Our country’s rich history is rife with stories of immigrant families now calling Canada home, having arrived on our shores with the hope of creating a better life.George Kallas exemplifi es that ideal.His Canadian journey began in Montreal in 1962, when his parents made the trek to this newfound land of opportunity. George was just eleven years old.It was a far cry from life in their native Greece, in which a Civil War saw his father enlist as a guerilla fi ghter. At 19 years of age,
George ventured west and made his fi rst visit to Vancouver for a holiday.Soon realizing there were actually parts of Canada that weren’t submersed in ice and snow during the winter months, Kallas planted roots and called it home.“It was January 10, 1970,” he recalls of his fi rst impression of West Coast life.
“I came in the deep days of winter and there was green grass in mid-January.”Working for Bombardier Aerospace (then known as Canadair) at the time, Kallas phoned in his two week’s notice upon his arrival in Vancouver and never looked back.Turned out, working in the sheet metal profession by trade would be of great benefi t in the future, especially because he wanted to operate his own business – particularly something in the creative fi eld.Visiting a local printing plant provided the impetus and Metropolitan Fine Printers Inc. (MET) was born in 1977.“Our initial location was at 3rd Avenue and Quebec,” says Kallas “In 1979,
we secured a lucrative contract to print Asian cookbooks for the popular TV show of the era, ‘Wok with Yan.’”This necessitated relocating to much larger facilities where the business grew exponentially.Fast forward 47 years, and today MET Printers occupies 20,000 square feet in a multi million dollar, state-of-the-art printing and distribution facility in East Vancouver.
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From a staff of just two people in 1977, the company now employs more than fifty – and continues to grow. The brand has also expanded to include not only printing, but packaging, merchandise and apparel, with a client base that counts Brian Jessel BMW among them.
The family business footprint has further developed in the ensuing years and today, George’s son Nikos, holds the position of CEO, MET Printing.Subsequent to the regular business of the day and at the heart of the portfolio is a very special pet project – the family’s award-winning, unfi ltered, extra virgin olive oil, Kallas First Press.A sought-after commodity, it recently garnered international acclaim and accolades, including Gold at the New York Olive Oil Competition.
There it outranked thousands of competitors worldwide, including the top manufacturers in the world.But, oddly enough, it’s not available for sale. Kallas First Press is produced annually, bottled and uniquely rebranded each year. Despite the demand, it’s off ered strictly as gifts to the numerous clients and friends of MET and the Kallas family.Originating from their olive orchard in southern Greece, Kallas First Press is purely a labour of love.
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“I inherited the land in the Peloponnese about twenty years ago,”says Nikos Kallas. “It’s all olive trees, a few hundred or so, and they only produce every second year. Half produce one year and the other produce the following year so we time it accordingly.”
Nikos adds the family used to bring the olive oil home to Canada for personal consumption.“It was my dad’s idea to package it up and give it as a gift,” he says. “We worked with a couple of design agencies to do the branding forit and it evolved from there. I product manage with the design team and we do brand-new, rebranding of the packaging every year.”
George Kallas maintains a role in MET to this day as Chairman, while Nikos handles the day-to-day overseeing of production, clients, merchandise and more.“My dad is no longer day-to-day in the business,” says Nikos. “So he goes to Greece each year to press the olives for us.”
