Two friends founded Skeet & Ike’s in 1996: Ian Walker and Jason
Dorland. The company actually began as a graphic design project. At the
time Jason was a student as the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
in Vancouver, and as a year-end project he decided to design a packaging
concept for a food product he had been making at home. He had developed
some unique peanut butters by combining things like peanuts, almonds,
chocolate chips and coffee beans—Jason called them Skeet & Ike’s Not
Just Nuts Spreads. Skeet was his nickname, while Ike was his golden
retriever. With school finished, Jason asked his friend Ian to help him
see if this school project could work as a business.
It wasn’t very glorious in those days; they both worked
their day jobs and then at night used a commercial kitchen off hours
from 9:00pm ‘til midnight to make the spreads. They would do this all
week and then sell their wares on the weekend at a day table at the
Granville Island Market. After a few months, their little venture was
becoming a bit overwhelming as requests from local stores were now
coming in. So, logically, they quit their jobs and formally started
Skeet & Ike’s.
As more and more stores asked for their products, Ian and
Jason approached some local distributors—however, none of them were
interested. So, they took matters into their own hands and began
distributing their crazy nut spreads themselves. By 1998, with peanut
butter sales declining throughout North America, Ian and Jason had
exited the peanut butter business and entered the competitive snack food
market. They started manufacturing roasted organic seeds and soy nuts,
and even expanded into the private label business.
Having recently graduated from the trunk of their cars to a
delivery van, Ian and Jason saw an opportunity for a small number of
grocery items to do well and compete against the larger distributors—Left Coast Naturals distribution was born!
Skeet & Ike’s now manufactures several different types of Organic and Natural Snacks
and grocery products including: Organic Roasted Seeds, Organic Roasted
Nuts, Organic Trail Mixes, Organic Granola, Organic Popcorn as well as
other delicious snacks that are distributed across Canada.
And, here they are today - 15 years later - not quite as
much hair, but Jason and Ian couldn't be happier with how things have
turned out!
Skeet and Ike's is very fortunate to have such a fun,
conscientious and hard working group of folks who help make, move, sell
and generally take great care in all that they do at Skeet & Ike's.