No Frills partnership a big boost to London Ukrainian business owners in exile
The couple have three young children, including a newborn, and a bustling business called WOW Pierogies, which sells home-made perogies, cabbage rolls and crepes from their storefront on Hyde Park Road.
"We wanted to bring some Ukrainian tradition into Canada," said Anatolii about this business.
The roots of the business stretch back to the family's home city of Kyiv, where Liudmyla's grandmother taught her traditional recipes that have been passed down through multiple generations.
"We had a wonderful café in Kyiv where we worked as a family," said Liudmyla.
That all changed of course when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The Potomkins, who had one child at the time, were forced to flee. They left behind not only their business but also their extended families.
"When the war broke out we lost everything in one day," said Liudmyla. "We decided to move to Canada, where we continue our family business."
The business started with a storefront in Strathroy before moving to the Hyde Park Road location last year.
The business is doing well but their their situation became further complicated when Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
Trump has appeared to be more supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin than of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Trump and Vice-President JD Vance last week shouted down Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in front of news cameras in the Oval Office. This week Trump has threatened to cut of military support for Ukraine. This is all unfolding as U.S. tariff threats continue to roil the Canadian economy and undo years of friendship and business partnerships with the U.S.
Anatolii Potomkin admits it's not an easy time, but said Ukrainians remain resilient.
"It's bad news for Canada and for Ukraine," he said of the current political climate. "It's not necessary right now to have an economic war when we have war right now in Ukraine."
Key deal with No Frills
Amid all these challenges the Potomkins got some good business news this week when the owners of the No Frills grocery store at 599 Fanshawe Park Rd. agreed to carry products from Wow Pierogies in their store.
Anatolii Potomkin said the No Frills shelf space is incredibly valuable and comes at a time when Canadian shoppers are increasingly looking for locally made products.
"We are at farmer's markets but No Frills is a good next step for growing our business," said Anatolii. "It's such a big store with so much traffic."
The No Frills location is owned Robert and Tracey Basso. The Potomkins came to the store with samples of their food and made a pitch for some shelf space. Robert Basso said it wasn't a difficult decision.
"With all the things going on with the U.S., having a locally made product made the decision a little bit easier to do," he said. "No Frills encourages us to promote local vendors when we can."
The Potomkins have made full use of London's extensive network of food suppliers. Flour for the perogies comes from the Arva Flour Mill. The pork and beef for the cabbage rolls is also bought locally.
"We are supporting Canadian and local," said Anatolii.
Liudmyla Potomkin said the No Frills partnership is another example of how the family has felt so welcomed in London.
"In the context of the recent news we have seen about Ukraine, we have felt a lot of support from our people," she said.
"People just came to our store to shake hands and say that they are with Ukraine. It is very sad what is happening on our land now, because our parents, friends and relatives are still there. But we try to do our best every day to ensure that our culture continues to live on."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
19 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
In the news today: Trade war to dominate meeting with premiers, PM
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed… Trade war to dominate meeting with premiers, PM The growing trade war with the United States will be top of the agenda when Canada's premiers meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney today. The premiers say they want to hear more about Carney's plans to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's Aug. 1 deadline to get a trade deal done. In a letter to Carney on July 10, Trump threatened to impose 35-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods by Aug. 1, setting a new deadline for trade talks that were supposed to have wrapped up by now. Carney said last week a trade deal with the U.S. will likely include some tariffs, and that he expects talks to intensify ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline. The premiers also say they hope to learn more about possible nation-building projects Carney is considering. Here's what else we're watching… Thousands fled Jasper wildfire one year ago Today marks one year since roughly 25,000 tourists and residents of Jasper, Alta., were forced to flee on a single highway, after several runaway fires were discovered in Jasper National Park. There's expected to be solemn reflection in the beloved mountain town, as events are held to remember the evacuation and the flames that incinerated neighbourhoods two days later. A third of the town's structures were destroyed despite firefighters' best efforts. It's estimated about 2,000 people were displaced by the fire. A ceremony is scheduled with Mayor Richard Ireland and federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski. Volunteers missing work to fight Newfoundland fire Volunteer firefighters are on the front lines of a roaring wildfire that has forced hundreds to flee their homes in rural Newfoundland, and some battling the flames are missing work to be there. Jason Chaulk says he was supposed to fly on Monday for Saskatchewan, where he is a rotational worker at a mine. But the volunteer mayor and deputy fire chief in Musgrave Harbour, N.L., says he stayed home to fight the fire and help his community. Chaulk says others in the 30-member volunteer fire crew have flown home from rotational jobs to be on the ground helping out. The wildfire near Musgrave Harbour ignited Saturday and officials ordered residents to evacuate the following day when it crept within a kilometre of the town. Why 'consent' videos show misconceptions about law As five former Canadian world junior hockey players await a ruling in their sexual assault trial, legal experts say videos shown in court of the complainant saying she was OK with what had happened highlight a broader misunderstanding of consent and sexual assault law in Canada. Two cellphone videos in which the woman says she's 'OK with this' and that 'it was all consensual' were presented as evidence during the trial of Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote. All five men have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault after an encounter in a London, Ont., hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault. Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia is expected to deliver her ruling on Thursday in the case that saw consent emerge as a central issue. Video statements such as the short clips shown in this trial aren't necessarily evidence of consent, said University of Ottawa law professor Daphne Gilbert. Lisa Dufraimont, a law professor at York University, said such videos could also be seen as hearsay because they don't contain statements made under oath in court. Alta. mom wants all eligible to get measles shot Months after fearing she would lose her baby girl to measles, Morgan Birch says she wants Canadians to educate themselves more about the importance of vaccines. Birch's daughter, Kimie Fukuta-Birch, was too young to be eligible for the vaccine, which is not routinely given to children under a year old. But she feels her baby would not have been infected if more people around her had received the vaccine. Birch, who lives in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., said she is also worried that her daughter may suffer long-term health complications as a result of her getting measles at such a young age. Alberta has become a hot spot for measles, with the province reporting nearly 1,380 infections since the beginning of March. This is more than the total number of cases reported in the United States. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
