Italian food importer celebrating 60 years in Vancouver
Sixty years may be less than an average lifespan these days – but it’s almost unheard of for a family-run business.
Consider that it was in 1957 – the year John Diefenbaker became prime minister and Sputnik 1 launched the space race – that Augusto Bosa opened his business on Victoria Drive, selling imported specialties to the burgeoning Italian community surrounding the nearby Commercial Drive.
It wasn’t exactly a new venture. Bosa had been importing food into Powell River since the early 1930s – surviving the Depression – to help sustain the many immigrants working the mines and mills with the flavours of home. East Vancouver offered an opportunity to expand the business and provide for a bigger base.
“He had a natural instinct for what would sell or what customers would want,” recalls his great-niece Mary, who has been working at Bosa Foods for 50 years. “He always liked to import good quality at a good price and I think that was what drew people in the early years.”
As a schoolgirl, Mary (who didn’t want to give her last name) began helping “Uncle Bosa” with the books on Friday evenings and Saturdays at the original Victoria Drive store. Orders were typed and sent out by mail or telex.
“He was tough but he was fair. You kind of toed the line with him. He was an old-fashioned European type,” she says.
That included a tendency to trust more in cash.
“He would take your cheques if he knew you. He didn’t want to be taken for a ride, that’s for sure,” she says.
As Augusto passed the business over to a second generation, and now a third – though he was still spending time at Victoria Drive just months before his death in 1993 at 88 – Mary has seen first hand how Bosa Foods has grown into a pillar of Vancouver’s Italo-Canadian community.
Today it continues to expand and diversify its product range. That includes products from across the Mediterranean basin, as well as regional, often exclusive, Italian products under the IGP and DOP appellations.
The opening of a 54,000-square-foot warehouse and store near Boundary Road in 2006 gave Bosa space to begin distribution to Alberta, Manitoba and even some Toronto locations.
But the local focus has remained strong – a fact made clear by the current redevelopment of its Victoria Drive location, due for completion in the fall. As has the commitment to carrying the finest everyday ingredients that their Italian customers swear by: “good quality olive oil, good quality tomatoes, cheese and meats,” says Victor Benedet, Bosa’s operations manager and Augusto’s great nephew.
The store’s attention to sourcing has also attracted many top-level local chefs over the years. Ivo Marino, for one, has been going there for more than 20 years.
The executive chef at Giardino Restaurant in Vancouver picks up a lot of exclusive, high-end charcuterie from Bosa, including the prized culatello salumi. Marino is also partial to the grana padano and parmigiano reggiano cheeses, because he knows the product will be looked after properly.
“They bring a particular age of the product and then they cellar it here before they release it on the market,” Marino says. “A lot of other companies just buy it then resell it right away, rather than taking care of the cheese until it is the proper age to sell.”
The general rule of thumb is that exclusive products carry exclusive prices. But Benedet says Bosa has always been mindful to make its goods affordable.
“We have a good value to quality ratio. We import direct, we don’t deal with any other middlemen, from the source in Italy direct to the consumer. With 60 years of history behind us and the number of suppliers we’ve been dealing with for 30, up to 40 years in some instances, they know the quality that our consumer wants.”
But it’s the family connection that keeps people coming back, Mary believes. She’s now seeing a third generation of Bosa customers shopping at the store.
“We still have a bit of that homey touch. … We try to treat people as we would like to be treated and try to spend a couple of minutes with them.
“I think it’s because we still have quite a bit of family involved. It’s modernized but its got a homey touch, too.”
