and to know that we nailed it almost on the first run and got the ratio straight away is a huge boost!

We're also equally proud of the Vancity Grind seasoning – we created our version of a Montreal-style steak rub. The name came up immediately, and it stuck - it was like boom, that’s its name. It’s a great one to even use as a rim on Caesar!

3) How did Grandpa J's Seasoning manage through the pandemic?

With restaurants across Canada closing, we took a hit on the wholesale side of the business, which made us decide to up our retail game. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were in about 8-10 local shops. We pushed through and did the work and got to about 27 stores.

One day, during the pandemic, we decided to make our Greek lemon roast potato seasoning. We grew up in a Greek restaurant, and we’ve always been in the food industry. People would always wonder how we made this or that, and especially ask about our Greek potatoes. So, we went to work to find a way to make it work, and we almost nailed it on the first try! We managed to create something that dissolves in water and olive oil and creates this marinade – no one else has done that. So, for us to master that, it was meant to be. We just launched it in July, and because of this Greko Lemon seasoning, our Vancity Grind, and our original, we’re now in 48 stores. Plus, we just got into Fresh Street Market, which we’re really excited about!

4) How would you describe your relationship with ALP?

We've known Tosh since we bought the company - he was dealing with Jim before us - and he’s always been super helpful. We love that whenever we have an issue with the labels or getting the labels on the products, the team always jumps in to help.

Our labels make us stand out on the shelf. We have these gorgeous matte and metallic labels that just blow our competition away. We work with a very talented graphic designer, Cathy Smith, who coordinates with ALP on our behalf as well.

Over the years, we've changed our designs numerous times, we’ve tried to rebrand and do all sorts of changes. We tried to add our own little personality to these labels, like my (Nora) 12-year-old daughter just helped design our Vancity Grind labels with the Vancouver skyline. We want to add our family flair where we can as that’s who we are: we’re very family-oriented. Everyone’s getting involved. We even took our kids to deliver our products to Whistler this weekend to the Fresh Street location there.

We also just trademarked our products. We never had to have a trademark as we were always sold wholesale, but now that we’re retail, we needed to make sure that we had that trademark behind Grandpa J’s. We’re so excited that our labels finally reflect that. The first time ever that we have a “TM” behind our name, and you guys did that for us!

We just printed a big batch of labels, and we already know what we want to print on the next ones! We also want to add that we’re women-owned and plant-based somewhere on the labels because these little things are important to share. These labels are what is selling us on the shelf and telling our brand story.

5) What are you currently working on, and what are you excited about in the next few years?

Right now, we're focusing our social media on driving customers to stores. Every day we produce reels for each one of our customers, almost like a mini commercial for them! We’re trying to make these funny and impressionable videos that can make an impact. We’re also working on our LinkedIn page, Pinterest account, Twitter, and everything we can do to expand our online brand presence. We’re very active on TikTok and Instagram. We want to get our social media into the thousands (followers) just by being consistent, and once people try our products, we know that will happen.

We had a goal to have Canada-wide sales by Thanksgiving, and we accomplished that with a distributor taking us in Toronto! We’re working on increasing the wholesale side of things again with restaurants and caterers reopening since the pandemic. With retail, we want to keep growing across Canada and potentially the US and get more franchises trusting us. We just started working with a third party who will now be selling our product on Amazon in the US, which is very exciting!

Another goal is to grow our team! It’s just us two and the manufacturers right now, so a lot is going on between running our social media, getting our products into stores, coordinating all of the manufacturing logistics, and so much more!

Last but definitely not least, we’re going to launch three more flavours in the next year, which means more labels – yay! We want to keep producing the high-quality products that we’re already known for.

6) Anything else you want to add?

We just want to remind people that even businesses have to support local businesses and grow together. That’s where the sweetness comes from; to see the person supporting you or whoever you’re buying from is growing. If it’s not a win-win, it’s a win-lose.

Photography by Kiri Marr Photography