Teri Wallace
Brian Siddall’s food manufacturing and marketing career actually took shape while he was employed by the Department of Industry and Commerce for the Province of Saskatchewan as their computer liaison officer in 1980. While off duty, Brian grew and distributed packaged alfalfa sprouts for the Regina market. Brian’s government job provided him with an excellent vantage point to recognize the trends and priorities in the local and national food industry.
In order to design and produce foods that are smart and timely for the marketplace, Brian was invited to join the development teams of his client companies. While these companies were initially small or provincial in their scope (such as RF Foods & Kavannagh Foods), they provided Brian with the fundamental knowledge to be able to supply his speciality at the time. Brian’s new found knowledge prompted him to produce his own brand of health snacks under the banner of Unicorn Natural Foods which was sold in health food stores across Canada by 1985 and continues to this day. ( Brian sold the Unicorn brand and production house in 1999).
The demand for Brian’s involvement with multi national food companies entered a new era in 1987, while working with National Importers Ltd, he formulated product and designed and built a sesame snap bar production factory. To establish this factory, Brian raised the capitol, designed and supervised the building of equipment and trained all staff in a 4 month period to reach a target of 500,000 lbs. monthly production. These products won top prize for Best New Contemporary Snack Food in the Paris, France Food Festival of September, 1988.
He has specialized in ENERGY BARS and has a wide range of experience including, product development of Energy Drink Mixes, Confection, Liquorice, chocolate and crackers. In 1981 Brian designed, produced and sold the Unicorn Natural Foods Confection line. This line has been selling across Canada in Health Food stores since 1985.
In 1995, Brian designed and produced a line of high carbohydrate fruit bars for the American NBA league that were first released in British Columbia.
Other brands he developed: RF Foods, Abenakis Foods, Satau Foods, Puritan Quartz Pharmaceuticals (Calif.), Vital Foods, Toute Sweet Chocolates, Elegant Gourmet (Seattle), Rebar Inc.(Oregon), Nutribiotics (Calif.), Nutrination, Living Harvest Conscious Nutrition, Pro1 Nutrition Inc., Canadian Hemp Corp., PROsnack Natural Foods, Inc., Natures Path, Dan.D. Foods Ltd., and Fresh Ideas & Solutions Inc., just to name a few.
In 1997, he designed and produced the Prozone Bars for Nutribiotics. These bars won the People’s Choice Award in the energy bar category at Marketplace ‘97, the National Nutritional Food Association trade show in Las Vegas, July ‘97. In order to satisfy the initial demand for this type of portable nutritional food, he expanded his factory, Rocky Mountain Natural Food Products in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Over the past 28 years, the variety of products that he has developed have included such attributes as high protein (Soya), specific blends of carbohydrates, fat and protein, inclusion of oils high in omega 3,6, 9 fatty acids, and isoflavanoids accompanied with specifically tailored botanicals, custom formulated by Brian to further enhance the products. In total, over the past 23 years, Brian has built (6) new factories in British Columbia a major production line in Vietnam and consulted to the installation of an energy bar production line for a chocolate factory in northern China.
In 2005, Brian became the President of Shape Foods Inc. and as part of a founding team of 5 people, $21 million was raised and spent on the building and launching of a 77,000 sq.ft. flax oil processing plant in Brandon, Manitoba. During his tenure as part of the management, Brian launched the marketing program for the new company which took him to Germany and the Ukraine. At the same time, he participated in establishing a revolutionary process for preserving the freshness of flax oil as well as pioneering a special microencapsulation process for the oil.
Throughout his years in the Food industry, Brian has become a well respected consultant, who has used his valuable wealth of experience and knowledge to help build innovative products and equipment designs for all the factories he has been associated with.
Brian continues to operate as a consultant to the food industry and conventional projects.
