We are continuing our series of interviews with businesses located in our communities which are owned or managed by Ukrainians, or serve Ukrainians (and everyone else). In late 2014, we visited Kingsway Meat Products, a butcher and deli shop, well-known in Сentral Etobicoke, residing at 2342 Bloor St. West.
At the shop, we were greeted by the whole team headed by Hubert Wesierski, the family patriarch, together with sons, Adam, Greg and daughter Ewa. The daily work was underway but Adam Wesierski was kind to talk and give us an interesting overview of the business and its development.
NP: How long has Kingsway Meat Products been around?
AW: Since 1987, 28 years now.
NP: What makes your business successful?
AW: It’s a family business. We make our own products, sausages, hams, cold-cuts and everything. We make them the old fashioned way, the way we want to eat it.
NP: You mean the old Polish way?
AW: We have Ukrainian sausages as well that we make.
NP: How are Ukrainian sausages different from Polish ones and anything else?
AW: It’s the recipe. More garlic.
NP: Ukrainians are famous for that. So Polish people don’t like garlic as much as Ukrainians?
AW: No, they do too, but it’s a particular recipe…(laughs)
NP: How are Ukrainian customers different from Polish and everyone else?
AW: Their Christmas and Easter are different dates, so their buying patterns are different. But they buy basically the same things.
NP: Do you have other recipes from other cuisines?
AW: No, just Eastern European.
NP: So, you have two locations?
AW: Yes, we used to make our sausages here, but then we moved to Mississauga.
NP: What kind of operation do you have in Mississauga?
AW: That’s where we make our sausage. We also have a store there, a wholesale outlet.
NP: How many people do you employ?
AW: There, we have 4 butchers.
NP: Overall?
AW: Roughly around 20.
NP: You’re basically known for the quality. Do you eat your own products? There are jokes, especially in the former Soviet Union, that people who work at butcher shops, they don’t eat their own products.
AW: Like I said, that’s the way we make it. We make it the way we want it for ourselves.
NP: How has your business developed? Any ups and downs?
AW: When we started, it was good. There was a big Polish immigration…
NP: In the 80’s?
AW: Yes, in the 80’s and 90’s. Then there was a little low. And then there was a large Ukrainian immigration 10-15 years ago and business picked up again. And now the business is good, it’s Bloor Street West, a lot of redevelopment, a lot of new people moving in. And our business is changing too, we are finding less ethnic Ukrainian, Polish, Russian people and more English-speaking people coming into this location.
NP: How would you split your clientele into different ethnic groups?
AW: We don’t really do market research, but it’s about half and half. There are a lot of generational clients, grandmothers coming in, the mothers coming in, and now you see the grandchildren coming in. The same family has come in for almost 30 years. There has been generational loyalty. There’s a lot of second-generations coming in, who are now English speakers. When I first started, it was about 90% ethnic and now it’s changing.
NP: That 50% that are Ukrainians and Poles…is it 50/50 between them?
AW: It used to be more Poles, but now it’s more Ukrainian and Russian customers at this location. I think they just reside here more in this area, on Bloor Street. But in Mississauga, it’s about 80% Polish. A lot of them moved out to Mississauga.
NP: Out of those English speakers, are they all old Canadians or other nationalities too?
AW: Yes, we get all nationalities. We have Spanish, French…pretty much the diversity of Canada is kind of like what comes here too.
NP: You have the sausages and meat products they probably never used to eat in their home countries…
AW: It’s true, especially for the Canadians. They are very curious about our products, they really like them and want to support local businesses. There seems to be a trend to that – people want to buy local, locally made. We sell a lot of fresh meat as well that is local.
NP: Do you sell fresh meat wholesale?
AW: No, no, retail in our store. Wholesale is a small part of our business. That’s why our process meets are such high quality because we don’t sell too much wholesale.
NP: So, people come to buy fresh meat here because they want to buy from a street shop rather than a big supermarket?
AW: Yes. We cut everything on site. It’s good quality.
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