Munch hour

Inno Foods sinks its teeth into the bite-sized, healthy snack market

When Doo Yun Park describes the customer who walked into his bakeshop years ago and dared him to do the impossible, the gleam in his eye grows brighter.

“It was 1989 when somebody came in and asked if we had any bread without sugar,” says the Inno Foods co-owner. “We didn’t, so I jumped into trying it out. After that, we started baking all of our products without sugar.”

Park and his wife, Linda, were running Park’s Bread ‘n’ Buns in Coquitlam amid a growing North American push for healthier food alternatives. Park rose to the occasion by teaching himself how to swap out fundamental bread-baking ingredients— sugar, the fuel for yeast, being one of them—without forfeiting quality or taste.

The Parks’ consumer responsiveness enabled their high-volume bakery business to eventually morph into today’s Inno Foods, a leading global supplier of bitesized organic snacks designed for diverse diets and discerning taste buds. Indeed, they chose the name “Inno” to reflect their commitment to innovation, even naming their second son—and Inno Foods’ chief technology officer—Hyuk Si, which means “innovation” in Korean.

Inno Foods president David Chung considers this willingness to experiment a key ingredient of success. When Costco worked with the company to develop a delicious coconut cluster without the usual binders and additives, Inno Foods’ R & D team turned it around in record time.

Chung also credits the company’s selfsufficiency for weathering the pandemic: When COVID-19 hit hard, Inno Foods’ engineers developed the capacity to produce Level 3 medical face masks in addition to their regular items. “It was about keeping our employees employed,” says Bill Allen, Inno Foods vice president, “and giving back to the community.”

Humility and community are other key words associated with Inno Foods, which donated products to North American frontline workers during the pandemic, while supporting a range of local charities, such as BC Cancer and BC Children’s Hospital foundations. Park remains grateful to the community of Scarborough, Ontario, where he got his start as a young immigrant in 1979 at a Bun King franchise, learning everything from cleaning floors to operating the till to baking bread.”

Says Allen, “We still act like a small, family-run business. But we do it on a global scale.

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