It started with a small kiosk on Danforth Avenue in Toronto in 1995, but today the health-food and supplement store Healthy Planet has grown to 45 locations in the Greater Toronto Area.

Opening in uptown Toronto at Yonge and Eglinton on Aug. 21, the new location has two floors and offers fresh and frozen foods, as well as its new Healthy Planet Kitchens, which offers quick-services meals.

“Our main goal is, which we haven’t deviated from since day one . . . is health-food-oriented, healthy products at the right price,” Mohammad Muhamedy, general manager of Healthy Planet, said to FoodNX in an interview.

He shared some of his company’s history and its future, which took on the Healthy Planet moniker in 1998.

“We’re opening three more stores this year. We have expanded from a few hundred SKUs (stock keeping units) to . . . between 13,000 to 15,000 SKUs.”

Healthy Planet also sells vitamins and supplements, pantry staples, health and beauty products and sports nutrition items. Each store also has an in-house holistic nutritionist.

Hands on management

And while its growth has been impressive, as a manager Muhamedy continues to ensure that the original philosophy of offering healthy foods at a competitive price is maintained.

But just like many other food retailers, Healthy Planet is facing challenges in maintaining affordability, he said.

“Our passion in wellness is to provide the highest quality vitamin supplements, grocery, and all the other categories that we have and our personal goal is to have the highest product and affordability . . . (that is) is something that we really focus on,” Muhamedy said.

“With these economic challenges . . . it’s really hard to maintain those prices but we try to do our best.”

Freshly made meals without guilt

Besides focussing on fresh and frozen groceries, the company recently began offering freshly made meals at its Healthy Planet Kitchens area that is currently available in five stores and the new Toronto location when it opens in August.

“Where we have Healthy Planet Kitchens, we have fresh, made-to-order food available, from fresh ingredients, and it’s something you don’t feel guilty (about) when you eat it. We want to continue with that aspect of it into the grab-and-go side of it too, as well as a frozen section one day too.”

Some of the items on offer include chopped chicken salads, breakfast smoothies and veggie pockets. Its product line is “organic, grass-fed, non-GMO, and high-welfare, halal meats sourced daily,” according to its online menu.

Healthy Planet Kitchens also provides catering and food-delivery options.

While its in-store offerings are growing, online there are even more options, he said.

“We have more product selection there than our retail store, but we have seen great growth there, and we’ll continue to drive that. We also use online where we could do a store pickup or you could do a same-day delivery.”

And its main competitors are not Canadian, he said. “Online, we also have U.S. competition that we have to deal with. There are more regulations to follow. There’s a lot more competition there, so we need to be better. The shipping is obviously the biggest element of it, which impacts your growth because as the gas prices go up, the shipping cost goes up,” Muhamedy said.

Brands growing along with retail grocer

The company also hopes to continue in its focus to offer more local food products to customers. “We bring a lot of new products in that people have never seen, which are locally produced. We’re probably at times the first seller of those items, and some of those brands we have seen in past have become multi-million-dollar brands.”

For now, while the company is looking to grow, it will remain close to home. “We have kept our eyes open everywhere, but for this year and next year, we’re still focused on Ontario. We have a lot of room to grow here, and we will continue explore opportunities as we as we go along.”