Sales he brought in during his first month as solo CEO, after rebuilding the company from scratch.
Justin Cheung was 18 and sitting in a student sustainability project at Simon Fraser University's Beedie School of Business when the idea hit. He kept thinking about the snack he grew up loving in Asia, candied, dehydrated citrus peel, and about how much of that exact peel grocery stores throw away every single day.
He turned the class project into a company. Cheung founded Second Savour, a Vancouver food-upcycling startup, and made deals with Save-On-Foods and a cold-pressed juice wholesaler to collect their discarded orange and lemon peels, then turned that waste into a snack he calls Citrus Treats. He did it while still working toward his undergraduate degree.
Then it nearly fell apart, and he rebuilt it. After the company hit rock bottom, Cheung reformed the team, took over as solo CEO, landed grants, and brought in more than 10,000 dollars in sales in his first month back. Second Savour is now on shelves at Save-On-Foods, and he was named to the BCBusiness 30 Under 30.
"He was 18, and he turned what the store threw out into what the store now sells."
Most people see garbage and see nothing. Cheung saw a supply chain, a snack, and a business, then held on through the part where it almost died. Turning waste into value is a nice idea. Doing it on real shelves, at 18, after a near-collapse, is the actual work.
This is the founder grit ANF keeps spotlighting. See the value everyone else throws away, build the business around it, and do not quit when it wobbles.
They were tossing the peels. He was building a company out of them.