Henning Freybe
President & CEO, Freybe Gourmet Foods

When Henning joined his father Ulrich at Freybe Gourmet Foods in 1970, the company had 35 employees and sold its line of sausages throughout British Columbia, Canada. By the end of the century, the family-owned and operated Canadian business had grown to 250 employees and was supplying gourmet ham, sausage and specialty meat products to customers throughout Canada, the United States and Japan.

Born in Stettin, Germany in 1942, Henning graduated in 1965 from the University of British Columbia and earned an MBA at U.B.C. in 1968. After two years of training in the banking industry with Royal Trust, he joined the family business as head of sales.

Together with his management team, Henning has spurred the company through an impressive period of steady growth, including expansions to its original East Vancouver plant in 1977 and 1986. Before his father passed away in 1992, Henning was named company president. In May of 2001, he moved the company to a 10,000 sq. meters (120,000 sq. feet), state-of-the-art production facility in Langley, B.C.

Sven Freybe
President, Freybe Gourmet Chef

Henning Freybe’s son and the sixth generation of the 160-year-old family business, Sven balances dual roles as Vice President of Freybe Gourmet Foods and President of the Freybe Gourmet Chef division.

Born in Vancouver in 1972, Sven graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1995. Majoring in marketing, his study abroad included a period at the Business University of Vienna in Austria. After graduating from university, he spent a two-year practicum in Austria and Germany to further study deli industry production and marketing techniques at four separate companies.

Joining the family business as a marketing specialist in 1997, Sven quickly assumed the leadership at Freybe’s subsidiary Gourmet Chef – specializing in high-quality soups, salads and condiments.