foodsources shelf appeal
For Manitoba’ s food makers, the package is often the first introduction to what’ s inside.
By Laurie Hughes
Butter usually comes in a tub. Or a foil wrapper. Maybe a block in a little cardboard box. Von Slick’ s comes in a tube. The Manitoba company’ s finishing butters look, at first glance, like something that belongs in a pencil case rather than a refrigerator. Push up the tube, slice off a coin of butter and put it on a steak, corn on the cob or a piece of toast. The butter melts, the flavour spreads and dinner suddenly takes on a little more culinary flourish. The tube isn’ t simply a container; it is part of the identity.
It is also a good example of the inventive ways Manitoba’ s independent food makers are finding to get noticed. For producers hoping to move beyond farmers’ markets and independent shops and onto grocery shelves, the challenge is not simply making something delicious. A shopper first has to notice it, understand what it is and decide it is worth putting in the cart.
That puts considerable responsibility on the package. It must protect what is inside, but it also introduces the consumer to the maker. It establishes personality, communicates quality and distinguishes one offering from a crowded field of competitors. Sometimes, it even suggests a new way to use something familiar.
Von Slick’ s founders developed their push-tube format to allow for storing frozen and to make their finishing butters easier to portion than traditional tubs or foil. It also gave the company an immediate visual signature. Among the jars, bottles and boxes lining a grocery shelf, butter in a tube has a fighting chance of being noticed. For a small food company, that first glance matters.
Smak Dab takes a different approach to a product most shoppers already know. Mustard is a pantry staple that hardly requires an introduction, yet founder Carly Minish-Wytinck has turned Canadian mustard seed into a distinctive prairie business. What began as a family-run company in Swan River has grown into a collection of inspired flavours well beyond a familiar yellow squeeze bottle.
Pastel-hued labels give Smak Dab a lively personality and make the collection recognizable when shoppers encounter it again. That familiarity becomes valuable as the company grows, helping a new flavour feel like a natural extension of something already known.
At Morden’ s Chocolates, recognition comes with history. The Manitoba confectioner has been making chocolates since 1959, and its name carries a familiarity that newer food companies have had to work hard to establish. But heritage presents its own challenge: how do you honour what people remember while giving them a reason to look again?
The family-run company has been evolving beyond its original signature Russian Mints, embracing the creative possibilities of artisanal chocolate. Updating box sizes and finishes, including metallic jewel tones introduced along the way, offers another way to illuminate that history while giving the brand a contemporary expression.
14 ciao! / oct / nov / two thousand twenty-six