Al’s next stop in season 4 of the podcast is Rigaud, Quebec to visit Greg and Tina Brooks from Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc. Pepperfire Foods are more than just hot sauces. They specialize in co-packing and private-labelling fresh food products for many specialty food companies. But BOY are their hot sauces HOT! How did they survive the pandemic? More importantly, did Al survive his visit? Listen to find out.
Yes, Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc. Is Open
Al’s next stop in season 4 of the podcast is Rigaud, Quebec to visit Greg and Tina Brooks from Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc.
Pepperfire Foods are more than just hot sauces. They specialize in co-packing and private-labelling fresh food products for many specialty food companies.
But BOY are their hot sauces HOT!
How did they survive the pandemic? More importantly, did Al survive his visit?
Listen to find out.
You can learn more about Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc. at pepperfire.ca.
Al Grego:
Hello everyone. I'm Al Grego and this is the Yes, We Are Open podcast.
Simon Lapointe:
Have a seat.
Al Grego:
Thanks for talking.
Simon Lapointe:
Yeah, no problem. Thanks for coming out.
Al Grego:
No problem.
Today, I'm in Rigaud, Quebec, about 70 kilometers west of Montreal, right on the Quebec-Ontario border. I've just had lunch with my colleague Simon, who lives here. Simon is telling me a little bit about his chosen hometown.
What's that building?
Simon Lapointe:
It's city hall.
Al Grego:
Oh, okay.
He moved here 10 years ago from Vaudreuil, just outside of Montreal, looking for a quiet place where he could afford to buy a house and settle down. He found that in Rigaud.
Simon Lapointe:
It's just, we like the place. In the fall, it's full of trees and it's a really cool place.
Al Grego:
Rigaud is located on the traditional territory of the Algonquins at the junction of the Ottawa River and the Rigaud River.
Simon Lapointe:
Right.
Al Grego:
The city saw its first settlers in 1783. It quickly became an accommodation relay for loggers and a loading point for timber and cereals.
Today, Rigaud is a village with a population of just under 8,000. Its main attraction is Mont Rigaud, a ski hill; Collège Bourget, a private school; a monastery; and Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Another notable institution in Rigaud is the Canadian Border Services Agency College, one of eight campuses across the country. Rigaud's is a state-of-the-art training facility that can house 285 students, between 20 classrooms, a firing range, and a Canine Centre of Expertise.
Right now, Simon and I are walking east along Rue Saint-Jean-Baptiste in downtown Rigaud, to visit one of his favorite local businesses, and this week's subject, Brooks Pepperfire Foods Incorporated.
Tina Brooks:
Maybe it is. Definitely it is.
Al Grego:
Hello.
Tina Brooks:
Hello, hello.
Greg Brooks:
Hey, Simon.
Simon Lapointe:
How's it going?
Tina Brooks:
Pretty good.
Greg Brooks:
Very good. I'm Greg.
Al Grego:
Nice to meet you. I'm Al. Yeah.
Tina Brooks:
Hey, how you doing? Hey!
Simon Lapointe:
Just a random customer.
Greg Brooks:
I think you know-
Tina Brooks:
Just a random customer.
Greg Brooks:
I think you know Simon.
Tina Brooks:
Yeah.
Al Grego:
Simon and I are greeted warmly at the door by the owners, Tina and Greg. To the right is an office. To the left is a showroom displaying all of the different products for sale from the different brands that are made and bottled at their facility, from salsas to barbecue sauces, tomato sauces to curries, to something called Molten Chocolates.
Greg Brooks:
These are single-sourced dark chocolate, coating a scorpion pepper jelly.
Al Grego:
Okay, that sounds painful.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah, it is painful. You have to be prepared for it.
So, because it's painful-
Tina Brooks:
We'll have to order them.
Simon Lapointe:
Was that-
Tina Brooks:
I think I'll go on a fast.
Simon Lapointe:
... on every bottle?
Greg Brooks:
We have a heat scale.
Al Grego:
Okay. Yeah.
Greg Brooks:
So this helps give people some security in what they're tasting.
