On this episode, Sylvain and I sit with Daniel Jurkovic, Co-Owner at Aliments Putters Inc., for a fascinating conversation and entrepreneurial journey that quickly became a lot more than Daniel bargained for when another major pickle brand supplier got into financial difficulties in the heart of the super-tight window that is the cucumber harvest season.
On this episode, Sylvain and I sit with Daniel Jurkovic, Co-Owner at Aliments Putters Inc., for a fascinating conversation and entrepreneurial journey that quickly became a lot more than Daniel bargained for when another major pickle brand supplier got into financial difficulties in the heart of the super-tight window that is the cucumber harvest season. Daniel and the team marshalled their talents and resources. They came to the rescue of Canadian farmers and now look ahead to building their commercial international business and their brand, Putters.
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to our summer SIAL special bonus episodes of The Food Professor podcast, presented by Caddle.
Michael LeBlanc 00:13
As the official podcast for the SIAL Food Innovation show this year in Montreal, Sylvain and I had the opportunity to interview the leading thought leaders, brands and makers in the food industry. As the saying goes, these are their stories.
Michael LeBlanc 00:27
On this episode, Sylvain and I sit down with Daniel Jurkovic, Co-owner at Putters Inc, for a fascinating conversation and entrepreneurial journey that quickly became a lot more than Daniel bargained for when another major pickle brand supplier got into financial difficulties in the heart of the super-tight window that is the cucumber harvest season. Daniel and the team marshaled their talents and resources. They came to the rescue of Canadian farmers and now look ahead to building their commercial international business and their brand, Putters.
Sylvain Charlebois 00:55
All right, we're still at SIAL, live in Montreal, SIAL, 2024. It's been great so far, hasn't it, Michael?
Michael LeBlanc 01:03
Fantastic. I mean, I mean, my neck is sore because my head keeps turning around so much as I walk the aisles. So much great stuff to see. I stopped by our guest booth and had some amazing products. So, I'm very happy we're here to learn.
Sylvain Charlebois 01:15
Yeah, absolutely. So, we have here with us, Daniel Jurkovic, co-president of Putters,
Daniel Jurkovic 01:21
That's right, Putter's pickles, yeah.
Sylvain Charlebois 01:23
Putter's pickles, great story. I know a bit about the story because I read the newspaper. It's just an amazing story. I call it the Leamington story of Quebec, or sort of-, sort of thing and it basically raised from the ashes, sort of thing.
Michael LeBlanc 01:43
Jeez, you got me intrigued now, I want to hear this story.
Sylvain Charlebois 01:45
I knew, I knew you didn't know about it.
Michael LeBlanc 01:47
I don't know the story.
Sylvain Charlebois 01:48
That's why we have Daniel here, so he can tell us the story, the entire thing.
Michael LeBlanc 01:51
This is what we do. We tel-l, we tell innovative company's stories. We-, well, you tell the story, but we want to make sure everybody knows about you.
Daniel Jurkovic 01:57
You know what, many people don't know the story, you know and it's, it's a really great story. I mean, you know, for some not so great, but you know, it's, we did what we could.
Sylvain Charlebois 02:07
Exactly.
Daniel Jurkovic 02:08
So, we've been around since 1948 we've been a private label manufacturer, you know, primarily. So, the brand wasn't known, the company wasn't known, because we're not front facing, you know, with the retailers, B2B, a lot of Canada, mostly, mostly-, a lot of us. So, a very high, high, high-end product that nobody really knows comes from Quebec, you know.
Michael LeBlanc 02:33
And we're abouts in Quebec?
Daniel Jurkovic 02:35
We're in Sainte-Sophie, Quebec, and now Saint-Louis as well.
Michael LeBlanc 02:38
And is that where you hail from? Are you-, are you born and raised there as well?
Daniel Jurkovic 02:41
Well, that's where the company was founded there in 48 it's a third-generation company. My partner and I came into that company four years ago. We bought in-, the family is still with us.
Sylvain Charlebois 02:51
And what's your partner's name?
Daniel Jurkovic 02:53
John Tartaglia. So, we were bankers. We're corporate bankers and we decided, kind of like you guys, you know, during the covid days, that it was time for change, you know.
Sylvain Charlebois 03:02
So, you were making both of you.
Daniel Jurkovic 03:04
Yeah.
Sylvain Charlebois 03:04
And then you left to go into the food business.
