As global trade tensions and shifting consumer preferences continue to reshape the retail landscape, one Canadian company is not only weathering the storm — it’s thriving because of it. Toronto-based Apollo Health and Beauty Care, the country’s largest private label manufacturer in the health and beauty space, is seeing a significant uptick in demand for its Canadian-made products.
Founded in 1993, Apollo has grown into a manufacturing powerhouse supplying innovative personal care products across North America.
“We’re an absolute leader in the Canadian and North American landscape, manufacturing innovative products for Fortune 50 retail, for large consumer products goods companies, [and] for any number of interested parties who want to bring innovation, disruptive, beautiful product across a myriad of platforms to the marketplace,” said Charles Wachsberg, CEO of Apollo.
With facilities based in Canada and distribution spanning the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, Apollo operates within the framework of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), formerly NAFTA. That compliance has allowed the company to remain resilient in the face of international trade volatility.
“Our products are all USMCA compliant,” said Wachsberg. “We are operating in a tariff-free construct as an essential business and certainly as a compliant business to existing trade parameters existing between the U.S. and Canada.”
In 2023, the Canadian beauty market had an estimated revenue of $11 billion. This was projected to grow to $12.36 billion CAD in 2025, according to TFO Canada.
Despite global uncertainty, Apollo’s operations are unaffected by tariffs in its core markets. “There are no reciprocal tariffs both on the outbound or on the inbound within the Canadian marketplace and other markets,” he said. “Our USMCA status provides us with the umbrella of duty-free transactions.”
But it’s not just trade policy that’s fueling Apollo’s momentum. A new wave of consumer nationalism is playing an increasingly important role at the retail level.
“There has very much been a patriotic response in the U.S., and for the first time, Canadians are showing a patriotic bent that transcends beer and hockey,” said Wachsberg. “The support for Canadian innovation, Canadian production, [and] Canadian talent, which is plentiful, is changing behaviour at the register.”
According to Wachsberg, this trend is more than just a short-term reaction. “That behaviour, irrespective of what happens in the months and years to follow, may very well be a permanent shift,” he said. “It’s nice to be associated with that, and it’s nice to see Canadian pride and Canadian instincts running into the decision tree of what consumers purchase.”
Apollo’s operations span three core business pillars: private label manufacturing for major retailers, tolling services for large consumer brands, and the development of its own brands, which Wachsberg describes as “a holistic ecosystem of very prestigious, very unique products across all of the desired product platforms of constant use.”
In recent years, Apollo also played a critical role in public health, becoming “the largest manufacturer of PPE goods for Ontario” during the pandemic, and supplying disinfectants at scale.
Wachsberg believes that the loyalty to Canadian-made goods is strong enough that many consumers are even willing to make personal trade-offs.
“Canadians are prepared to make decisions even to the point of compromise,” he said. “We’re not going to buy bourbon because bourbon comes from regions outside of Canada, very specifically Kentucky.”
Yet when it comes to Apollo, compromise isn’t required.
“There is no compromise because we are a platform agent in the Canadian space. We’re truly a Canadian treasure,” said Wachsberg. “Apollo’s products would stand on merit as best in class and as unique on a global stage and it just so happens to be made by the ingenuity and innovation of Canadians.”
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