Pepper Foster, KUB bread’s celebrated saviour, accused of creating financial disasters for partners Small bakeries in Selkirk, Winnipeg dealing with broken promises, unpaid bills linked to Pepper Foster’s plan to resurrect KUB name
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/01/2024 (638 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Selkirk bakery owner says he’s been burned by Winnipeg entrepreneur Pepper Foster, the latest in a list of Manitobans alleging the man made famous for his tie-dyed clothing isn’t paying his bills.
Sheldon Pescitelli, who owns Upper Crust Bakery in Selkirk, said he provided Foster with financial control of his bakery in November after partnering with him in baking KUB bread.
Last January, Pepper Foster and his twin, Chip, who gained international fame in the 1980s and ’90s for their surf-inspired tie-dyed apparel, announced they would be purchasing the beloved Winnipeg KUB brand.
A year later, Pescitelli said he was forced to close his bakery’s doors for nearly two weeks after he stopped receiving cheques for staff, and payments made via credit card to his flour supplier were declined.
“Pepper just kept stringing us along that pay would come next week, next week, next week,” Pescitelli told the Free Press this week. “He was convincing me to convince (my staff) that it was just rough waters at the beginning.”
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Manitoba court records show Pepper Foster is facing at least two lawsuits for unpaid bills owed to two Winnipeg law firms totalling approximately $33,000.
Several other sources told the Free Press earlier this month they also had been stiffed on bills owed by the Foster brothers.
Problems with Pepper Foster began almost immediately after Upper Crust partnered with him in the fall, Pescitelli said.
Documents reveal Pepper Foster’s legal troubles with city legal firms
A review of Manitoba court records show mounting legal troubles for Pepper Foster, with the Winnipeg entrepreneur named as a defendant in two recent small claims suits filed by separate law firms, each alleging he owes thousands of dollars in unpaid fees.
According to a statement of claim filed in Court of King’s Bench on Nov. 24, 2021, Foster did not pay MLT Aikins LLP for legal services rendered after he hired the firm to assist him in “financing and recovery advice, and the preparation of various agreements” in February of that year.
A review of Manitoba court records show mounting legal troubles for Pepper Foster, with the Winnipeg entrepreneur named as a defendant in two recent small claims suits filed by separate law firms, each alleging he owes thousands of dollars in unpaid fees.
According to a statement of claim filed in Court of King’s Bench on Nov. 24, 2021, Foster did not pay MLT Aikins LLP for legal services rendered after he hired the firm to assist him in “financing and recovery advice, and the preparation of various agreements” in February of that year.
In an attached transcript of email correspondence between Foster and MLT lawyer, Mira Bokhaut, Foster expressed apparent concerns that his outstanding debt would end up on the public record as a result of the legal action.
“Mr. Foster, these accounts are now months overdue. We indicated to you on Nov. 17 that we would be filing claims if this was not dealt with expediently, and specifically indicated that these are matters of public record so that you understood the implications of not contacting us to resolve these matters immediately,” Bokhaut wrote Nov. 30, 2021.
“As of today there (sic) public right?” Foster responded later that day. “I will call you to discuss, it’s really unnecessary now.”
During the correspondence, Foster noted it was “the beginning of the holidays for thx giving (sic) and I was traveling. Now there (sic) public records as you just reported for everyone.”
Throughout the proceedings, process servers unsuccessfully attempted to serve him with legal documents at least three times. Bokhaut asked him twice to provide an address to which the documents could be served. He did not respond, the claim says.
Foster did not file a statement of defence, and despite the difficulty in serving him, the court opted to issue a ruling — ordering Foster to pay MLT more than $30,000 on April 28, 2022.
The court also demanded he produce an assortment of personal and business financial records as part of an order of examination in aid of execution. The legal action would allow MLT lawyers to assess his financial situation and determine an appropriate repayment plan.
A date for the examination was scheduled for April 18, 2023, and Foster was ordered to attend at MLT’s 360 Main St. office. However, process servers were unable to serve him with the legal order. The court then scheduled another examination the following month.