Daniel Jurkovic 03:06
Yes, we did. We were actually corporate bankers. We were on the buy side. We did a lot of M and A, we-, we’re-, we helped a lot of people buy companies. We helped a lot of companies, acquire companies, and grow their businesses.
Michael LeBlanc 03:16
And eventually you're sitting there, you're going, hey, we-, we could do this. Why don't we do this for ourselves?
Daniel Jurkovic 03:20
Yeah, to a certain extent, you know, you think, you think you can do it, right, you think you can do it, but covid also, you know, reoriented a lot of people, opened up a lot of opportunities. It was a tough time for everyone, but it was an opportune time, and like for yourselves, right, and that enabled us to find the courage make the jump, leave, you know, lucrative careers, jobs because of unhappiness, you know, and go into something
Michael LeBlanc 03:49
Investment banking is a tough life, right?
Daniel Jurkovic 03:50
Yeah, corporate investment banking. It's-, it's tough. It's-, it's a great job. It's, you know, it's long hours and it is rewarding, however. You know when you're-, when you're in the food business, when people are eating your product, when you're employing personnel, when you see concrete, you know-, result into what you're doing every single day and when you see you know how you're contributing to the overall ecosystem. With producers, farmers, like from-, from-, from, the ground up all the way into the jar, and 10s of millions of people eating your product. It's, you know, it's hard to replicate that with anything else.
Sylvain Charlebois 04:28
That's right, absolutely. So, tell us about, you know, how your company was kind of born, or kind of-, came back from-, from the dead, I guess.
Daniel Jurkovic 04:38
So, we-, yeah, we spent, we spent three years, you know, optimizing the business, helping the family, they did an amazing job getting it to where it was, but, you know, obviously, with the growth and with the amazing product that just kept growing exponentially every single year, came pressures on all ends. You know, HR, quality control, you know, sophistication we had-, we had to bring in consultants, we had to bring in structure. We had to bring in human capital. You know, it was a whole thing and then, you know, just at the time where we thought we were about to hit an auto pilot, and, you know, try to, you know, I guess, you know, take the fruit from our labor and, you know, finally, focused a little bit on things like sales and things like, you know, developing the business basics. Yeah, our main, I would say, competitor to a certain degree, right, we were in different business but.
Sylvain Charlebois 05:29
Do you remember who the competitor was?
Daniel Jurkovic 05:30
It was White's Foods.
Sylvain Charlebois 05:31
White's Food.
Daniel Jurkovic 05:32
White's Foods went under.
Sylvain Charlebois 05:34
Does that ring the bell?
Michael LeBlanc 05:36
No.
Daniel Jurkovic 05:37
So, White's foods should ring a bell with the brands that they had-, they were making. So, they had Coronation.
Michael LeBlanc 05:44
Right, right.
Daniel Jurkovic 05:49
They had Strub’s, they had White’s. They had-, they had a great company, really great people.
Sylvain Charlebois 05:51
You gotta help Michael, you know, he's gotta catch up. Small words.
Daniel Jurkovic 05:55
And they were a really large company, you know, three plants, one large distribution center, the largest player in the country and you know, they ran into some trouble. It's hard being a transformative manufacturer in California, as you guys know, they had to go through covid. Obviously, you know, a large expansion, and then, you know, getting hit by covid during the expansion, like, you know, it just, you know, a lot of things I think, aligned in the wrong direction, maybe a perfect storm. I mean, we weren't there. But, you know, we know the people well. They're great people, hard working.
Michael LeBlanc 06:26
Sometimes negative momentum-, it's hard to break out of a negative momentum when it starts, particularly during the covid era.
Daniel Jurkovic 06:31
For sure. And then the interest rates where they went, and then your cost of borrowing is not the same. The banks are getting more anxious, you know, tightening. It's-, it was just the perfect storm for them, you know, and they tried to do what they could right, to get out of it, but, you know, unfortunately, as it happened to many different manufacturers in the past, in Canada, they weren't able to get out of it. So, you know, there were bankruptcy creditors, the whole thing, lost jobs that, you know, had a major, major impact on our industry because the pickle industry is a stable industry, you know, and it's been stable for some time. They consolidated a lot of it, you know, by buying out different things like Strubs back in the day, you know, Whites, they bought back in the day as well. So, and unfortunately, they went under. So, a giant went under and just when that happened, we were kind of like, you know-
Sylvain Charlebois 07:24
What do we do?
Daniel Jurkovic 07:25
What do we do at this point? And-
Sylvain Charlebois 07:27
I'll call my banker.
