This Vancouver Island yogurt brand is putting local dairy back on the map

On a trip to Paris in 2010, Merissa and Scott Myles were enjoying yogurt outside the Louvre when they noticed how fresh it was. “The yogurt said exactly where it was made—and from which farms the dairy came from,” recalls Merissa.

Inspired, the couple set out to learn how they could bring that same level of quality to their home in Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley. “We’re from one of the most beautiful places in the world, with good soil and healthy cows,” says Merissa. “We wondered: why can’t we produce better yogurt?”

Their research into the dairy industry revealed that most yogurt brands in Canada are owned by just a few multinational corporations. Disheartened by the lack of local connection to food sources, they decided to create their own yogurt business: Tree Island Yogurt.

The couple first met at Simon Fraser University, where they shared a dream of running a family business. They saw it as a way to stay rooted in their community and contribute something meaningful through a focus on people, planet and profit. “Family businesses are the backbone of Canadian society,” says Merissa. “Self-employment is a major contributor to job creation in Canada—and we shared a dream for what we wanted to bring to the world through a triple-bottom-line focus.”

“We were naive,” laughs Scott. “The dairy industry wasn’t quite ready for us.”

The community, on the other hand, was. Starting with a modest $5,000 loan from family to buy milk, the couple made their initial batches and sold it at the Comox Valley Farmers’ Market. “The community bought every batch, allowing us to go from one truck of milk to the next. If they hadn’t shown up, we wouldn’t have had enough [money] to buy milk again,” explains Scott.

“We were as small-scale as you could get,” says Merissa. “But there was a demand.”

Yet building their dream was fraught with challenge. “Entrepreneurship is glamorized, but it isn’t for everyone,” she says. “There’s a lot of risk involved.” This risk extends beyond winning over consumers.  “I met a farmer who laughed at us and told us we were crazy—and that we’d never survive,” shares Scott.

Grocery stores echoed that sentiment, saying the yogurt shelf was one of the most competitive in the store, second only to the soda aisle dominated by Pepsi and Coca-Cola brands. “The fact that we’ve survived 14 years in this industry and won over the farmers… I’m incredibly proud of that,” Scott says.

“True family businesses in the consumer-packaged goods space are rare,” he continues. “The act of survival in this space is a form of advocacy and defiance in its own right.”

Their first facility was a 4,000-square-foot building with a house on the same property where they lived. After a year, they moved off the property, converting the house into offices, while the building became rooms for raw milk storage, pasteurization, fermentation and refrigeration. “We grew by adding shipping containers, offsite storage and a second refrigerated truck,”  Merissa says. “It was an incremental process.”

According to the BC Milk Marketing Board, there were 44 dairy farms on Vancouver Island when the pair began Tree Island Yogurt. Now, fewer than 39 remain. “Building dairy capacity in small communities is crucial for food security,” Scott emphasizes.

Today, they have a staff of 35 and a 33,000-square-foot facility in Cumberland, which was awarded Best New Industrial Building in 2024 by the Vancouver Island Commercial Building Awards. Their yogurt is now available in over 300 stores across Canada, including Whole Foods, IGA and Fresh St. Market.

Tree Island’s yogurt uses fresh, whole, grass-fed milk from B.C. without any powders or fillers. It’s made in small batches, kettle-cooked and briefly pasteurized. And the Myles personally know each farmer they work with.

In 2024, the couple invested $45,000 into initiatives supporting health, sustainability and food security. The name was taken from Sandy Island Marine Park off the northern tip of Denman Island—known locally as Tree Island—a place, says Merissa, that represents ecological sustainability and the interconnectedness of forest and food systems.