2023 ESG Report
A NOFRILLS® brand love story
January 16, 2020
Emiliano and Ana Hernandez met when they were just eight years old, living next door to each other in the Philippines. They didn't start dating until university, after they kept running into each other at the bus station. And when they got married, 33 years ago, their plan was to start a life in Canada. Ana had already immigrated, working as a nanny and saving money so she could sponsor her husband.
It took six long years for Emiliano to join her in Toronto, in 1992. For days, he walked the streets and looked for "Help Wanted" signs. He didn't speak much English, but he was a fast learner.
In the beginning, he worked two full-time jobs. Ana would wake him up for his night shift before she went to bed. Then, he found a part-time clerk job at a new NOFRILLS® store near their apartment. He also found a mentor. Fab Prevedel was the Store Manager at the store, and one day, he called Emiliano into his office. "I was shaking," Emiliano says. "As an immigrant, getting called by the boss into the office is very scary—I didn't know what to expect." But Fab had something positive to offer: he was going to be the Franchisee of a new NOFRILLS store in Woodbridge, and he wanted Emiliano to work for him.
"He felt that he was a good worker, that he was reliable," says Ana. Fab would remind Emiliano it was time to take his break, and Emiliano would try to refuse, saying he hadn't finished his work yet.
For two years, he worked at Fab's NOFRILLS store in Woodbridge, moving up the ladder to become Associate Manager. Ana wasn't nannying anymore; when she wasn't raising their young kids—they had four over the years, three girls and a boy—she was working as a customer-service rep at a publishing company. Her parents, whom she sponsored to come to Canada, helped care for the kids when she and Emiliano were at work.
In 1997, Fab approached Emiliano with a new idea: Franchising. Emiliano began training while acting as the Store Manager of a corporately run NOFRILLS store run in Brampton.
"I didn't have money, so I wasn't sure if it was the right fit," he says. "I knew a franchise costs a lot of money and I just arrived in Canada. We were not stable financially to make this sort of move."
But he learned it wasn't about the money. Loblaw was willing to provide everything Emiliano would need to become a franchisee. He and Ana talked it over, and they felt supported in this new venture.
In 1999, they bought their first NOFRILLS franchise, at McCowan Road and Highway 401. Friends of theirs thought they must've won the lottery—they just laughed in response.
Ana quit her customer-service job to take on a co-owner role at the store, which is indicative of a larger trend: the NOFRILLS banner has the highest participation of women in store management of any Loblaw banner, with more than 40 per cent of stores having an active female co-owner. Emiliano and Ana were always hard workers, but he says once they owned a store, they worked ten times harder. "It was nerve-wracking, exciting, life-changing. Every decision as a franchisee affects other people, because so many people depend on that location to feed their family." In 2004, Loblaw offered the couple a new NOFRILLS store at Jane Street and Lawrence Avenue. They ran it for eight years before buying a new franchise store in Etobicoke, where they still are today.
Their teamwork is impressive: they drive to work together, eat all their meals together, parent their children together, and make professional decisions together. People sometimes ask if they get sick of each other.
"No!" Ana says, laughing. "We're husband and wife—we have to stick together."