Daniel Jurkovic 07:28
Well, yeah, I'll call my banker, because at the end of the day, it wasn't we didn't see this as an opportunity at all. We saw it as like, oh my god, this is going to have a huge impact on the industry overall because our farmers are fully dependent on this volume and on this crop.
Sylvain Charlebois 07:45
And we're talking about how many farmers here?
Daniel Jurkovic 07:46
Well, we're talking about at least 30 large, you know, producers-
Sylvain Charlebois 07:52
And that's all they did
Daniel Jurkovic 07:53
Across Quebec and Ontario.
Daniel Jurkovic 07:54
They produce pickles. Well, pickles are key right now to make, to make a parallel here on pickles and on cucumbers that are being grown. Cucumbers are a key crop, because cucumbers employ foreign workers during the early months, so July, August, right during those six weeks, all those foreign workers that the farmers bring in, they need to work. They need to do something, because the stuff that moves a lot, the carrots and all that stuff, like cabbage, and it comes a bit later, right? It comes in after September. So then you have, first you have pickles or cucumbers, sorry, everybody on the radio, pickles are actually cucumbers.
Michael LeBlanc 08:31
I think that's the title of the episode. Pickles are actually cucumbers.
Sylvain Charlebois 08:35
That's right. So the people at your booth are-, were pickles or cucumbers?
Daniel Jurkovic 08:39
Well, they're, in between, yeah, we would call them super pickles, you know. So, you know, you have the cucumbers, then you have the peppers, and then you have different things that come out that are used in [speaking french], you know. So, super key crop. So, when they went under, it was just around June, July, that we started. We had to, we had to make a decision, right, we needed to bridge the farmers that were like, you know,
Michael LeBlanc 09:09
So, you were worried that the supplier was gonna-, the supplier community was gonna collapse, which would endanger your business.
Daniel Jurkovic 09:14
Everything would collapse. Everything would collapse because we were the major purchaser in Quebec. They were the major purchase in Ontario, and they had a huge contract, you know, in Ontario, with a-, with a large-, large chain, you know, large brand and we did what we could right at the time based on our financial capacity, you know, and what we could do, we decided to do everything we could do in our power to salvage manufacturing in Quebec. So, we bought assets in their two plants. We consolidated-, consolidated them in the Sainte-Louis plant, which is next to Santia Sainte, mostly a food service plant. They had a Sainte-Rose facility as well, which we, you know, we bought a bunch. Of equipment from, consolidated there as well, and we tried to save as many jobs as possible in Sainte-Louis while bridging the farmers, bridging the crop, taking on all these cucumbers into our facility and not having a home for them, right, so, major gamble in a situation where you're like, well, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. You know.
Sylvain Charlebois 10:24
How did the farmers feel at the time? I mean, I'm sure they were just-
Daniel Jurkovic 10:27
Sheer panic, yeah, sheer panic. Some guys were like, well, you know, if this happens, we're, I don't know, like, we're done, right?
Sylvain Charlebois 10:35
You're the only customer they have.
Daniel Jurkovic 10:37
Yeah, what are we gonna do with the foreign workers, what are we gonna do with the crop? There's only so much insurance we can go and get right, and some guys don't even get it.
Sylvain Charlebois 10:43
That's why I'm making the parallel with Leamington and tomatoes. That's kind of-, kind of what happened really, when Heinz left. You had 50 farmers with no clients.
Michael LeBlanc 10:52
With no-, no-, no buyer for their product that was already on the vine, basically. So, it sounds like a story of greatness thrust upon you, so to speak.
Daniel Jurkovic 11:00
Well, I don't know if its greatness or just sheer panic and sleepless nights. You know.
Michael LeBlanc 11:04
It's interesting. It's interesting because we talk to-, we talk to brands, very, very new brands, but we talk to brands have been like yourself, or the origin of the company been around a long time and one of the questions I always have is, how do you see growth and innovation, right, so growth kind of got, so to speak, you know, probably ahead of any timeline you had in your mind when you started the first phrase, my God, I didn't think I grow this big, but you ingested, so to speak, all that new equipment and all that, all that new product, and that was just, so we're clear, what year was that?
Daniel Jurkovic 11:35
So, this happened last year.
Michael LeBlanc 11:36
Last year.
Sylvain Charlebois 11:37
Yeah, it's within the last 12 months, I guess.
