Andreina and Oscar Chavez on a preview of CBC's Dragons' Den. (Supplied by CBC)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge’s FresK-O Cheese appearing on Dragons’ Den Thursday

Oct 24, 2019 | 6:00 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A local cheese manufacturer will be on CBC’s hit show, Dragons’ Den, as they look to grow their business.

Although they are not legally allowed to give any spoilers as to what the end result of their pitch was, owners Andreina and Oscar Chavez spoke to LNN about their business and their experience on the show.

FresK-O Cheese is a family-owned business. The Chavez’s are originally from Venezuela and first moved to Leduc, Alberta, later opening their production facility just south of Lethbridge.

Andreina explains that they make their Latin-American style cheese by hand and elaborated on why this kind of cheese is different from many offered in Canadian grocery stores.

“You can grill our cheese and it doesn’t melt when you grill it and you can make other Latin recipes as tapas or quesadillas or a lot of Latin recipes you can do.”

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The pair have already made their pitch to the Dragon’s in a pre-taped segment and asked for $200,000 for 20% of their business.

The company already has distribution in several stores in Alberta at Sobey’s, Safeway, Sunterra Market in Calgary, and Save-On-Foods.

Oscar says they need extra cash flow to increase their production so they can sell to larger companies like Superstore, Whole Foods, Costco, and Walmart.

“Being in Lethbridge is a blessing because it’s near the border of the States. Probably sometime in the future, we’re going to export there.”

Andreina says it was “the most wonderful experience that we had [on Dragons’ Den].

“I encourage entrepreneurs to apply for the program because the Dragons are very experienced people,” says Oscar Chavez. “Even if they don’t get a deal, they can get very good advice from them. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The episode of Dragons’ Den that will feature FresK-O Cheese will air on CBC this Thursday, October 24th at 9:00 pm. You can also watch the show on the free CBC Gem streaming service.

A special preview of the segment can be watched online here.