Al Grego:
So what's the lowest and what's the highest on your scale?
Greg Brooks:
Zero.
Al Grego:
Zero?
Greg Brooks:
No, actually-
Tina Brooks:
Negative four.
Greg Brooks:
... negative four.
Tina Brooks:
Negative four.
Greg Brooks:
Negative four is the lowest.
Al Grego:
What good is that?
Tina Brooks:
(Singing).
Greg Brooks:
It actually is called The Antidote.
Al Grego:
Oh, okay.
Greg Brooks:
And it takes pepper off your tongue.
Al Grego:
Oh! Oh, I see.
Greg Brooks:
Right? I mean, we're great at putting pepper on your tongue.
Al Grego:
Right. Yeah, yeah.
Greg Brooks:
But it takes a true Peppermaster to take the pepper off your tongue.
Al Grego:
Where do you come up with these ideas? People just ask you to make something and you-
Greg Brooks:
No. Well, the bulk of them, yes, that does happen.
They say, "Here, this is what I want to make. My grandmother used to make it. She uses this and that," and I'll come up with a recipe and I'll fine tune it to their palate. But most of the stuff, which is mine, comes from the depths of my soul somewhere.
Al Grego:
Their flagship brand is Peppermaster. It's the one that features Greg's face on the label.
Greg Brooks:
Oh, this one I started making when I was eight years old in the Bahamas where my family had moved from Montreal, and it's still one of my favorite. It's just peppers crushed in lime juice.
Al Grego:
And are you the handsome man on the label?
Greg Brooks:
How could you tell?
Al Grego:
Peppermaster alone has all sorts of varieties and flavors from Raspberry Fire to Cajun Morel to Peachy Keen BBQ. The flavors seem endless.
Greg Brooks:
And the hottest is the Carolina Reaper, which is the current Guinness World Record holder for the world's hottest pepper.
Al Grego:
Yikes.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah.
Al Grego:
Can you eat that?
Greg Brooks:
I can...
Al Grego:
But you-
Greg Brooks:
Do I prefer to? No.
Al Grego:
Okay.
Greg Brooks:
Right. I would rather eat 10 times as much of a much milder pepper. Get more flavor, right?
Al Grego:
Do you make these on-premises?
Greg Brooks:
Yeah.
Al Grego:
Where? Do you have a kitchen-
Greg Brooks:
Right behind you.
Al Grego:
You have a kitchen or something?
Pepperfire employee 1:
Yeah, we do have a kitchen.
Greg Brooks:
Come on, I'll show you.
Al Grego:
Yeah.
Greg takes me on a tour of their kitchen and bottling facility in the back.
Simon Lapointe:
It's like a lab back here.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah, this is-
Simon Lapointe:
Something out of Breaking Bad.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah. No video.
Pepperfire employee 2:
You're the third person I tell in two days that I don't cook meth.
Al Grego:
There're about five people busy at work, bottling Greek dressing for a new client of theirs.
Greg Brooks:
It's authentic Greek dressing.
Al Grego:
I can smell the garlic from here. Yeah.
Pepperfire employee 2:
Oh, dude. The garlic, the oregano, the dill.
Simon Lapointe:
When you guys go home after work, do you have to have a long hot shower to get all the garlic out?
Pepperfire employee 2:
Yeah, you got to keep your car clean, too.
Simon Lapointe:
Oh, man.
Pepperfire employee 1:
Yeah.
Al Grego:
It's an assault on all the senses, and a pretty impressive operation.
Simon Lapointe:
Look at that thing. That's a serious machine there.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah, that actually keeps the product at a specific temperature while we fill it into the bottles, in order to ensure that it's still pasteurized when it goes into the bottle.
Al Grego:
After my tour, Greg and I returned to the quiet of the showroom where I set up for our interview.
Greg Brooks:
Hi there. I'm Greg Brooks and I am the Peppermaster and CEO of Brooks Pepperfire Foods.
Tina Brooks:
My name is Tina Smith Sullivan Brooks, and I am the co-founder of Peppermaster and the VP of marketing for Brooks Pepperfire Foods.