Daniel Jurkovic 11:39
Yeah, this was the last crop. So, the crop came in. Crop is mid-July to end of August. We started, we started talks with them, you know, before that, but, um, everything we had to swallow up the crop last year and integrate, you know, new machinery, new equipment. They did food service, you know, to a-, to a large, large scale.
Sylvain Charlebois 12:00
It's insane.
Daniel Jurkovic 12:01
It was insane, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 12:02
I mean, the good news is, you're sitting here, and you have a booth, which means you're starting to turn your mind towards sales. So, it sounds like it was a happy, I mean, you worked through it, congratulations.
Sylvain Charlebois 12:11
Well, when you go through it, you don't know it's gonna be an happy ending.
Michael LeBlanc 12:13
Well, gotta do what you gotta do.
Sylvain Charlebois 12:16
It is a happy ending, which is great.
Daniel Jurkovic 12:17
I mean, yeah. I mean, we're still not out of-, out of the water yet.
Daniel Jurkovic 12:20
We're not out of the tunnel because, you know, you have to, if you know, again, we lack a bit of experience in this field, right, four years into it, it's not like-
Sylvain Charlebois 12:20
Of course.
Sylvain Charlebois 12:30
You must be incredibly proud of what you've accomplished so far. I mean, you have to, right?
Daniel Jurkovic 12:35
Yeah, I mean, we are-, we are, I mean, you know, and everybody helped. We're not alone in this, right, farm capital Canada was involved. Like they were involved. They had exposure with the farmers. They had exposure with Whites Foods, they had exposure. So they were, you know, they were in a bad spot as well. And we were-
Sylvain Charlebois 12:52
I can only assume that there were some issues with the FCC wanting to bridge both.
Michael LeBlanc 12:58
But at the same time, as with an investment background, you would know the concept of escalating commitment to a losing course of action scenario, and you don't want to get on the wrong side of that scenario with the bank.
Daniel Jurkovic 13:08
And you're dealing with creditors, you're dealing with people that want-
Michael LeBlanc 13:11
Why would I give you another dollar, you tell me, you'll give me my 10 back. But maybe you won't. Maybe I'll just write it off, make it at cost right.
Daniel Jurkovic 13:17
And I mean, we were catapulted back into our old world to a certain extent.
Michael LeBlanc 13:21
Yeah,
Daniel Jurkovic 13:22
Which-, which we kind of understood.
Michael LeBlanc 13:23
Uniquely-, uniquely qualify, like, it's funny the way that.
Daniel Jurkovic 13:26
Yeah, yeah. Everything was it aligned perfectly for us to execute on the situation. I think somebody would-, that didn't have our background would have had a hard time to navigate through these waters with the legal you know, you're going to insolvency law, you're dealing with-
Michael LeBlanc 13:42
I've been there. It's a whole different world.
Sylvain Charlebois 13:44
The thing about your story, Daniel, is that you're, you were a non ag person. I mean, you're-, typically in the food industry. You see a lot of family businesses. You see a lot of farmers go from one generation to another. That's all they know and a shift in paradigm is difficult., it's very difficult. You came in with a fresh look, with a different look, a different perspective, and you dealt with a crisis. I mean, a company was in-, White was in crisis, and-, but you had solutions. You had a different approach, and you implemented your vision into-, into that to salvage as much as you could.
Daniel Jurkovic 14:24
Yeah, you, you know, you don't know what you're doing, right?
Sylvain Charlebois 14:27
Yeah, it's instinct.
Daniel Jurkovic 14:29
You're just going instinct, feeling,
Michael LeBlanc 14:32
Were you always-, like when you were growing up, did you always want to be a in business, was that your path?
Daniel Jurkovic 14:36
I was, I was always very entrepreneurial. I think I had success at the bank because I was entrepreneurial, you know.
Michael LeBlanc 14:41
So this was always-, your kind of in your DNA-
Daniel Jurkovic 14:42
Not only my story as well, my partner John as well, you know, is very entrepreneurial and we always connected well with the entrepreneurs. Did well at the bank, because we, you know, we created some real bonds.
Michael LeBlanc 14:52
And you can, you could relate to them because you, but it's one thing to relate to another thing to be one.
Daniel Jurkovic 14:57
Oh, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 14:57
It's all a different thing. Let's talk about the product. I visited the booth, and I had some of your fantastic products. What's two questions for you, one is, tell me a little bit about the product that you sell today, so the listeners can get a clear idea of all the fantastic stuff you sell and then I want to talk a little bit about, you know, as you get ahead of this, I didn't realize it was so recent, but start thinking about innovation. What comes next, what do you hear and what are you doing here?
