Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Langley.
Charlotte, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up on Prince Edward Island, where seafood wasn’t a trend, it was simply what we ate and how our communities lived. That connection to the ocean and the people who work it has shaped everything I’ve done since.
I trained classically as a chef and spent more than 20 years in premium food and beverage, cooking, building menus, and learning how great products get from the water to the plate. Along the way I became deeply involved in sustainable seafood, and today I serve as the Marine Stewardship Council’s Canadian Chef Ambassador.
My first venture into packaged food was Scout Canning, which I founded and later exited. That experience taught me how much I love building brands that make responsible food feel exciting rather than virtuous. In 2024 I founded Nice Cans, a premium MSC certified canned seafood brand built around flavour, sustainability, and a bit of boldness. I own it outright, and we’re now growing through Canadian retail and setting our sights on international markets.
Alongside Nice Cans, I built Langley Foods, a holding company guided by what I call slow equity: patient, values aligned investment in food businesses I believe in. Through it I hold minority stakes in Great Lakes Tinned Fish, Finally, and Isle Wyld, a Newfoundland sourced seafood venture. I also still cook, running catering and culinary events as Chef Char, because staying close to the stove keeps me honest about what tastes good.
The thread through all of it is a philosophy I call delicious responsibility. I believe the most sustainable choice should also be the most delicious one, and that’s what I’m building, one can, one plate, and one partnership at a time.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it hasn’t been smooth, and I think anyone who tells you building a food brand is smooth is selling something.
The biggest struggle has been cash flow. Canned seafood is an inventory heavy business: you pay for fish, cans, and co packing months before a single tin sells. Demand for Nice Cans has consistently outpaced what I could afford to produce, which means I’ve lived through stockouts on our core sardines, tuna, and mussels not because people stopped buying, but because I couldn’t fund the next run fast enough. That’s a painful kind of problem to have. I’ve pieced together growth through a mix of community lending, revenue based advances, and personally guaranteed debt, while raising from angels who believe in the brand. Every one of those decisions carries weight, and as a solo owner, that weight sits with me.
Distribution has been its own education. I’ve had to end partnerships that weren’t working, both in Canada and the US, and rebuild with partners who were the right fit. Those were hard calls, and each one cost time and momentum, but they got us to where we are now: national US distribution through KEHE, a stronger Canadian partner, and international markets in Australia, Mexico, the UK, and Ireland through a royalty model with our co packer.
And then there’s the reality of wearing every hat. I’m the founder, the chef, the salesperson, the fundraiser, and often the person reconciling the books at night. Learning to build a small, trusted team and to let go of some of that has been one of the harder and more important lessons.
What keeps me going is that the struggles have mostly been about growth, not about whether the product works. People love it. My job is to build the business strong enough to keep up with them.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I build delicious, responsible food brands, and I’m a chef at heart. My work sits where the kitchen meets the market: I create products, tell their stories, sell them, and build the partnerships that get them onto shelves and tables.
Today that work centres on Nice Cans, my premium MSC certified canned seafood brand. I lead everything from product development and flavour to sales, marketing, fundraising, and distribution. Through Langley Foods, my holding company, I invest in and advise other food businesses that share my values, and through Chef Char I still cook, producing culinary events, oyster and seafood stations, and experiences that bring people together around great food.
What I specialize in is sustainable seafood, and making it irresistible. I’m the Marine Stewardship Council’s Canadian Chef Ambassador, and I’ve spent more than 20 years building a network across sustainable fisheries, Canadian retail, and CPG. I’m known for championing tinned fish long before it was trendy, for my work with Scout Canning, and for a voice that’s shown up in The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Walrus, The Economist, and on CTV.
What I’m most proud of is taking Nice Cans from an idea in 2024 to a brand that’s now in national US distribution through KEHE, where we won their Golden Ticket, and in international markets including Australia, Mexico, the UK, and Ireland. I’m proud that we did it while staying true to MSC certified sourcing, and that people genuinely love what’s in the can. I’m also proud of the cookbook we’re developing, which brings the Nice Cans way of eating into people’s kitchens.
What sets me apart is that I’m a chef who builds businesses, not a business person who hired a chef. I taste everything, I know the fishers and the supply chain, and I can stand in front of a buyer, an investor, or a room full of guests and tell the story with the same conviction. My philosophy of delicious responsibility and slow equity means I build for the long term: brands that are good for the ocean, good for the people who make them, and genuinely delicious.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favourite childhood memories are of spending time with my granddad in his factory. He was deeply involved in food manufacturing in Canada, and to me as a kid, that place was magic. The noise of the lines, the smell of food being made at scale, the people who knew exactly what they were doing and took pride in it. I’d follow him around and soak up everything.
What stayed with me most was how he saw it all. To him, making food wasn’t just a business, it was a responsibility to the people who ate it and the people who made it. He understood quality, process, and community long before anyone was using those words in marketing.
He inspired me then, and he inspires me just as much today. When I’m standing on a production floor with a co packer, tasting a new batch, or figuring out how to scale without losing what makes a product special, I’m channeling him. In a lot of ways, Nice Cans is a continuation of what I learned trailing behind him in that factory.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.justnicecans.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicecans___/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/NICE-CANS-61593173082195/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYjjV9gk5CDilW285HXmDpA