Greg Brooks:
We're a food manufacturer, and recently we have been specializing in co-packing and supporting other food entrepreneurs and getting their products to market.
I grew up in The Bahamas where I played in the jungle. It was my playground. So I was climbing tamarind trees and coconut trees to get food, and I was always fascinated by food and actually made my first hot sauce when I was eight years old-
Al Grego:
Wow!
Greg Brooks:
... and it seemed at the time to give me some kind of magic superpower. So as an eight-year-old, I stuck with it. Why are you going to give that up?
Al Grego:
Interesting. Is that where you were born, in the Bahamas?
Greg Brooks:
No, I was born in Montreal and my family moved there when I was six years old.
Al Grego:
Oh, wow. That was a big change.
Greg Brooks:
It was huge. It was huge. And everything down there was hurting me. The sun was too hot and burning, the ground, you couldn't walk on. The bugs were biting me. The bushes were sticking me and giving me rashes.
That's when I discovered the hot peppers, and they gave me an edge.
Al Grego:
They gave you the superpower to [inaudible 00:07:40].
Greg Brooks:
And actually, later on, I went to university and I got a bachelor of science degree in the biochemistry of the brain.
Al Grego:
Wow. Whereabouts?
Greg Brooks:
At Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. There I discovered that peppers really do have an impact on your brain and how it functions. Speeds up your base metabolic rate, changes your perceptual acuity, and pumps adrenaline into your system. So guess what? Those are superpowers.
Al Grego:
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg Brooks:
Right?
Al Grego:
It's almost like Popeye, you know...
Greg Brooks:
That's right. That's right.
Al Grego:
... can of spinach.
Tina Brooks:
Oh, I was born in St. John's, Newfoundland. Well, I moved around quite a bit as a kid because my dad was in the Air Force, and then he moved into the post office. So I've been everywhere in Canada. I've been everywhere, man. Don't put that on the air or I'll die.
Actually, you're fine. Because that's me. That's my personality.
So I came to Quebec with a youth program called Katimavik. And I am actually autistic. I have a bad habit of pointing out inconsistencies with logic because if it doesn't make sense to me, then there's something wrong.
Greg Brooks:
I was developing a menu for a new restaurant that was coming through locally, and I decided, wait a minute. No. I'm wasting my skills in my abilities here doing this. So I decided to take three or four of my favorite hot sauces, that I used to make in my restaurant, and bottle them, and I started to bottle them, sold them at Finnegan's Market, which is an antique sort of craft market out in the fields. And my first day I sold close to $1,000 worth of sauce, and I thought, "Hey, this is better than working in a restaurant."
Al Grego:
When did you meet Tina?
Greg Brooks:
I met Tina in 2001, just after the World Trade Center event.
Al Grego:
Oh, wow.
Greg Brooks:
And she was a financial advisor at the time, so she knew personally a lot of the people that were in that building.
Al Grego:
Oh, really?
Greg Brooks:
Yeah. It was horrendous for her.
Tina Brooks:
When I met Greg, I was a semi-retired financial advisor. I was cocooning here in Rigaud, Quebec with my two small children. Fast-forward, we were doing a plenary session for the coming year's agenda, and Greg happened to be the chef.
So I was invited to the meeting and he said, "Oh, we're going to have a chef cook dinner," and I'm a sucker for a free meal. I was homeless as a teenager for a very short period of time, and I learned anybody offers you a free meal, you say, "Thank you very much," but enjoy the free meal because you never know when the next one's coming. So he swept me off my feet at this dinner, and we started dating a couple of weeks later and shortly after Christmas, he asked me to marry him, and shortly after that, he moved in to our house here in Rigaud and then Brome Fair happened.
So we went out to Brome Fair. This is guys, if you've never been to Brome Fair in Quebec, this is the camp-in fest of the summer. Anyway, we started going there so that the kids could have a fun blowout to the end of their summer, et cetera.
We got up the next morning and I said to Greg, "I want to sell my book."
And he said, "What, are you insane?" My book being my financial business. And he said, "Are you insane? Our bread and butter right now."
