Preparing the Four Brands of Success – Winnipeg Free Press

It started with a batch of soup.

A simple mash-up of two Winnipeg friends recipes: one chicken broth, one beef. Seven years later, the duo operates four local businesses and is expanding.

“It's been a crazy journey,” said Shawn Vidal, founder of Bones & Marrow.

He is also the co-owner of the Pop Cart Wpg brand; Abiding Citizen, which sells drink mixes and snacks; and Juice Me, which offers “super shots” like ginger to add to drinks.

First, Vidal became close friends with Ryan Wiebe, whom he met at university.

The couple played volleyball together. Now they are creating an umbrella company to cover the businesses they bought and are looking for their own kitchen.

“There wasn't much hope that it would be a job for us,” 45-year-old Vidal recalled.

He made beef bone broth made by boiling animal bones and joints for fun in 2017, a hobby outside of his job at Muddruckers, a local concrete restoration company.

Meanwhile, Wiebe taught high school students.

Like Vidal, he loved food. His wife is a naturopathic doctor who recommends bone broth to some clients; In 2017, a customer asked Wiebe if she would make bone broth, and she accepted the invitation.

Chicken bones and water and vegetables came out. He kept trying different mixes, different approaches. Then he found out that Vidal was making bone broth.

One day, the two met to test recipes and mixed chicken and beef together.

“It was really cool,” Wiebe, 45, recalled. “We decided we were going to be something unique.”

They gave the blended soup to Wiebe's wife's client and received positive feedback. Soon after, the friends filled out the paperwork to start a business: Bones & Marrow.

It would be a side hustle, the men decided. They ordered black chef coats, filled large thermoses with soup, and headed to their first event, the 2018 market at the Victoria Inn in Winnipeg.

“We had very little understanding of what we were doing,” Wiebe admitted. But he sees the day as a success—an ego boost filled with new customers and people sipping the soup appreciatively.

Budding entrepreneurs thought something. Before long, they were talking to wellness organizations about featuring their soups at company events; they appeared in larger markets and grew social media followings.

A branch of Miller's Meats has reached out to Bones & Marrow to put products in its butcher shop, Wiebe said. This deal led to more contracts with butchers.

Bones & Marrow has expanded its line of soups to include soups.

Meanwhile, its founders continued their daily work. Wiebe would sometimes finish class and go straight to the commercial kitchen they rented. He would watch over the simmering soup all night, leave with Vidal in the morning, and sleep nearby on a foam mattress before heading back to school.

“It wasn't sustainable, but the concept had to be tested,” Wiebe said.

At the beginning of 2020, the business was too big to handle comprehensively. Wiebe chose to “take the plunge.” In February 2020, he notified his employer that he would not be returning in the fall.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he questioned his choice to forego health benefits, but “I haven't regretted that decision,” Wiebe said of choosing full-time entrepreneurship.

He and a new full-time employee took over most of the day-to-day operations of the company.

Sales spiked during the pandemic, Wiebe recalled. Summer would be a different story.

Until 2020, Wiebe and Vidal took a break from Manitoba's hottest months and did well. However, the lack of summer stock sales doesn't fly with salaried employees. Wiebe and Vidal brainstormed new business ideas, but paused when they saw Pop Cart Wpg for sale. In the spring of 2021, they bought the company.

“It was the perfect kind of seasonal blend,” Wiebe said.

Over the next two years, they managed both Pop Cart and Bones & Marrow. The latter company now sells its products in about 35 Manitoba stores, including the Red River Co-op.

The acquisition of Abiding Citizen came in late 2023. Vidal wanted to make Bones & Marrow/Pop Cart his full-time job as well—it needed a new income stream.

Chad Friesen, owner of Fête Ice Cream, and his wife considered selling Abiding Citizen when they set up shop next to Pop Cart during the Exchange District market.

“We either slowed down to focus on our families and our real jobs, or we slowed down to take it full-time and expand,” said Friesen, a real estate agent. “Ryan and Shawn seemed like the kind of people who were ready to do the things we dreamed of and wanted to take it to the next level.”

Friesen now sees Abiding Citizen in local retailers — seeing its recipes expanded “brings pride,” he said.

The ink was barely dry on the latest deal when the Juice Me founder approached Wiebe and Vidal about buying the brand, Wiebe said. In February, the team acquired a fourth business.

However, Bones & Marrow is limited by its production space, Wiebe noted. The company rents a shared facility; he is looking for his hub.

He is also creating an umbrella company called Prairie Stock Market & Goods that will house his brands.

Wiebe and Vidal's team consists of 10-12 people at a time, including casual workers; they're always hiring, Wiebe said.

“We bounce ideas off each other non-stop,” Vidal added.

It is difficult and difficult to get the business of fellow entrepreneurs, he said. It's somebody's baby – they've put thousands of hours into the brand.

“You want to respect their point of view,” Vidal said.

However, he and Wiebe have no plans to buy anyone's business anytime soon, Wiebe said. Instead, they expect to increase their brand's presence at summer farmers' markets, particularly at Wolseley, South Osborne and East St. Paul.

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Gabriel Piche
Reporter

Gabby is a big fan of people, writing and reading. She graduated from Red River College's Creative Communications program in spring 2020.

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