Pacific 2023

Purposeful innovators. Courageous risk-takers. Musharaf Syed and Aisha Yang believe everyone should have access to healthy living conditions. They founded health and wellness brand Herbaland to deliver on that promise for their family, and countless others they now serve.

In 2009, Aisha and Musharaf had two young children, a newborn and an entrepreneurial drive to build a business that could sustain their family. They’d immigrated to Canada in the hopes of providing their kids with a better education. They wanted to establish a business that would make a purposeful impact. Bridging from Musharaf’s job in supplements, they saw an untapped, niche opportunity in gummy health supplements — and developed a retail business to meet that need.

Aisha and Musharaf have had to pivot in the years since. When their sole supplier was acquired and instantly shut off supply in 2013, they faced a tough call: shut down, or dig in? Aisha and Musharaf chose the latter, taking out a line of credit, purchasing a gummy-manufacturing machine and transforming Herbaland from retailer to manufacturer.

The result? Herbaland is the largest nutritional gummy manufacturer in the world, producing and distributing 70 million bottles and pouches across 40 different countries every year. Five facilities and 200 people — many of whom are, or were, immigrants — fuel progress across business-to-business and direct-to-consumer lines. True to their purposeful roots, Herbaland is the world’s first B Corp certified nutritional gummy manufacturer.

Herbaland is deeply committed to giving back to the community that has supported them since the very beginning. With a strong emphasis on both community outreach and business growth, Herbaland unwaveringly upholds its dedication to future expansion.