And I said, "Yeah, but this is a hell of a lot more fun."
Greg Brooks:
We started doing a few of these shows that we do, and she had so much more fun herding adult men with hot sauce than she ever had with the financial services industry. So she sold her book, which was her grouping of clients, and she came on board full steam to sell hot sauce.
Tina Brooks:
And so within six months, I was out of the business. And I mean, there were conversations that triggered in my mind that I really wanted to do this instead, that had to do with how difficult it is being me as a financial advisor. So this was easier. I get to be way more myself. I don't have to fit in anybody's kind of perception of the box of what I need to be. So this is the perfect thing for me.
I get to focus my skills, which are database and marketing and things like that. And Greg gets to focus his stuff, and it just kind of goes together like a super harmony.
Greg Brooks:
This business opened in 2004. I have had a previous food manufacturing company when I lived in Nova Scotia that began back in '78. I owned a restaurant and we started packaging the dessert sauces. And on the day that I sold more dessert sauces than I did meals in the restaurant, I said, "Hey, wait a minute. There's something here."
Al Grego:
Right. Why am I bothering with this restaurant?
Greg Brooks:
Exactly. Which is high stress.
Al Grego:
Right.
Tina Brooks:
They make him make the jerk when we go to the Bahamas, literally. Like we're all exhausted from an out playing on the ocean all day. We come in, we're on vacation-
Al Grego:
And they want the Canadian to make the jerk.
Tina Brooks:
The Canadian has to make the jerk. Literally, that growing up in the jungle has an effect on you. I mean, I grew up all over Canada, so you can't get more Canadian than me. I know how to tap a maple tree. I can jig, I've caught salmon with my bare hands. I can pan gold. I have been all over this country, upside down, sideways, and I love this place. And he takes the best of what this country is capable of growing, puts it into these jars for people, and he blows me away every time he comes up with a new recipe.
Al Grego:
You're in Quebec. It's a limited growing season. I can't imagine back almost 20 years ago, there were a lot of people growing ghost peppers.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah. There was no one growing ghost peppers.
As a matter of fact, one day at Finnegan's Market, a friend popped by and he says, "Hey, have you ever tasted this ghost pepper?"
And I said, "No. What is that?"
He says, "Well, I've just come back from India, and I smuggled some of these peppers in with me, and I brought you a piece because I know that you'd appreciate it."
So anyhow, I took a piece of it and I chewed it up and oh my God, it was so much hotter than anything I'd ever experienced. I actually dropped to one knee.
Al Grego:
Wow.
Greg Brooks:
I thought I was going to pass out. And I gathered myself together and I said, "Okay, Peter, I want some seeds."
Now, they're all locally sourced. But in 2004, there was one U-pick that catered to East Indian community, and they had some habaneros and jalapenos. So that's what I started with.
Tina Brooks:
The jerk curry was one of the first ones. I married him for that sauce. The man makes the best. Oh, my God. I don't know if he told you this story, but he studied under an Indian Madras chef. He's in Halifax. I met the guy, I had dinner in his restaurant. The man's brilliant. And he taught Greg how to make a Madras curry. Greg took his brilliant jerk, we talked about his jerk, and he mixed it with his Madras curry. This is Greg's Jerk Curry. He's brilliant chef.
Al Grego:
So when the cat was out of the bag and the folks at Rigaud find out that there's this hot sauce manufacturer in their own backyard, what was your initial reception? Were they happy to have you?
Greg Brooks:
No, they were terrified.
Al Grego:
Really?
Greg Brooks:
They were terrified. Peppers are not a common part of the local diet. And that's why we were doing the craft shows, because at these shows, you had people that were more curious. They were exploring, looking for new things, and that's where we found our target market.
Yes, now locals know that we're here, and some of them, those that love hot peppers, come in. But we get a lot of destination visitors. They're coming specifically here. Well, we travel across Canada doing all these shows.
Al Grego:
Yes, Simon mentioned you go to the Calgary Stampede and events like that to sell your stuff.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah. We went from Vancouver to Halifax and a lot of places in between. We were doing about 120 days of shows a year.
Al Grego:
Wow.
