Chalo FreshCo: a new brand for a new Canada

Share +
← Back to work
  • Sobeys — Canada’s second largest grocery company — commissioned us to design and launch a one-stop discount grocery brand aimed at South Asians, the first ever big banner brand of its kind. We invented Chalo FreshCo – a new grocery brand for a new Canada. The word “Chalo” literally means “let’s go!” in many South Asian languages and works much the same way that “andiamo!” works in Italian or  “allez!” in French. It’s a welcome and a call to action rolled right into the name and, rather pleasantly, it rhymes with hullo.

    The logo we designed used fresh produce that is iconic in Indian cuisine: a lime, with a hot chilli pepper, for some extra spark.

    Acting as diversity counsel to Sobeys, we commissioned leading retail space designer Shikatani Lacroix to design the store interior. The interior leveraged our brand identity design and featured the colours and sights so typical of an Indian street bazaar. From sacks of rice all the way down to wooden handcarts used by Indian produce vendors — piled high with fresh produce — the new Chalo store is a taste of home, filled with the tastes of home.

  • 2016 Summit Creative Awards: Gold

    2016 Marketing Awards: 2 Silver Awards

    2016 EMMAs: Gold. The EMMAs are awarded by NAMIC, the premier advocacy organization for multi-ethnic diversity in communications in North America.

  • Chalo became headline news as soon as it opened, with major coverage in ethnic, localmainstream and trade media, and a flood of social media activity.