They’ve been there and done that. Now they’re going for the gusto.

Tossing conventional norms aside, four Albertans left successful career paths behind and put their livelihoods on the line. All chose the food industry and not one is looking back.

“I was bored out of my mind,” said D’Arcy McCrea, after 25 years of working in sales and marketing for CBS Records, now better known as Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

Today, as the man behind Pepperheads Canada, the Turner Valley gourmet sauce company, he is having the time of his life.

In Edmonton, three women banded together to open The Store, a unique food venture on the city’s trendy south side, offering fresh, homemade food specialties.

Jack Dagley photos, for Business Edge
As the man behind Pepperheads Canada, a Turner Valley gourmet sauce company, D’Arcy McCrea is having

Each partner operates her own separate business within The Store, while covering one-third of the overall enterprise’s operating costs.

The concept takes into account that having three businesses under one roof – rather than one – will increase their chances for success.

“Am I happy? Yes.” comes the resounding answer from Susan Campbell, a former senior lawyer and policy analyst for the federal government’s Justice Department. This despite having to work at a part-time job to keep afloat Campbell Cakes, which along with Olive Me Inc. and Urban Rustic Gourmet comprise The Store.

Major doses of passion plus the additional sprinkle of fun appear to be the key ingredients in these career transitions.

For McCrea, who prefers the title Pepper Prez to the traditional president or CEO, a lack of originality was behind his move to leave the music industry. “There was no creativity. They (the industry) didn’t want to hear of new ideas or new ways of doing things. The industry was becoming too formulated.”

Despite a “fabulous” local boss in Calgary and being in on the ground floor with groups such as The Dixie Chicks before they made it big, McCrea left Sony a little more than three years ago. He would ultimately turn his attention to the sauce industry, deciding it was time to give “the bad boys of hot sauces” a run for their money. “Some of these have names or labels that should be in a triple-X shop,” said McCrea, adding that he wanted to put out a quality product that was more family friendly.

A study of the sauce industry ultimately led to the creation of Wild Garlic Hot Sauce, Pepperheads’ first product, in McCrea’s home kitchen in Turner Valley, southwest of Calgary.

“There’s nothing better than a night out with garlic,” said McCrea, “and everybody started to love it.”

Wild Garlic was soon followed by two versions of Dark Secrets – one a BBQ sauce, the other a hot sauce – Piri-Piri Wing & Seafood Sauce, Wild Garlic Salsa and Pizza Sauce and the PPH Traditional BBQ Rub. More sauce sensations are on the drawing board.



Creating the recipes and the buzz was easy, said McCrea.

“It’s a creative lifestyle, which I like. I’m not clearing it past a board (as in boardroom) and the big thing is that I get to interact with customers.

“I’ll probably interact with 50,000 customers this year. You can’t buy that kind of advice.”

However, while McCrea has no regrets, he does have a lot of work. Customers’ rave reviews of the Pepperhead sauces make his day, but he still puts in the long hours required to get a small business off the ground.

From farmers’ markets to tradeshows and cold calls, Pepperheads is making it into more and more independent stores, while avoiding the restrictive requirements needed to place the sauces in major supermarket chains.

His travelling schedule, meanwhile, easily rivals that of popular touring rock and roll groups as he takes his promotional roadshow across Alberta and B.C.

But even with his investment in Pepperheads approaching $100,000, and his take-home cut being much lower, McCrea is exhilarated, almost talking about each product as if it were one of his children.

A website, www.pepperheadsinc.com, which tells customers where they can get the sauces and allows them to exchange recipes, also “welcomes them to the family of an expanding amount of mouths to feed.”

Feeding mouths is what Campbell and her partners Isabelle Fontaine and Geedes Casino have also set out to do.

Fontaine, whom Campbell refers to as “the lynchpin” behind the operation, left a career working with the mentally challenged to start what would eventually become The Store.

Unlike Campbell and Casino, she had already started her own food business, Olive Me, and was looking to expand.

Her dream location at 8613 109 St., however, originally proved to be just that – a dream. “I did a cost analysis and if I would have opened the shop on my own, that would have been the end of my business,” said Fontaine, a single mother.

“Up until then, it was growing on a monthly basis,” she says.

Not to be deterred, Fontaine bided her time, but was determined to take her gourmet olive company to the next level.

A passion for olives ignited during a trip to Europe in 1993 – astonishingly, she hated olives before then – saw her start to make the almond-stuffed olives she could not find once she returned to Edmonton. The recipes caught on, and a business was born.

Fontaine would ultimately hook up with Campbell, who was baking in the same commercial kitchen, and Casino, “this bubbly person who came to my booth at the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market with enthusiasm pouring out.”

Fate would also play its hand, as three years later Fontaine’s perfect location was still available. Moreover, with Campbell and Casino ready and willing, there were now three equal partners. Start-up costs were reasonable at about $15,000 each and the need to generate $1,000 apiece to cover monthly operating costs.

For Campbell, The Store’s opening in December 2002 allowed her to have her cake and eat it, too.

“If I ever feel at peace with the universe, it’s when I’m baking cake,” said Campbell. While she had baked before for fun and to help the United Way, she started to look at life differently just before her 50th birthday. Her father fell ill and died before he had time to enjoy his retirement, and friends in their 40s had died of breast cancer. “I just started to think, what’s it all about?”

Exhausted and ready for a change, she left the big money behind. Now she bakes homemade cakes such as Mango Sour Cherry or Black Mocha Chocolate Decadence for a growing list of clients. “Do I regret what I did? Not for one second.” said Campbell.

As for Casino, who started selling cookies when she was seven, opening Urban Rustic Gourmet has taken her out of her financial comfort zone. She left a secure job in Fort McMurray with Syncrude to create her flavour-fusion adventure, a line that includes gourmet salsas, meals to go and other delicacies.

“They wanted me to stay, but it was the right time to pursue something else,” said Casino, who was handling project-organization duties for the oilsands giant.

“It’s been a very challenging eight months, but there has been progressive growth,” said Casino. Like the others, she has no regrets. “I know where I want to go and I know I can make things happen if I work hard enough.”