Grow.
Scale.
Succeed.

Working with Marc has been incredibly valuable. Other programs often provide guidance at a more basic level, especially when you are still in the early stages of developing a business idea. With SCALE, the support has been much more connected to the day-to-day reality of running and growing a business.

Marc brings real experience and a deep understanding of the different practical options available to move forward, grow, stay sustainable, and continuously improve. That hands-on, realistic guidance has made a huge difference for me.

Honestly, SCALE has been one of the best programs I have experienced in Canada! The combination of practical support, real-world experience, and day-to-day guidance makes it very different from other programs I have participated in.

Ingrit

The SCALE UP program has been an incredibly valuable experience for me as the owner of Your Preference Kombucha. It has helped me gain a clearer understanding of our business priorities, the challenges we need to address, and the practical steps required to support sustainable growth.

The mentorship I have received from Marc Wandler has been outstanding. His business experience and guidance around grants, financing and investment have been invaluable. He has challenged me to think critically about our growth strategy, focus on the strongest opportunities, and connect our plans to realistic timelines, budgets and measurable results.

Through this process, we have developed a more focused plan for strengthening food safety, digital traceability, production efficiency and employee training. These improvements would help us better serve existing customers and prepare for larger retail, co-packing and private-label opportunities.

Our grant application is approximately 95% complete, and I am excited about the possibility of approval and moving forward with the proposed improvements. While securing the necessary capital remains a challenge, the program has given me greater clarity about what we need and how to communicate it.

As a small-business owner, I can honestly say this has been one of the most meaningful support experiences in our company’s development. I am grateful for Marc’s commitment and the opportunity to participate.

Bruce

Working with Robert through AFPA’s SCALE Program was an exceptional experience for our entire team at Wolfe Honey.

Robert supported us in developing and strengthening our workplace health and safety program in preparation for a customer social compliance audit. His knowledge, thoroughness, and practical approach helped us understand not only what was required, but how to build a stronger safety culture within our organization.

The results speak for themselves. With Robert’s guidance and the improvements we implemented through the SCALE Program, Wolfe Honey achieved a perfect 100% score on our customer audit—an accomplishment we are extremely proud of.

Beyond the results, Robert was genuinely a pleasure to work with. Our entire team loved working with him. He was knowledgeable, patient, kind, approachable, and incredibly thorough. He took the time to explain the reasoning behind his recommendations, answer our questions, and ensure our team actually learned throughout the process rather than simply checking boxes for an audit.

We came out of the project with a much stronger health and safety program, a more knowledgeable team, and practices that will continue to benefit our company well into the future.

We are extremely grateful to Robert and AFPA for their support through the SCALE Program and would highly recommend Robert to any organization looking to strengthen its workplace health and safety systems.

Paige