Betting on beans

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This article was published 06/07/2023 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tomahawk Chips is breaking into the coffee industry.

The chips — which are packaged in bags that feature Indigenous artwork — are sold in about 400 stores across Canada, including Sobeys and Walmart locations, said Alfred Lea, president of the Riverton-based Native Canadian Chip Corp, which owns Tomahawk Chips.

The corporation, which also sells its products in the U.S., has become a multimillion-dollar company since 2015.

“I wanted to do coffee,” he said Thursday, sitting near a Tomahawk Potato Chip truck at Winnipeg’s Breezy Bend Country Club.

Beside him was a table showcasing the new product — Tomahawk Coffee dark and medium roasts — and a fresh pot for golfers at a charity event Lea sponsored.

Joining him was business partner Jeff Bobbee, owner of the new Arborg-based Metis Coffee Company.

“(There have been) many cups of coffee, and many late nights of just too much caffeine,” Bobbee said of the testing process.

His family owns Midlake Specialty Food Products, a hemp seed processor. They’d bought two coffee roasters in 2018 to roast hemp seeds.

Lea, 70, is a family friend; he visits Midlake’s 17,000 sq. ft. facility often, Bobbee said.

“(The roasters were) just sitting idle, and I was like… ‘Look at that — you can roast me coffee,’” Lea said.

They started seriously talking about a partnership in February 2022. The world had undergone two years of COVID-19 pandemic, and people were buying plenty of Tomahawk chips, Lea said.

He inked a contract with a Calgary distributor to circulate his chips nationally.

Chain grocers throughout Canada and the United States carry Tomahawk chips, as does Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer.

Lea said he ships roughly 18,000 large chip bags weekly.

“I designed Tomahawk brand… to help other Indigenous (entrepreneurs),” he said.

He wanted to ensure he partnered with another Indigenous group before tackling the coffee market. Enter Bobbee’s Métis family.

“Without him, we would never be able to access (these) markets,” Bobbee, 40, said.

The colleagues travelled to Colombia last October to test coffee beans. They connected with an Indigenous women’s group via the World Indigenous Business Forum, Lea said.

The Colombians will supply the coffee beans, Bobbee’s family will roast the beans and the group will advertise it under the Tomahawk brand.

A 360 g bag of coffee will cost around $19.99 in Canada; they’ll first be sold in Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. and Northern stores in July. Distribution elsewhere should begin in August, Lea said.

The Fisher River Cree Nation member expects to sell value packs of the coffee in Costco and 25 lb. bags to restaurants. He and Bobbee want to create self-serve Tomahawk coffee pods but haven’t found a pod supplier in Canada, they said.

Popcorn, candy and corn chips are among the items Lea hopes to eventually add under the Tomahawk umbrella.

“He’s very entrepreneurial,” said Karen Ilchena, Lea’s longtime friend and associate. “(He’s) always looking for opportunities to create products that he knows is going to fit well in the market.”

Lea tapped the artists he used for Tomahawk Chips packaging — Leonard and Edwin Bighetty from Pukatawagan — for the turtles, eagles and chiefs featured on the brand’s coffee bags.

Bobbee plans to build his own coffee brand in several years, well after launching Tomahawk Coffee with Lea.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com