Features Food & Drink

So what came first, the beer or the can? The beer, of course, but without the can it’s not going far, kegs of any size being unwieldly in the grocery store. And as far as bottles go, customers and shippers prefer cans, because chilled aluminum keeps the suds cold and they’re easier to transport. But […]

This just might be the story about the little engine that could. Almost literally. For just a decade ago, Zoey Shamai was moving one case of empty bottles at a time by bicycle, between a Toronto warehouse and her very congested apartment kitchen, where she was brewing her own take of a unique organic health […]

Reputations spread fast in the food service industry. Dealers who provide the means to keep kitchens humming had better be dependable and versatile. One size can’t fit all when it comes to commercial kitchen equipment, layout and design, and custom fabrication. Drew O’Quinn, the personable 38-year-old vice president of Thompson & Little Inc., a third-generation […]

Companion animal may be the preferred term to pet nowadays. Especially by millennials, who make up a most valuable demographic for those in the business of providing the essentials for keeping domesticated critters happy and healthy. Satisfy this very discerning crowd and a company may prosper. As is Manchester Pet Supplies, a Canadian distributor primarily […]

A changing culture has largely rendered archaic that old jingle of yesteryear, “Hey, Culligan Man!” giving way to something less gender-defined. But the good-natured fellow who’s owner and boss of, at last count, 37 of the water-treatment products company’s franchises, may still hear the original line from folks of sufficient longevity, and he’s more than […]

As general counsel for the North American operations of the global confectionery heavyweight Ferrero, Beth M. Kotran has literally achieved—well almost—what she had so aspired to after leaving private practice in 2002. “I was focused on one piece of a bigger pie,” she tells Vanguard from her office in Parsippany, New Jersey. “I wanted to […]

Ten years ago, well into her tenure as chief legal counsel for Heineken USA, Julie Kinch helped launch a company-wide women’s leadership forum. What began with six people in a Chicago conference room has, in the decade since, grown to include more than 120 members from throughout Heineken’s ranks—male and female, millennials and boomers, executives […]

Like many young lawyers in firms, Ron Palmese was mindful of his professional growth being limited by having to concentrate on a specific area of practice and thus not being exposed to the big picture for a client. Much as he enjoyed transactional law, Palmese didn’t feel satisfied enough with his level of involvement in […]

The human diet ain’t what it used to be. With all the hype around non-processed, gluten-free, low-carb, vegan and lactose-free foods, a time-traveler would likely be befuddled by today’s menus and food packages. But that doesn’t seem to faze Mark Battistoni, the vice president of sales and marketing for Sahlen Packing Company, as he sits […]

What a difference just a few years makes, muses Brian Saulnier, president of a southwest Nova Scotia operation that, not too long ago,  was thriving in its support of the province’s then-booming mink farms. For as recently as 2014, those pelts comprised one of Nova Scotia’s top agricultural exports, a $140 million industry, with China, […]