19 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trade war to dominate meeting with premiers, prime minister
TORONTO – The growing trade war with the United States will be top of the agenda when Canada's premiers meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney today. The premiers say they want to hear more about Carney's plans to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's Aug. 1 deadline to get a trade deal done. In a letter to Carney on July 10, Trump threatened to impose 35-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods by Aug. 1, setting a new deadline for trade talks that were supposed to have wrapped up by now. Carney said last week a trade deal with the U.S. will likely include some tariffs, and that he expects talks to intensify ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline. The premiers also say they hope to learn more about possible nation-building projects Carney is considering. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she is hoping to learn more about Carney's meeting with First Nation chiefs last week over their concerns about speeding up the development of pipelines and resource extraction projects in their territories. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Take time off: systems need some duplication
Opinion More than 20 years ago, I chaperoned a U.S. university abroad program to England. A professor with us went to an office to get student/visitor group London tube passes. Arriving half an hour before closing, the clerks said no, they couldn't help. He'd have to return the next day. They wouldn't stay late to meet a customer's needs for any reason. We joked that it wasn't the customer service we'd come to expect. When we moved to Canada in 2009, we noticed that, on a spectrum, Canada's overall customer service was between the U.S. and the U.K. Canadians were happy to help, if it wasn't inconvenient. Sometimes exemplary customer service is more expensive. It requires extra time from employees. Yet, a system without enough employees or a willingness to meet clients' needs becomes dysfunctional. In Manitoba, our bureaucracies and businesses struggle with this. The business mantra of eliminating 'extra' streamlines staffing, sometimes to a breaking point. This occurred in health care when Premier Brian Pallister's system eradicated small neighbourhood labs in favour of a Dynacare monopoly. The government also removed city urgent care clinics. The NDP government has begun to remedy this. They've reopened an urgent care at Misericordia hospital, for instance. It's a slow process. This is a necessary step. Systems need some redundancy, and not just because, in that older case, tourists might need transportation passes. Canadian work culture retains a healthy notion that taking a real vacation, perhaps off-grid and out in nature, is a good idea. However, without job training duplication, each summer, many people still at work must wait on others' return to work to get things done. As a writer or editor, sometimes there's no use submitting anything in August or December. Nobody senior enough to make decisions would be in the office anyway. Does this phenomenon happen in Manitoba? Absolutely. I've been the observer to a complicated committee hiring process at the university level. After nearly nine months of committee work, applications, and interviews, a recommendation's been made to hire two professors. Now, the approval process sits in limbo, because the right dean/vice-provost/hiring official is off at the cottage and doesn't check email. Meanwhile, those candidates might well accept positions elsewhere. The committee might lose an entire academic year's worth of work. The solution isn't a workaholic approach, as many U.S. employees take, incessantly checking work emails, even while on vacation. Citing the tsunami of messages they have upon their return, they never allow themselves a break from the workload. Without real time off, it's nearly impossible to avoid burnout. Instead, consider the approach taken by many who staff smaller businesses or offices. Everyone knows how to do their work and has been trained or asked to occasionally step in to cover someone else's responsibilities. While this might appear to be 'out of the job description,' it offers multiple benefits. First, and most important for efficiency of commerce, it allows work to function all the time. Work continues even while someone is on vacation. Whether it's a smaller rural office or a huge bureaucracy, if someone always has access to the passwords, the keys, or the right paperwork process. This is crucial, not just for trips to the cottage, but also due to accidents, injuries, parental or family leave. We're all human. Sometimes life interferes with a perfectly streamlined work environment. A well-run system doesn't collapse because the person who signs the paycheques or knows the passwords is out of the office for a day. Second, a system that trains workers to cover other tasks allows every employee to learn new skills. Helping people to learn on the job means they can continue to gain new stimulation in the workplace. This paves the way towards new positions or future promotion. Introducing mastery of new systems means some employees won't become bored and seek employment elsewhere. Third, an environment where everyone is trusted to rise to the challenge results in a team collaboration. It's an approach that allows positive community building. One hopes never to have an emergency, but a team that thinks fast and adjusts when someone has an accident and can't be at work is a healthy (and more productive) work environment. We all like to think we are indispensable. While it's true that we're all unique, big institutions and little shops alike don't need diva personalities to function. Instead, we should be considering how best to find functional solutions while allowing each other time to recharge and live our lives. This approach is the most efficient model, because it saves time in the long run and requires us to grow and do more, rather than just staying in our lane while our colleagues are off at the beach. Joanne Seiff, a Winnipeg author, has been contributing opinions and analysis to the Free Press since 2009.
