About Kinnikinnick

Kinnikinnick starts at a time when few people even know what Celiac disease is, never mind  how to make scrumptious gluten-free food. Baked goods? Sold in supermarkets? Forget it!

Enter Ted Wolff and Gudrun Von Selzam who just moved to Canada from Germany. After stints working in health food stores, they come up with the idea of producing allergy-conscious foods for Edmonton's Farmer's Market. Ted is in charge of recipe development, Gudrun, marketing.  

Ted and Gudrun soon have enough of a following to open their first store, a tiny 250 sq ft space on Whyte Avenue. 

Ted and Gudrun move to a 1,500 sq ft store selling made-from-scratch gluten-free creations as well as bought-in lifesavers like cookies and pasta. The little business with a big heart begins to boom. Their family booms too with the arrival of daughter Robin.

Twins Benjamin and Montana also arrive. Our Chocolate Chip cookie is named for her and it's still called that today.

One of Ted’s happiest customers is Lynne Bigam, diagnosed with Celiac disease. She and husband Jerry are impressed enough with Ted and Gudrun's goodies they decide to buy into the company. Jerry focusses on building new markets. 

But, there's one thing they have to tackle first. The name. Kinniki-WHAT? people asked.

Kinnikinnick is the name for Bearberry, the favourite fruit of, yep, bears. Naturally high in Vitamin C, these bright red alpine berries are a vital food source that lasts through the winter.  Native Americans prize them too, using them in pemmican, (a nutritious mix of meat protein and fat that lasts for years). In Algonquin, Kinnikinnick also means ‘mixture’, referring to its use with tobacco believed to carry the smoker’s prayers to the Great Spirit. Tea from the leaves is also used to treat urinary tract diseases and helps against obesity.

While that may be a great story for history buffs and botanists, is it really an okay name for a company? No one can spell it! On the other hand, everyone remembers it. So the name sticks. We’re glad it did.

Growing demand for Kinnikinnick means expanding to a modern 10,000 sq ft facility on 112th St, Edmonton, Alberta.

Safeway Canada becomes the first major grocery chain to stock our bread. In the freezer. Another first!

New product additions like bagels, pizza crusts and donuts and strong internet sales mean yet another jump to a 30,000 sq. ft. bakery and new headquarters on 120th St. Edmonton, Alberta. 

Back at HQ, Kinnikinnick joins forces with the Edmonton Chapter of the Canadian Celiac Association and puts on a gluten-free pancake breakfast every summer at the retail store.  

2002

We also get a call from a large US distributor saying, “Your products are the most requested that we don’t carry. How do we get you into our system?” This paves the way for Kinnikinnick to enter main street grocery retail.

Parents of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder start asking us for products that are not only gluten-free but also dairy free. So we make a separate line of products. It turns out that many people with Celiac disease are also dairy intolerant so we decide to go gluten AND dairy free to serve both sets of customers. 

By now the company has grown from the original six staff to around seventy.  Ted and Gudrun feel it's time to move on to new adventures. The Bigam family take full ownership of Kinnikinnick. 

The ‘new’ facility is already too small, operating two shifts and running out of space. So it’s a big commitment and yet a no-brainer to take over a second 120,000 sq ft. bakery when one of N. America’s largest cookie manufacturers, Sunland, closes down. Affectionately nicknamed K2 (like the Himalayan mountain that's so tough to climb) by our staff, it takes six months to decontaminate from allergens.

Production rates shoot up from sixty cookies a minute to a thousand. Bread to ten thousand loaves a day. New sophisticated production lines make cream-filled sandwich cookies like KinniToos and our new product development department works hard to perfect best-sellers like KinniKritters (animal cookies) and S’Moreables (graham-style cookies). By now, Kinnikinnick runs one of the largest dedicated gluten-free bakery plants in the world.

With new companies entering the market, we trailblaze again and come up with differentiators. A new soft bread and formulation, enriched with vitamins, minerals and 5 grams fibre per serving.

By popular demand we add pie crusts to our range. 

We celebrate our 25th Anniversary.

As market tastes change, Kinnikinnick re-brands. Our old logo gets a makeover and influences our new-look packaging.

Our focus shifts to cover not just gluten-free but scrumptious baked goods free-from most major allergens including dairy, nuts and peanuts and now soy. 

Consequently, our tag-line evolves from Gluten-Free Never Tasted So Good® to Best Things In Life Are Free-From®.

With 44 products and counting on the market, we’re always working hard to create new ones. We stay committed to the highest testing standards to make sure all our products are safe, scrumptious and a joy to eat.

There’s nothing that makes us happier than seeing the tears of joy on people’s faces when they bite into our donuts or piece of toast and say "This can't be free from gluten, it tastes too good!". What was a distant memory becomes a new, beautiful one. That's what our customers say. We get so many emails, letters, cards and social media posts thanking us for safe and scrumptious products. It's why we do what we do.

Kinnikinnick cares deeply about supporting the Celiac community and all those living with allergies and intolerance, which is why we're committed to developing new popular products in future customers old and new can cherish. We are very well known for making donations to the Celiac and allergy communities and those that need gluten-free food for community events. 

As a family-run business, our hearts are in everything we do. 

English Bay’s roots in the food industry began in 1983 with the English Bay Batter Inc. The famous cookie dough recipe that owner Jack Seguin developed to supply his two retail stores (one in English Bay Vancouver, hence the name), soon grew into large scale manufacturing with 6 plants and north American wide distribution.

English Bay Blending division began its operations in 2001 in a 43,000 sq ft facility in Delta BC. We added a Fine Chocolates division in 2007 followed by a bar line in 2018.

Our commitment to excellence in manufacturing food products of the highest quality has always been our mandate.

Our focus is co-manufacturing and private label. Created from your recipe or a custom formula derived by our in-house Research and Development team, our attention to detail ensures the products we produce will exceed your expectations.

“We know that the quality and future of our business depends on the quality and vision of the people in our organization. Retaining a long-term crew is key” explains Jack