Bridgehead Coffee makes a trio of senior hires

Ottawa-based Bridgehead Coffee has made a trio of new hires in an effort to continue scaling its operations after branching out of coffeehouses and into retail.

Joining the company are Ramzi Farah as director of grocery and wholesale, Joaquin Arcila as director of digital/e-commerce and Ivana Manzon, the VP of marketing.

Most recently, Farah was a sales manager at Concord National, a food broker representing the grocery trade across Canada. He previously represented international coffee brands such as Lavazza and Illy. Arcila joins from Giant Tiger, where he was the head of digital marketing. He has also worked for Canadian Tire, Just Eat, Hyundai Canada, Scotiabank International and others. Manzon led the integrated marketing department at WE.org and has B2B and B2C expertise, having worked with leading brands across categories including retail, CPG and social enterprise.

Bridgehead’s new hires show “the brand’s commitment to its digital transformation and ambition to expand grocery across the country,” said a spokesperson.

Bridgehead was founded in 1981 and opened its first Ottawa coffeehouse in 2000 and in 2012 opened a roastery. It now roasts about 6,000 pounds of fairly traded, organic coffee a week for its 18 coffeehouses as well as wholesale and online customers.

During the pandemic, the brand was forced to find new revenue streams and grow outside the Ottawa area. Its coffee is now available to Canadians across the country via online orders and can be found on grocery shelves at more than 100 locations in Ontario, including Farm Boy, Sobeys, Costco, select Whole Foods locations and, most recently, many Longo's stores.

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