2025 Generation Next winner Jacob Steele

Two days before his 19th birthday in 2014, Jacob Steele was hired at Port Alberni, B.C., Quality Foods. Though his role was stocking shelves, he put up his hand wherever help was needed—cash, butcher, you name it. “I wanted to learn all aspects of the store,” he explains.

This led to writing purchase orders, handling store opening and closing, and a promotion to assistant manager at Bowen Road Quality Foods in Nanaimo, B.C., in 2022. A short while later, in 2024, he became manager of Nanoose Bay Quality Foods, turning the store around—from a 1.6% loss that year to a 6.7% gain year-to-date in 2025. He introduced a centralized meat-ordering guide (helping drive a 40% jump in meat sales), cross-trained the team, and merged bakery and deli operations to streamline workflow and save labour.

Steele earned a 2024 Rising Star Award from Pattison Food Group, Quality Foods’ parent company, and supports the community by delivering groceries to seniors and backing the Nanoose Community Services Food Program. “I want to keep Quality Foods’ community roots strong,” he says.

See the full list of Generation Next 2025 winner profiles.

Profiles were published in the December 2025/January 2026 issue of Canadian Grocer.