Grocery products | Stefano Faita’s sauces are gaining ground

Stefano Faita put his first jars of sauce on the shelves of IGA supermarkets in 2017. Almost six years later, the restaurateur announces the arrival, starting this week, of his products in Walmart and Maxi stores in Quebec. The Press spoke to him about this rapid growth and its possible dangers.

Your sauces can now be found in all major stores in Quebec, including Metro and Costco. Faced with such an expansion, is there a danger of losing control?

The next step is… to get organized. Growth is happening and it is possible. But organizing around that is difficult. The year 2023 for me is a year of organization. I have already hired two more people [pour grossir mon équipe]. We are in the process of setting up a system that will allow us to have all our data more easily, to know what works and in which stores. It’s a system we didn’t have before, but now we need it.

My products bear my name. I can’t afford to blunder. I have a good team, good partners, I’m talking about the manufacturer [Lassonde] who manufactures my products. That’s kinda the key. You have to be rigorous and make sure that the product remains stable and that there are no gaps. To grow, we work hard. Is this the secret of success? I don’t know, but for us, that’s it.

Why is it so important to have your products on the shelves of all major chains?

We try to export outside Quebec. Have partners like Walmart and Sobeys [IGA]who are everywhere in Canada, it helps us to have visibility in the hope of one day promoting our products and selling them outside Quebec.

With 65 groceries, do you intend to expand your range?

Yes, the next one will be a Stefano coffee. Again, I find that it is an element that we find on an Italian table. An espresso at the end of a meal. That was kind of my vision at the start. We are in the process of building the Italian table in Quebec and we want to be the benchmark for grocery products.

Are you moving away from catering or do you intend to do both at the same time?

One does not prevent the other. I go to my restaurants almost every day, I see my employees. Of course, my partner and I had to put people in place to manage it. We need a slightly bigger team, but that excites me as much as my products.

One of the advantages I have is that I live in Little Italy, two blocks from my restaurants. It’s convenient for me. Both are doing well. And it’s partly thanks to the notoriety of the restaurants that the products are doing well.