Greg Brooks:
And with this company, we get to be a little on the edge. A little crazy. When you're sampling the world's hottest pepper to people, you're going to get some strange reactions.
Al Grego:
So from your stock here, you got, I think you said from minus four up to 28, what number do you land on?
Greg Brooks:
I like to hang out between nine and 13.
Al Grego:
Nine and 13.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah. Yeah.
Al Grego:
Nice in the middle-
Greg Brooks:
10 or 11 is my magic place. It's hot enough, I get great flavor, and it actually changes your head space. It releases neurotransmitters in the brain that are associated with happiness, so it feels good. So why would you stop?
Al Grego:
Up next, Brooks Pepperfire Foods is enjoying great success, primarily selling at markets and food shows across the country. What happened when the pandemic hits and those events aren't allowed to take place? Stay tuned to find out.
You're listening to Yes, We Are Open. Greg Brooks has taken his superpower of combining the heat from exotic peppers with other foods to create truly unique and delicious sauces. With Tina's help, they've turned Brooks Pepperfire Foods incorporated into a thriving business by continually innovating and reinvesting in their company. But now they face their biggest challenge in the form of the pandemic indefinitely shutting down all their markets and food shows. How did they fare? Let's find out.
If I were to ask you of a time or an event that threatened your business, maybe even possibly threatened to shut you down, what event would that be?
Greg Brooks:
I mean, COVID is an obvious thing. As a matter of fact, we're going through a challenge right now, which is sort of a spinoff from COVID.
So the government was very nice, and they gave us extra grants and money and loans and stuff, which increased our debt situation considerably, and as a result of all that, our municipal taxes got out of control and they want to sell our building from underneath us.
Al Grego:
Oh, no.
Greg Brooks:
And that came out of left field because we had a verbal agreement with our town.
Al Grego:
You own the building?
Greg Brooks:
Yes. We own the building. We own the building personally, and we lease space to the company.
What we discovered was that as the company grew and took on these extra debts, the value of our property rose, and we personally had a better asset, but the asset was not matched to the debt. So we're currently transferring our personally owned property into the company so that the debt and the asset can help balance themselves out, and it gives the company a better balanced equity.
Al Grego:
Yeah. Better reflects the value-
Greg Brooks:
The reality, yeah.
Al Grego:
The value of actual property. Sure.
Greg Brooks:
We set up that summer, we tried to keep things rolling, and then all the craft shows that we do across Canada, they were all canceled, and that was about 40% of our revenues.
Al Grego:
That's a big hit.
Greg Brooks:
It was huge.
Tina Brooks:
So here we are in the pandemic, and Greg and I are sitting here, we're freaking panicking. I've just lost $200,000 worth. I'm going to cry thinking about it. I just lost $200,000 worth of income. I have no idea when or where. I'm lucky in that I'm at Agri-Foods and that I can stay in business and keep all of my employees working. How are we going to do this?
And our friends and our customers and our neighbors have all said, "We want you here, so please stay and please don't give up."
And I'll tell you, when you hear from one particular customer who has literally been on the receiving end of difficulty their entire life, she is the Mayor of Très-Saint-Rédempteur. She's the first trans mayor in all of North America.
And she said to me, "Tina, [French 00:20:52]," and in English, that means please don't give up. And the power and intensity with which she said it to me really, really drove home what we've done for this neighborhood and how important it is going forward.
Al Grego:
Now, is there ever any point where you and Tina sat down and you had a bit of a go/no-go meeting at some point where you're like, if we don't make it past this month, we may have to shut it down. How close did you ever get to that? Or did you?
Greg Brooks:
Over the 20 years that we've had this company, we've had maybe five such meetings, you know? Where it's like-
Al Grego:
You just call them quarterly meetings now.
Greg Brooks:
Exactly. Exactly. But it's an excellent question. And every company should be asking themselves that. When do we pull the plug? Do we pull the plug? What do we change? What's going wrong? What's going right? You have to be able to step back from that.
