Our roots go back to 1984 when Wally Large and Henry Zwynenburg founded Nanaimo’s Food Country. In 1986, Peter Cavin and spouse Laura Cavin, launched Mr. Grocer in the Victoria community of Esquimalt, a store in Royal Oak followed the next year.

After working together for a decade, our three groups came together formally in 1997 to create the Island Independent Buying Group, a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in Chemainus that allowed us to take advantage of greater buying power. For customers, that has meant access to more products and more competitive pricing.