2012 Emerging EOY: Greg Blake and Andre Kroecher

Congratulations to Greg Blake and Andre Kroecher, CEO and VP of innocation of Daiya Foods, the 2012 Pacific Region Emerging Entrepreneurs of the Year. Greg Blake & Andre Kroecher ceo and vp of innovation, daiya foods inc. Greg Blake and Andre Kroecher met in the ’90s while trying to forge careers as songwriters — an unlikely start for two guys who revolutionized the cheese business with their venture, Daiya Foods Inc.

Greg Blake and Andre Kroecher, Daiya Foods | BCBusiness
Return to: B.C. Entrepreneur of the Year 2012

Congratulations to Greg Blake and Andre Kroecher, CEO and VP of innocation of Daiya Foods, the 2012 Pacific Region Emerging Entrepreneurs of the Year.

Greg Blake & Andre Kroecher ceo and vp of innovation, daiya foods inc. Greg Blake and Andre Kroecher met in the ’90s while trying to forge careers as songwriters — an unlikely start for two guys who revolutionized the cheese business with their venture, Daiya Foods Inc.

Daiya created a non-dairy cheese that melts, stretches and tastes like real cheese. Kroecher first presented a havarti-like version to Blake in 2007, who immediately saw its potential. But 85 per cent of cheese in North America is mozzarella or cheddar, so the pair quickly hired their first employee, food scientist Paul Wong, and in March 2009 debuted Daiya’s low-fat, non-soy-based, gluten- and dairy-free cheese shreds at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim. It was a risky move: without a retail product, the pair could frustrate buyers. But Kroecher and Blake were undeterred, and prepared 8,000 slices of pizza topped with melted Daiya until their booth had caused a social-media frenzy.

By April 2010, Whole Foods was buying Daiya product, repackaging it and selling it retail. “The tipping point was when their head office called and said, ‘We want you to have a retail product . . . and we’ll give you a national listing,’” remembers Blake, adding that meant selling to 300 stores.

The pair quickly closed a second tranche of financing from friends, family and angel investors, and the rest is history. Today, Daiya produces more than 11,000 kg of cheese daily, which is sold in 5,000 stores across North America (nearly 90 per cent are in the U.S.). The company has outgrown Kroecher’s test kitchen and a 12,000-square-foot plant in Abbotsford; its 61 staff now occupy a 30,000-square-foot facility on Rupert Street in Vancouver.

“We want to be as large a company as we can,” says Blake. With shredded and wedge formats on the market and the potential to create everything from cream cheese and cheese slices to string cheese, Daiya is poised for future growth.

“It’s the milk-alternative business 10 years ago,” Kroecher explains, “which is now, in the U.S. alone, a $1.5-billion business. It’s the Wild West of the food industry.”

Four Questions

What did you want to be when you were a kid?
Kroecher: I wanted to be a classical violinist, then a tennis pro and then a composer.

What was your first big break in your current business?
Blake: We took a big risk going to the Natural Products Expo West show in Anaheim in 2009 because we didn’t have a retail product. It was the catalyst in getting the vegan community aware of our product.

Looking back, what’s one thing you would do differently, professionally speaking?
Kroecher: We would’ve been much more careful about our hiring practices early on. When a company is taking off, people don’t necessarily grow at the same rate . . . our mistake was trying to make it work for too long. Hire slow, fire fast.”

What book do you recommend for entrepreneurs just starting out?
Blake: Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.