Sven Freybe, Sausage King

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Sven Freybe, president and CEO of Freybe Gourmet Chef, navigates from Old World craft to global markets.

Shadowy figures in surgical caps and masks glide silently behind the frosted glass doors. Staff punch codes into a wall-mounted keypad before disappearing down the brightly lit hallways.


No, this isn’t a set for the latest hospital procedural drama. It’s the state-of-the-art manufacturing plant of Freybe Gourmet Foods, a manufacturer of processed meats with 350 employees at its Langley site that distributes 160 varieties of specialty products across Canada and the U.S. and into Mexico and Japan. 


The glass doors part and I’m greeted by company president and CEO Sven Freybe. With greying temples and sporting a business-casual outfit of striped shirt and dark pants, the lean 38-year-old looks all business – except for a pair of white rubber clogs, part of the requisite safety gear for a just-concluded plant tour. 


As we move to the upstairs conference room, Freybe slips into a more business-appropriate pair of black loafers and takes a seat. He is reserved at first, pausing to consider his answers before responding and enunciating carefully. But as the conversation progresses, he warms to discussing the challenges involved in taking over a family business that traces its origins back six generations to a small-town craftsman in Stittin, Germany, and adapting to a world of constantly plugged-in consumers.


The pressure on the heirs of a business dynasty can be immense, Freybe says, but it took no prodding to interest him in the family business at an early age. “I think I beat the child labour laws, going in on weekends to work with my dad,” he explains with a laugh. “For me it was just something I always loved. Dinner chats were about the kinds of products we were making, and label design and customers and so forth.”


Nevertheless, taking over the reins from his father, Henning Freybe, who had inherited the business brought to Canada by his father, Ulrich, in 1955, wasn’t automatic. After a bachelor’s degree in commerce at UBC, Sven spent a couple of years working in Europe, including a stint at an advertising firm in London. His plan was always to return to the family business, but before taking that final step, one challenge remained. 


Freybe knew he would never be entirely satisfied if he simply stepped into the top executive role vacated by his father. Needing to prove his own business mettle, he took charge of Freybe Gourmet Chef, a maker of vegetarian soups, salads and prepared foods, in 1993, while he was still studying at UBC. It wasn’t until 2009, with that company firmly established, that Sven was finally ready to take over as president and CEO of Freybe Gourmet Foods. (While his dad remains owner and chair of Freybe Gourmet Foods, Sven is owner, president and CEO of Freybe Gourmet Chef.)


Each successor to a family dynasty faces new challenges, and Freybe stands at a crossroads where a proud heritage of craftsmanship confronts today’s world of mass manufacturing and plugged-in consumers.


“Previously, the company had always been internally focused, looking at the product and asking, How do we make a better sausage?” Freybe explains. While the strategy obviously succeeded, as proven by hundreds of awards garnered over the years, pride in craftsmanship is not enough to sustain a business in today’s global marketplace, he says.


Freybe’s father started a change of focus by overseeing the company’s move in 2001 to its current ultra-modern 10,000-square-metre plant in Langley. The move was not driven by the need for growth, Sven explains, but by the industry’s number one priority: food safety. Food manufacturers today have two options, he explains: remain a small neighbourhood deli, or make the significant investment in a high-tech manufacturing plant that’s the price of admission to today’s food manufacturing industry.


Sven has since taken the next step in directing the company’s focus outward by embracing social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to connect directly with consumers. He points to the example of a new product line called Naturally Freybe, made with naturally raised meats from small family farms. “The product grew directly from customer interaction, people saying, This is what we’re looking for,” explains Freybe.


While Freybe is well aware of the danger of pressuring kids into a career path, he is obviously thrilled with early signs of interest from the eldest of his three kids, 10-year-old daughter, Saskia. “We take the kids to the factory outlet on Hastings every weekend. She’s right at home,” says the beaming father, explaining that Saskia hops onto the counter to help with bagging the groceries. 


And perhaps cementing her destiny, the company is currently perfecting the recipe for a new sausage to be named in her honour.