About Qzina

Vision

To Be the Customer's First Choice for Chocolate, Dessert & Pastry Ingredients.

Mission

To Deliver Inspirational Products, Ingredients and Services to Gourmet Professionals.

Chef-to-Chef Services

Qzina Gourmet Account Managers are passionate about pastry. Experienced pastry chefs, they are well qualified to provide recipe development, menu development, product testing and above all Inspiration for Chocolate, Dessert & Pastry Professionals.

History

Qzina has a rich 29 year history in the world of chocolate and pastry. Founded in the basement of the Foley family home, the still current CEO, Richard Foley took a few blocks of decadent Belgian chocolate from his father's candy manufacturing plant, Foley's Candies, and sold them to Qzina's first customer, Bridges Restaurant in Vancouver. Bridges remains a customer today.

At 21, Richard stumbled into the Belgian chocolate industry in its early infancy and soon after established a small warehouse in Burnaby. By 1988, Qzina was importing a wide assortment of pastry and cocoa products like Gerkens Cocoa from Holland, Dobla cups and decorations from The Netherlands, Chocolaterie Kathy chocolate sea shells from Belgium, and Oatfield candies from Ireland. In keeping with family tradition, Richard's brother David decided to take a break from academics to start selling and storing chocolate and pastry products from a rented basement suite on the West side of Toronto. Early deliveries were done in his 1986 Camaro.

David soon moved to a small warehouse in Brampton and started the Ontario distribution company Foley Gourmet Foods. Eventually he headed south to open a branch in Florida and another branch in New Jersey. Then the two competitive brothers joined forces to form one international company David named Qzina  a take off on 'cuisine'. In 2005, David sold his shares and Richard, together with his brother Allen, set out to manufacture chocolate products in a new factory adjacent to Qzina in Vancouver.

Dynamic Chocolates was formed and went on to manufacture boxed chocolates, cups, bars and other chocolate novelties. High output machinery and advanced systems enabled a production output of over 60 finished half pound boxes of chocolates per minute. By 1998 Qzina and Dynamic had warehouses and factories in two countries, seven cities, and collectively were selling and processing over ten million pounds of chocolate annually while employing over 150 people. Late in 1999, the family accepted a compelling offer by an American chocolate group to purchase Dynamic and they decided to focus strictly on distribution.

To expand the business in the United States, Richard ventured to Florida with Tony Canino. Tony and Bill Andersen, co-founders of Yamkovy Imports in Edmonton, had been a distributor and customer of Richard's for many years. Qzina experienced a period of significant growth and maturity between 2000 and 2005 which caught the attention of a private equity group managed by HSBC Capital Canada. With a new investment partner and a vision for continued growth, Qzina purchased Ambassador Fine Foods in late 2006 becoming the largest distributor of chocolate and pastry ingredients in North America.

Today Qzina remains strong and committed. It is investing more in people, infrastructure, equipment and technology as it continues on its course of expansion, both organically and through acquisition. Founders own a substantial portion of the company and current President, Rex Ciavola, who joined the Qzina Family in 2008, is also an equity partner. Qzina is now headquartered in Pompano Beach FL with eight key market warehouses and offices across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Qzina attributes its success to its dedicated employees, outstanding suppliers and above-all to its inspiring customers.