In less than 10 years, the four brothers behind "Bad Monkey Popcorn" have taken the company from their mom's kitchen to major league sports venues.
Mateo, Luciano, Joey and Fabio Zeppilli are winning awards for their products and packaging.
Growing up in St-Laurent, the Zeppilli brothers loved popcorn and, in 2015, decided to market their own.
"Our two younger brothers are chefs; my brother was a patent and copyright lawyer, and I was in finance," said Joey. "We all quit our careers being bad monkeys, and now we're good monkeys, and we make the best popcorn."
Zeppilli brothers - Mateo, Luciano, Joey and Fabio - have taken popcorn made in their mom's kitchen to 30,000 stores. SOURCE: Bad Monkey Popcorn
"They started experimenting in my kitchen, almost burnt it down!" said their Mom, Myrna Shnier, with a laugh.
The brothers, with Mom's help, started selling bags of popcorn at grassroots music festivals around town, and now they are sold in 30,000 stores across North America.
Bad Monkey Popcorn recently won two awards for their innovative "heat and eat" trademarked packaging made from wood fibre.
"The bag is heat resistant, and that means you can put this into a warmer, a microwave, and over, heck you can even toss it onto the bar-b-que, and all that's going to happen is the popcorn inside is going to be nice and warm and crunchy," said Fabio.
The bag is also fully compostable and has caught the attention of Disney and major North American sports franchises.
"We've now been contacted by the NHL, MLB and the NBA, which is just mind-blowing," said Joey. "It's really remarkable."
The company believes in sustainability and aims to be plastic-free by the end of this year.
"It's not only vegan, it's actually dairy free so people who are lactose intolerant can eat it and nut-free for kids and allergies," said Joey.
The only question remains: where does the name come from?
Shnier was a single parent of four boys.
"When we were little, we got into a lot of trouble, and our mother called us a lot of things, and one of those things was little bad monkeys," said Fabio.
Shnier remains very proud of her boys.
"I'm in awe that my sons have built this company to where it is now I know all the hard work they put into it," she said.