It is unclear whether Foster participated in either meeting.
MLT has not filed any additional motions related to the suit, and the lawyer leading the claim did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
A separate suit filed Nov. 3, 2023, alleges Foster owes the law firm Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP nearly $3,000, plus interest, for legal services dating back to December 2019.
“To date, the defendant has failed or refused to make payment on the balance owing despite numerous attempts by TDS to collect payment,” the claim says.
The claim has not been tested in court. A hearing is scheduled Feb. 26.
— Tyler Searle
The plan was for Pescitelli to produce KUB bread and sell it in Selkirk first, with hopes of expanding.
Foster agreed to pay for Upper Crust’s bread-making equipment, pay Pescitelli’s salary to manage KUB and give him shares of the KUB brand. In exchange, Foster took financial control of Upper Crust.
“Just coming out of COVID and everything, I was getting pretty close to closing, that’s why we joined up together. I needed something a little bigger,” said Pescitelli, who began his baking career at KUB at the age of 15, and then purchased Upper Crust with his wife 13 years ago.
“I teamed up to try and save the bakery.”
However, Pescitelli said he received only a small portion of equipment payments, and he and three Upper Crust employees, including his son, stopped getting paycheques. As of Wednesday, he said they hadn’t been paid in nearly six weeks.
Pescitelli said he doesn’t plan to take legal action, because of the cost of hiring a lawyer. He decided to speak out after learning Foster’s food-production and distribution organization, Authentic Food Group, included Upper Crust as part of its portfolio.
Pescitelli worries Foster used his name to seek investors without his knowledge.
He reopened Upper Crust Thursday, paying for ingredients out of his own pocket and taking only cash payments to deposit back into a bank account he controls.
Foster refused to comment on Pescitelli’s allegations Thursday afternoon, saying he would “have to talk to (his) accountant.”
He said Upper Crust had dealt with long closures in the past before he stepped in to provide support.
“We’re just getting our feet wet,” Foster said. “With the information I have, I’m doing the best I can with the ability I can with with my team.”
He said he wanted to continue working with Upper Crust.
Last January, Pepper Foster and his twin, Chip, announced they would be purchasing the beloved Winnipeg KUB brand.
“If money’s due, we’ll make it right,” he said.
Pescitelli noted Chip Foster, whom he met just once, had no part in the partnership with Pepper Foster.
Upper Crust isn’t the only Manitoba bakery Pepper Foster is involved with.
He became the co-owner of Pennyloaf Bakery on Corydon Avenue in June 2022, going into business with James Fiebelkorn.
But Pennyloaf has been closed since Dec. 24, with social media posts pointing to renovations as the reason.
However, a staff member who previously worked for the bakery told the Free Press that the bakery closed after most of the staff, including all of the bakers, quit en masse because of Foster and his wife, Vanessa Foster, who helped run the business.
Among other issues, the staff member said Pepper Foster would regularly come in and take products to give away, impacting day-to-day operations.
Pepper Foster became the co-owner of Pennyloaf Bakery on Corydon Avenue in June 2022,
“(It was) sometimes to the point of us not being able to fulfil standing orders,” the employee said. “We had to then make calls to these businesses and apologize, because (Pepper and Vanessa Foster) just had no respect for the fact that we were trying to run this bakery a certain way.”
Fiebelkorn said Pepper Foster has a 50 per cent equity in the company, but was brought in to help generate sales and did not invest any money or receive any pay.
When the business struggled — in part, Fiebelkorn said, due to Foster’s mismanagement — he went to Foster seeking financial investment and was turned down.
Fiebelkorn said he is proceeding with legal action against Foster.
“I was covering payroll, (meeting) payments, et cetera, out of pocket. I did not see that they had provided any value, and as such, (a) legal cash call was issued as provided by the shareholders agreement,” he told the Free Press. “I would like to reopen, but my hands are tied due to the legal situation.”
When contacted by the Free Press, Vanessa Foster said she and Pepper are “looking for a path of resolution” and hope to reopen Pennyloaf.
— with files from Tyler Searle
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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