Jake Edmiston

1 week ago | thespec.com | Jake Edmiston

Nobody at the store knew the CEO was coming that morning, but suddenly, there he was, standing in the produce section, admiring a state-of-the-art pineapple-peeling machine. Per Bank, CEO of Canadian grocery giant Loblaw, had arrived for a surprise inspection and wanted to see if the machine was in working order. It was a little booth off to the side, a fruit-torture peep show, with windows so you could watch a set of robotic knives shear and core the pineapple, then deposit it into a container.

3 weeks ago | thespec.com | Jake Edmiston

Mohamad Fakih has taken back control of his Mississauga-based restaurant chain, Paramount Fine Foods, putting an end to a long and bitter dispute with his biggest shareholder. Fakih and his Kuwait-based partner, Ali Noureddine, have been fighting in Ontario Superior Court for four years — to the point that one judge said the relationship had gotten so bad, it was threatening to destroy the entire business.

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jake Edmiston

It was becoming obvious to Peter Neal that something had to be done about his tortilla chips. They were the top seller for his snack brand, Neal Brothers, stocked in stores all across Canada. But they were made in the United States, and that was quickly becoming a problem. So he set out to find a factory in Canada. In ordinary times, this sort of thing would be a dangerous adventure.

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jake Edmiston |Ana Pereira

Rod McIntyre, a crane operator at Stelco’s Hamilton Works, was at the plant earlier this week and could feel something was off. Orders were down and one of the lines had dropped a shift. It made him nervous, especially for his brother, who also works at the steel plant but has much less union seniority, so he might be at risk if things got really bad and Stelco was forced to cut workers. “I’ve probably never watched the news so much,” he said.

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jake Edmiston |Ana Pereira

Rod McIntyre, a crane operator at Stelco’s Hamilton Works, was at the plant earlier this week and could feel something was off. Orders were down and one of the lines had dropped a shift. It made him nervous, especially for his brother, who also works at the steel plant but has much less union seniority, so he might be at risk if things got really bad and Stelco was forced to cut workers. “I’ve probably never watched the news so much,” he said.