I find it valuable to literally go somewhere else, change your surroundings, change everything that you can, take a break and then look at it again. So that's what we do. And sometimes the answer is, we don't know what's going to happen. We're just going to put one foot in front of the other, deal with the things that are immediately of concern to us and trust that we have the ability to find a path through it.
Fortunately, there's a company here in Montreal called Lufa Farms. They have built greenhouses on the top of abandoned industrial locations, and they started buying local produce to sell to people because people weren't going to the grocery stores. And they contacted us. We started making salsa for them, tomato sauce. And even though we weren't selling these things at retail anymore, we were selling them at wholesale and low wholesale, but it created cash flow.
Al Grego:
Got things rolling.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah. Yeah. So in that first year, we replaced the revenue from our craft shows with what Lufa Farms purchased.
Al Grego:
Completely? Or...
Greg Brooks:
Dollar for dollar, it was very close. But our profit margins were decimated.
Al Grego:
Right.
Tina Brooks:
Oh, Lufa! Oh, my God. They saved our bums. They stepped up. They did the exact opposite of all of the other big grocery companies. They shortened the time to payment to suppliers. They were super, super helpful.
They came in and said, "Oh, can you help us fill supply? Can you make this sort of thing? Can you make that?"
They were freaking amazing. Stepped right up.
I said to Greg, "Oh my God, what's happened? All of a sudden we're in!"
We've been doing this for 20 years. Suddenly I get a phone call. "We're looking for local this. We're looking for local that. I hear you're the person to talk to."
Well, yeah. I mean, we built an entire chili pepper industry here. We couldn't even get a jalapeno here when I started with Greg, right?
Greg Brooks:
We do three shows, one in Montreal, one in Toronto, and we continue to do the very first show that we ever did, which is at Brome Fair.
Al Grego:
So you went from 100 to none to now you're doing three, but you're only doing three because you can, right? Because you've replaced some of that revenue-
Greg Brooks:
That's right.
Al Grego:
... with Lufa.
Greg Brooks:
And also, just prior to the pandemic, we had started co-packing for other companies. Now, they all got slapped as well. So sales there dropped. We had about 15 clients prior to COVID, and we lost seven or eight or nine of them during COVID. They just went out of business. The others, though, hung in there. And those that hung in there are doing very well now.
Al Grego:
That's good.
Greg Brooks:
Yeah.
Al Grego:
They had to adjust the same as you and came out of it bit stronger in this.
Greg Brooks:
That's right. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? So true.
I must say that our salesman that introduced us to Moneris has always been supportive and generous with his time. Some of these big, big companies, they forget that there's people at the other end of everything. And Moneris has been very good that way.
Al Grego:
And you can always call Simon.
Greg Brooks:
Exactly. And Simon will come over. And he loves hot sauce. So it's a beautiful relationship.
Al Grego:
Coming up after the break, we find out what the future holds for Brooks Pepperfire Foods Incorporated.
Cass McPhee:
Success in business doesn't come without moments of struggle. Moments when you had to face your challenges head on. As the proud partner of Canadian business, Moneris plays a critical role in empowering businesses with the payment processing tools they need to succeed. Together, we are building stronger businesses, where business owners everywhere can stand up to their challenges without slowing down. Moneris. Proud partner of Canadian business.
Al Grego:
Welcome back to Yes, We Are Open. Thanks to their relationship with Lufa Farms, Greg and Tina Brooks are now in the enviable position of being able to focus on their co-packing business, now that they don't have to go to 100-plus shows every year to keep the doors open.
So what does the future look like for Brooks Pepperfire Foods Incorporated? Let's find out.
What does the future look like for Brooks Pepperfire Foods?
Tina Brooks:
Oh, bright and shiny.
Al Grego:
Yeah?
Tina Brooks:
Phew. Very bright and shiny. Right now we are at pure momentum and there's a jumping off point that we either get bigger or we stay the same or something changes, but I don't know. So it's bright and shiny as all get out.
Greg Brooks:
Assuming we deal with all our current challenges, we need to expand our physical space. We have grown a lot. We are now producing products at wholesale, so we need a lot more volume to get us back to a really healthy net profit. Right now we're, we're hovering, we're making money, we're making positive income, but it's not really enough. So we need to increase our volume by about double in order to be truly what I would call a successful company.