Daniel Jurkovic 15:20
100% yeah. So, you know, we've been making pickles since 48 you know. I think the first client was Schwartz deli, you know, and the pickles still there and these are naturally fermented pickles. So hard to make, very artisanal, especially large scale.
Michael LeBlanc 15:33
When you say nat-, just for the-, for the listener, what do you mean naturally fermented?
Daniel Jurkovic 15:36
Salt, water.
Michael LeBlanc 15:37
Versus so, there's others that might do by chemical or some other-
Daniel Jurkovic 15:41
Yeah, chemical fermentation, indoor controlled fermentation, you know. So, we do wild fermentation. So, it's outside in the sun, in a barrel with salt, water and
Sylvain Charlebois 15:52
Low tech
Daniel Jurkovic 15:53
Spices, basically, you know, dill and garlic. You know, that's all there is in the barrel. So, you know, you're-, you're, you have-, you have a product that changes, you know, on an hourly basis. So, you know, you're testing for pH, acidity. You're testing for, you know, different factors in the barrel.
Michael LeBlanc 16:10
You said it's an early morning business. Why is that? You-
Daniel Jurkovic 16:12
It's an early morning business. You're dealing with farmers, right, you're dealing with producers. You're getting-, you're getting eight, nine truck holds a day or fresh cucumbers.
Sylvain Charlebois 16:20
And the season, the harvest is six weeks.
Daniel Jurkovic 16:23
It's six weeks. You have six weeks to build your inventory for the year in fresh pack, which is, you know, pasteurized pickle in vinegar, and in building your inventory of fermented products for food service and for retail. So, six weeks you're grinding, you're not sleeping, you're working seven days, but you can't really work seven days. People are not allowed to work seven days, which we should be allowed to work seven days, but, you know, there are rules and regulations, and you're just doing your best, and that's why it's, you know, when you're taking a step back, you realize, well, we're the only large player left in this country, because it's so hard. We have a six-week crop. You know.
Sylvain Charlebois 17:04
Now, your main competitor in Canada, wouldn't it be Bick's.
Daniel Jurkovic 17:07
Bick's is a brand, right, Bicks.
Sylvain Charlebois 17:09
Okay, they don't have a plant here.
Daniel Jurkovic 17:11
Bick, no, no. There are no more plants.
Sylvain Charlebois 17:13
I thought they had one in Scarborough, okay.
Daniel Jurkovic 17:15
No, we're the largest, we're the last, the last remaining, like, we're the-, we're the last surviving entity,
Michael LeBlanc 17:22
The last savior of the bespoke pickle. I love that.
Daniel Jurkovic 17:25
There are smaller manufacturers, sure.
Michael LeBlanc 17:27
Yeah, I talked to one near-, near me, and they do a bunch of jars, but nothing like yours.
Daniel Jurkovic 17:31
They are small but, you know, we do like whole us, you know, the whole US, Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 17:37
So, talk more about that. So, so how many SKUs Do you have, and you say, you trade here and in the US, just a ballpark again, just so that the listeners-
Daniel Jurkovic 17:44
Yeah, I mean, we don't have a lot of SKUs, right? We-, since we do pickles, peppers and sauerkraut, you know, peppers, you know, you do hot bananas, you do red bells, you do cherries, you know. So that's three SKUs. Pickles, you have numerous SKUs that are based from a cucumber, though, you know, you have fermented pickles. You have shelf stable pickles, different cuts, sweet, spicy, whatever it is, and then you have a fresh cucumber, like a garden crisp that goes into vinegar. That's a very popular New Age type of pickle that you-, that you see in plastic, usually on the retail side.
Michael LeBlanc 18:02
Oh, I've seen those. Yeah, you pull open the package and-
Daniel Jurkovic 18:23
Yeah, it's in plastic, and you have a pickle-, pickle and vinegar, interesting, but it's a fresh Cuke that goes right into-, into vinegar has to stay refrigerated, so when you when you're biting into it, on the outside, it tastes like a pickle. On the inside, it tastes like a Cuke. So, it's fresh, so it's a different thing, right? So-
Michael LeBlanc 18:39
What percentage of your business is Canadian versus US, ballpark?
Daniel Jurkovic 18:42
I would say we're probably 65% in the US.
Michael LeBlanc 18:45
Oh, fantastic.
