The Swallow

Every business has a story. Founder stories often begin with the vision of one person on one day, sometimes in the distant past. Rod Senft’s decision to hire Richard Harris as CEO of Golden Boy Foods in Vancouver in 2008, and their later decision to create Founders together with Derek Senft and Trevor Johnstone. The vision of Armando Flocchini to set up a butcher’s shop in downtown San Francisco in 1930s, and then later to buy tens of thousands of acres in Wyoming to raise bison. The vision of Barney Strassburger Sr. to be the first in Canada to serve Kentucky Fried Chicken at his diner after an overnight stay from Colonel Sanders in his home in Kitchener, Ontario, in the 1960s, and later to create the commissary to manufacture KFC salads. The imagination of Johan DeGreef as he made his first chocolate confections in his studio apartment in Toronto in the 1990s, or Jeff Robinson in California as he conceived of custom engraved chocolate bars as business gifts around the same time. The foresight of Ulysses Pratas as he took the helm as Captain for the first time on a fishing boat on Lake Erie in the 1980s.

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As the people working in and on the businesses today, we are excited by these stories, inspired by the genius of these founders, attracted by the durability of the companies they created and that have stood the test of time. We are passionate about standing on their shoulders to build a family of thriving food businesses as well as exceptional partnerships with those founders, their families, and the professional managers who have succeeded them. A family of businesses with ambition, where people matter, where we balance individual autonomy and collaboration, where we take a broad view of our stakeholders, where we stay resolutely focused on being more tomorrow than we are today, always improving, always building the strength and scalability of our organizations, making sure we’re building businesses every employee can be proud of.

To us, the Founders Swallow represents our own industriousness, resilience and adaptability as we build and improve our businesses; the freedom we offer our management teams within the framework Founders provides; and the sense of happiness and renewal we hope employees will feel through their work at Founders and its companies.