No. 2 Thorncliffe Park Drive, as many of you are aware, is a long strip of businesses, at the stub of Thorncliffe Park Drive north of Overlea Boulevard. Unit 40 is the home of Trupti Enterprises Inc. You really should visit.
Trupti in Sanskrit is “satisfaction,” and that is what you’ll feel as you wander the aisles. Looking for Dettol, or Tiger Balm, four different sized packages of chickpeas? Or maybe saffron from Spain, cinnamon stick from Vietnam or cardamom from Central America? You’ll find it – all packaged and ready to go.
Trupti is proud to be a business where HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) principles and guidelines rule. All the food they buy from importers meets the standard, and as they grind, roast or blend, they continue to ensure the standards are met.
Bharat Kotak, originally from Tanzania, worked in electronics when he first came to Canada. He met Apexa, who is originally from Surat, India, when on a job at the Indian store where she worked. In 1997, married and living in Thorncliffe, they took the advice of a friend who said, “You can never go wrong with food items – everyone needs food to eat,” and rented a unit at 2 Thorncliffe. They started a wholesale business with one table at the front, using a coffee grinder to grind peppercorns. After offering samples of various products, they expanded the business into retail as well.
In those early days, their two children spent time after school stocking shelves or learning how to work the cash. While not at the business every day, the kids are still involved. Their son, a tech expert, took advantage of a grant from the Ontario government to set up their online presence – https://trupti.ca – once Covid changed the way businesses needed to conduct themselves. Their daughter, who works for the Ontario government, looks after the details of HACCP certification.
What you see at the front of Trupti is the original unit with its retail aisles. What you don’t see are the four additional units at the back and 20+ employees working on the wholesale side of the business. This includes creating products, including custom spice blends, for a number of private labels destined for companies you’ve likely heard of. There is also a kitchen where Trupti can work with restaurant operators looking to develop a special flavour blend. In one room, there are spice grinders; in another, stone mills for grinding flours. There is “a lot of demand for our products,” says Bharat Kotak, which certainly pleases them as they meet their goal of “the highest quality of products in the safest way possible [for] our customers.” Certainly, Trupti (satisfaction) is guaranteed.
