Big League Food Company announced Monday a significant expansion across its portfolio of Dark Horse Espresso Bar, Village Juicery, and Dear Grain.
This accelerated growth demonstrates the power of BLFC’s platform strategy: acquiring beloved independent brands and providing the capital, infrastructure, and operational expertise to scale them into regional champions. This model allows brands to grow rapidly while maintaining strong financial performance and the deep community roots that customers value, said the company.
“Big League is proving that independent food brands, when supported by a best-in-class platform, can outperform larger international chains in our home market,” said Max Daviau, Co-Founder of Big League Food Company.
“Our mission is to preserve the soul of these brands while providing the infrastructure and expertise they need to scale into regional champions across the GTA.”
The Toronto-based company said its growth plan is focused on high-traffic, strategic locations that expand the reach of each brand.
- Village Juicery (Targeting 9 Units in 2026): Building on its momentum in the wellness and functional food category, Village Juicery will open its first PATH location at First Canadian Place in Q2 2026.
- Dark Horse Espresso Bar (Targeting 23 Units in 2026): Following successful openings in Hamilton Airport, Cambridge Centre, and Woodbridge, Dark Horse continues its rapid expansion. Six additional openings are slated through 2026 – including Barrie, 88 Bathurst, and several new GTA and downtown core sites – cementing its position as Southwestern Ontario’s largest third-wave cafe operator.
- Dear Grain (Targeting 6 Units in 2026): After a highly successful debut on Roncesvalles, Dear Grain will expand further across Toronto with new locations in Summerhill (mid-2026), an additional downtown site (Q4 2026), as well as a second Hamilton location.
“This organic expansion will bring BLFC’s corporate-owned unit count to 38 stores and is projected to drive system-wide revenue to over $70 million. This performance puts the company firmly on track to achieve its $100 million revenue milestone by 2028,” it said.
“Alongside this organic growth, a core pillar of BLFC’s strategy is M&A. The company is actively pursuing acquisitions of other independent food brands across Ontario that are ready to scale and become category leaders.”
More from Retail Insider:
