‘Buy Canadian’ Social Media Post Becomes Secret Ingredient to Help Save City’s Condiment Business

March 24, 2025 journo

Shenul Williams and a selection of her products – credit Aliza Welch, family photo

Thanks to a little love in a ‘Buy Canadian’ Reddit room, a small condiment business thinks they’ve found the secret ingredient to success: patriotism.

Aki’s Fine Foods has been manufacturing Indo-African sauces and chutneys out of Pickering, Ontario, for 38 years, but owner Shenul Williams says she’s never seen anything like the sales numbers being put up this year.

After the province’s lockdown orders during the Pandemic sent many of Williams’ key grocery store buyers out of business, it seemed like she was going to follow suit, and the company started originally by her parents wouldn’t make it to the third generation.

Realizing that her mother could lose her business if something didn’t happen, Willams’ daughter Aliza Welch posted a call for help in a Reddit room called Buy Canadian.

“My mom owns a Canadian-made Indo-African sauce company that has been in business for 38 years. It is truly amazing and has been struggling since COVID,” Welch wrote.

“With so much interest in buying small Canadian companies, I figured I would share her products as an alternative. Your support would change her life. All products have a maple leaf!”

That ‘support’ saw sales on Aki’s Fine Foods‘ website increase 4,000%.

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Williams said the impact is “saving my business.”

“I can’t believe it,” she said. “I can remember one little note. This lady said, ‘Keep it up.’ You know, make Canadian. ‘We want Canadian.’”

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Gary Sands, senior vice president of public policy and advocacy for the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, said “he’s never seen anything” like the reorganization of Canadian producers and vendors toward buying, sourcing, and selling local in the wake of US President Trump’s newly imposed 25% import tariffs.

Speaking with CBC, Sands said that Williams’ newfound success is just one manifestation of this all-consuming and rapid business trend sweeping the Great White North.

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