Braque creates Canadian Reserve, a new homegrown cheese brand
Branding
Packaging
The objective
Agropur Fine Cheese entrusted us with an end-to-end mandate, from brand strategy to the launch tools for its new Canadian Reserve brand. The goal was to create a fine cheese brand that could stand out across Canada and was strong enough to welcome several ranges of products as it grew. A first line of aged goudas would enter grocery stores in the fall of 2026.
The right time to be homegrown
Tariff tensions between Canada and the United States have brought product origin back to the forefront. According to Bank of Canada surveys, consumers are increasingly favouring goods made in Canada, even though price and economic uncertainty continue to weigh on their choices.
For Agropur, this was an opportunity to showcase its cheesemaking expertise and gain market share, especially outside Quebec. But Canadian origin isn’t enough on its own. To win people over, it had to be backed by product quality, mastery of the ageing process and the pleasure of tasting.
Standing out today, planning for tomorrow
Canadian Reserve needed an identity all its own, easy to recognize and flexible enough to evolve. The goudas are just a first step, as soft cheeses, cheeses with Canadian flavours and blends of different cheese types were in the works.
What was needed, then, was a common logic that would help shoppers spot the brand in store while letting each product express its own personality. The goudas posed an additional challenge. They needed a resolutely Canadian identity, without borrowing the Dutch codes that dominate the category or slipping into a folksy image of the country.
An architecture built to last
Before touching the design, we started with the brand architecture. Exploring several directions allowed us to clarify the role of Canadian Reserve and the rules that set each product apart.
We opted for an umbrella brand, as Canadian Reserve carries a shared promise of quality and craftsmanship, while each cheese family develops its own world of flavours. Consumers find consistent reference points, and each new line can be added without having to redefine the brand with every launch.
The name reinforces this consistency. “Reserve” evokes both a vast natural territory and a discerning selection, made with all the time and care it requires.
Putting the cheeses’ character front and centre
For the goudas, we developed the “Wild Flavours” platform. It rests on a specific idea: taking a familiar cheese and pushing it further through ageing and careful work on its flavour profiles.
Canada’s iconic animals bring this idea to life. Each one embodies a flavour personality, sets a product apart from the others and ties the line to the land. They help people understand the offering as much as recognize it on the shelf.
This world pairs Canadian nature with a refined presentation, where the character of the cheeses stays at the heart of everything.
From strategy to launch tools
The mandate took shape through five complementary deliverables.
- Brand architecture, which organizes the relationships between Canadian Reserve, its cheese families and their variations.
- Packaging concepts, which make this structure visible and distinguish each product within a cohesive whole.
- Animation storyboard, which brings the brand world to life in a video sequence.
- Point-of-sale advertising concepts, which extend this world all the way to the moment of purchase.
- Website design, which presents the brand and its cheeses by highlighting their origin, craftsmanship and product discovery.
Discover the Canadian Reserve website
From coast to coast
Canadian Reserve made its debut at major grocers across the country in the fall of 2026. The aged goudas are the first to establish the brand’s reference points with consumers.
Agropur now has a well-structured brand and a world that’s ready to grow with it. For us, this project shows that a strong food brand starts with strategy, the kind that turns business ambitions into a clear offering and stays the course from packaging to the very last consumer touchpoint.
So if you run into a wild animal in the cheese aisle this fall, don’t panic. We’re the ones who let it loose.
