How Italian Centre Shop’s Teresa Spinelli takes the lead

When Teresa Spinelli took the reins of Italian Centre Shop in 2001, the family business was a single Edmonton store with about 30 employees and $8 million in sales. Today, it’s a regional powerhouse: five locations—three in Edmonton, one in Calgary and one in Sherwood Park, a hamlet near Edmonton—nearly 700 staff and revenue exceeding $100 million.

Known for its “tavola calda” (cafeteria-style eatery), European-style deli and an artisan bakery with a homemade pizza menu, Spinelli says the growth of Italian Centre Shop comes down to a simple philosophy: put people first and listen to those doing the work.

She speaks with Canadian Grocer about her bottom-up leadership style, nurturing company culture through rapid expansion and the lessons from her late father that helped shape her approach.

You describe your leadership style as “bottom-up.” What does that mean? People really are our only asset. I know a lot of companies say that, but we truly believe it. Whenever we make a decision—even if it’s a strategic one at the highest level—we think about how it affects the people in our stores. How will this affect Sally, the cashier? It might have nothing to do with her job, but we still ask the question, because I don’t sit in an ivory tower pretending to know what everyone else’s job is like. The person slicing mortadella all day knows far better than I do what would help them do their job better. My role is to make sure they have the tools they need. Many of the best ideas in our company come from our team. They’re the ones doing the work every day, and they often see better ways of doing things. We’re very open to listening—though we’ve also learned we need parameters. We’re the Italian Centre, so if someone suggests turning us into something completely different, that’s not going to work. But within those boundaries, we want to hear every idea.

How has your leadership evolved over the years? My dad was the boss when I was growing up—he really was the boss. It was very much his way or the highway. But, people loved him. He could tell you where to go one minute and five minutes later, you’d be having lunch together. I’m a bit different. I try to listen first and consider other people’s ideas. At the end of the day, I make the decision I think is best; if you do that you can’t blame anyone else. One of the biggest shifts in our thinking came from a simple analogy we use internally. For years, if something went wrong in the company, we’d blame the “fish.” Imagine a pond where the fish keep dying. For decades, we’d say, “Stupid fish—let’s get new fish.” But eventually we asked: what if it’s not the fish? What if it’s the pond? That was a huge moment for us. People thrive under different leadership styles and environments. Very rarely does someone come to work wanting to do a bad job. Most people want to succeed. Once you start thinking about the pond instead of the fish, you manage people very differently.

Expanding your footprint must have been challenging. How did you maintain the same culture? That’s been one of the hardest things. Our original store is in an immigrant neighbourhood in Edmonton. It’s been there for so long, the walls practically smell like cheese. That kind of culture develops organically over decades. When we started opening stores in other parts of the city, we had to ask: how do we recreate that feeling somewhere new? Each store has its own personality, but the core values are the same. We’re people focused. We also operate as one company, not as separate locations competing. For example, our bonus structure is shared. If one store struggles and the others do well, everyone still benefits. I like to explain it this way: if you have 10 kids and you can’t feed the 10th, you don’t get rid of that one child—everyone just eats a little less.

You use a lot of analogies when you talk about leadership. Where does that come from? That’s from my dad. He had a way of explaining things that stuck with people. One thing he used to say was, ‘When you have more people, you don’t build a wall—you build a bigger table.’ That idea of inclusion and generosity really shaped how I see leadership. Growing up around those kinds of sayings makes you realize how powerful simple ideas can be.

Your father, Frank, had a big influence on you. What other lessons from him still guide you today? My dad was an extraordinary human being. He passed away 25 years ago, but every single week someone tells me a story about him. The biggest lesson he taught me is the more you give, the more you get back. My dad supported causes around the world, but that’s not what people remember; they remember the small things. They remember that he said good morning,  he asked how their sick child was doing,  he sent a sandwich home for someone who needed it. Those little acts of kindness are what people carry with them. That shaped how I try to lead.