Al Grego:
Okay. So does that mean a different location?
Greg Brooks:
Either a different location or a serious revamp of this one, because there are HASSA food regulations that you can only conform with if you have sufficient space and separate rooms. And we're grown out of an artisanal situation.
We have our new facility designed, so we do have a serious future in our mind. Our biggest challenge is dealing with the loans and the debt that we accumulated during COVID, because it just makes the company look weak, whereas in fact, surviving COVID means you're strong.
Al Grego:
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg Brooks:
So we have new clients and they're all growing. Each of these clients is like having an executive VP of sales. I've got like 15 VPs of sales.
Al Grego:
Right. And you just have to make sure you stay ahead.
Greg Brooks:
I just got to keep up with it all right.
Al Grego:
So that's not a bad problem to have.
Greg Brooks:
No, no, it's an excellent problem to have. And we are up to it. We'll get through it and we will find our way.
Tina Brooks:
Our customers are in constant expanding mode. I'm constantly getting new producers calling me, going, "Oh, I have this great recipe. I want to bring it to market." With the co-op, with all the other producers, eventually there will be this multiservice production place that will allow all these [inaudible 00:29:24] producers to come on board.
Greg Brooks:
So there'll be one larger facility and maybe a couple of satellite facilities, and we expect great things. I mean, we have been a leader in this field, and we're not getting bumped out of the top position.
It's not just about the money and how successful you are, it's what you're doing with all that. We're actually building a second kitchen right now in Haiti, to help a women's Haitian cooperative process foodstuff in Haiti for Haitians.
Al Grego:
Wow.
Tina Brooks:
We work with a lot of emerging and developing world countries because chili peppers are such a commodity, and they grow like weeds there. So if we can help small villages commoditize those things, we can change people's lives.
It's working with the Haitians. We just started working with a young fella in Nigeria this past year, and that's working with websites and stuff, so that has nothing to do with the Agri-Food, but it's all part of what we're doing, and if we can take everything that we're making and just make one little itty bitty change, oh, my body's on fire.
I can look back at everything that we have already contributed in changing, and I can go to my grave tonight comfortable and happy that we set a whole bunch of really, really good stuff into motion.
Al Grego:
That's great.
Tina Brooks:
Yeah.
Al Grego:
Thank you so much.
Tina Brooks:
Thank you.
Al Grego:
Tina and Greg, are Brooks Pepperfire Foods open?
Tina and Greg:
Yes, we are open!
Al Grego:
Excellent. Thank you so much.
That's the story of Brooks Pepperfire Foods Incorporated. From the Bahamian jungle to suburban Quebec, Greg Brooks' journey to become Peppermaster reads like a superhero origin story. Having met him in person, I'm pretty sure that comparison would amuse him. In Tina, Greg seems to have found the perfect partner in business and life, fun and empathetic, yet capable and fierce, ready for any challenge.
I admire both Greg and Tina's dedication not only to their business, but also to making a difference for those less fortunate. To me, that makes them both real life superheroes.
By the way, I did try one of the sauces. It was a number seven on their scale. It was really good. I handled it like a champ. Greg offered a stronger sample. Apparently the superpowers only kick in at eight and above, but I decided to quit while I was ahead. I know, I'm a wimp.
Yes, We Are Open is a Moneris podcast production. I'd like to thank Simon, Tina, and Greg for taking the time to share their story. You can learn more about Pepperfire Foods Incorporated at pepperfire.ca. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram where they're @PeppermasterShop; on Twitter, they're @Peppermaster; and on LinkedIn.
For more information about this podcast, visit our site, yesweareopenpodcast.com.
If you'd like to support us, please write us a review on Apple Podcasts, or rate us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
If you're a Canadian small business owner or no of one with an interesting story of perseverance to tell, I'd love to help tell it. You can contact me at podcast@moneris.com. Tune in next week for another story of small business struggle and survival on the Yes, We Are Open podcast. I'm Al Grego. Thank you for listening.