Daniel Jurkovic 18:47
Yeah. Through to one of our clients that we-, that-, that's a partner, you know, making pickles for-, for the past 20 years.
Michael LeBlanc 18:53
And you do a private label and brand, right?
Daniel Jurkovic 18:55
Yes, but mostly private label, until the recent rebrand that we've done, because we've been asked to do it, right. There was a big hole that got created in the market.
Michael LeBlanc 19:04
I was gonna say, there's a space on the shelf, there's a market. There's not a solid, big brand anymore, right?
Daniel Jurkovic 19:09
Absolutely. So there, the brands are still out there, but the packers are not there. So now all the stuff has to be made outside of the country and people want to deal with the local you know, they want a local-, local crop, local manufacturing, encourage your local farmer. So that's who we are, that's what we offer. That really makes us unique, you know, in our approach. So that's, you know, we're hoping to fill a certain gap. Our clients are filling that gap already, but they're unable to fill it themselves, because there's an important gap to fill, both in the food service sector and in the retail sector,
Michael LeBlanc 19:42
And what brings you to the show?
Daniel Jurkovic 19:44
So, what brought us to the show is that we worked very quickly on a rebrand, right, we worked on a rebrand to refresh our image. You know, most people don't know what Putter’s is, but a lot of people know a lot of the brands that we-, that we do or that we make already, right? So. So now, you know, there's a-, there's an opportunity for us to spread our brand across the country as well and fill that hole without necessarily cannibalizing or stepping on the feet of our existing clients. Yeah, that we have to prioritize, right. They're our clients for-, some of them for more than 40 years.
Michael LeBlanc 20:20
But they know, they know a branded product on their shelf helps with their overall price and place positioning.
Daniel Jurkovic 20:25
Absolutely.
Michael LeBlanc 20:25
With their private label, right? You need both to have good category growth, right?
Daniel Jurkovic 20:29
Yeah, so, um, so that's, that's our focus now, and especially on food service. You know, a lot of-, a lot of chains across Canada want a local product. They want to be able to say, hey, in my hamburger I'm using, you know, pickles out of Ontario, you know, of course, that's hard to do, right, if you have a huge chain that requires 100,000 pails, well, you can do-, there's only so much you can do locally. You can't make 100,000 pails in six weeks and sit on them, right, so you have to spread it throughout different crop, but at least you're encouraging local producers as much as you can, you know.
Michael LeBlanc 21:00
And how's the show been for you, like my last question, and then I'll throw it back to Sylvain, and kind of bring us home, is you had a couple of folks dressed up as giant pickles, which was a pile of fun. You had some great tasting-
Michael LeBlanc 21:11
Pickles on a stick. Giant Pickles.
Michael LeBlanc 21:13
I had one of those.
Daniel Jurkovic 21:14
Putter's putting contest.
Michael LeBlanc 21:15
You guys nailed that brand. So are you happy, it's day three. You're almost about to rev up. You happy with the show?
Daniel Jurkovic 21:21
We're very happy, you know, we rekindled, reconnected with people. You know, people want to see you there. You know, Canada's small. It's a small industry, you know, people want to see the owners. They want to see the involvement. Getting-, and a lot of people were discovering putters as well, you know, oh, I know this brand, but, you know, I don't know Putter's. Well, it's normal. You know, we just launched our website three weeks ago, so. We didn't have a website for seven years.
Michael LeBlanc 21:49
Freshly fermented, freshly fermented. Oh, there you go.
Sylvain Charlebois 21:51
Listen, Daniel, thank you so much for coming to-, to our booth and joining us on the food Professor podcast again, I sincerely, on behalf of myself and Michael, we want to congratulate you for-, for your success. Certainly, we know that this last past year has been incredibly challenging, but kudos to you and your team. It's been great to watch, and I'm looking forward to seeing you again on this floor next year.
Daniel Jurkovic 22:16
Thank you, guys, for the opportunity to talk. Thank you for everything.
Sylvain Charlebois 22:21
Thanks for tuning into our summer SIAL bonus interview series. Michael and I will be back live on the microphone together in late August. I'm the Food Professor, Sylvain Charlebois.
Michael LeBlanc 22:34
And I'm Michael LeBlanc, media entrepreneur, consumer growth consultant and keynote speaker. Safe travels everyone. See you back in August.
Sylvain Charlebois 22:44
Take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pickles, farmers, people, cucumbers, food, crop, brand, year, Quebec, Sainte, product, Sylvain, large, Daniel, company, great, business, weeks, private label, skus