Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mark Healy, CEO, and co-owner of Dennis' Horseradish, located in Delhi, ON, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

A proud, 60-year-old Norfolk County brand, Dennis' Horseradish was founded by Dennis Gyorffy in 1960. The family distributed their products from Windsor to Ottawa and as far north as Sudbury. Customers ranged from small butcher shops and delicatessens to larger independent supermarkets. The business was sold to the Hantz family in 1980, who added recipes and flavours and perfected the product. In 2008 it was acquired by Ryders and DeHooghes, both local farming families, and in 2020 sold on to the Whitmore, Vandenbosch, and Healy families. Through it all, Rick Hantz was the steady hand and remained the Master Horseradish Maker to this day.

At Dennis', we control the entire process from end to end, ensuring only the finest root and ingredients end up in everything we make. We harvest, process, grind, fill and pack it all ourselves to guarantee we produce only the hottest and best horseradish in Canada.

Headquartered in Delhi, the heart of Ontario's Garden: Norfolk County, everything remains local. The root is now grown by Lyndsay Menich & Drew Patterson in nearby Teeterville. They are committed to ethical farming and to continuous innovation. All our products are all-natural and kosher.

Sales and distribution have grown significantly. We serve six markets now - large Canadian grocery chains and smaller independent grocers/ butchers/ fishmongers in Canada, consumers directly via our online store, private label customers in Canada and the US, Canadian foodservice customers, and....food manufacturers with bulk formats in Canada, the US, and Asia. The brand and product portfolio has grown over time. The focus on excellence, with a bit of an edge, has never wavered.

Tell us about yourself

I am a career entrepreneur. DH is my third venture. I have had corporate and consulting/ agency roles along the way but have always had a business of my own since 2004.

What got me started in horseradish...? Here is the whole story. A million years ago, I ran the Alumni Association for Ivey at Western University (now called the Ivey Alumni Network). I had a nutty but big idea – Global Ivey Day. A lot of folks reinforced that it was nutty. And said it wouldn't work. Etc. But a guy named Mark Whitmore at Deloitte, who was on the Board with me didn't. There is a whole embarrassing (for me) backstory about Mark, where I met him and didn't know who he was or that he was a real guy, running all of Deloitte Consulting and had 1000+ consultants reporting to him at the time. I was proud to be running a small shop called Torque, but that is another story for another day.

Anyway, one day in 2014, he called me and said, 'we should buy a business together. To which I responded, 'you are older than me, smarter than me, more experienced than me, have more contacts and more money than me; what do you need more for?' We kicked tires a few times over the years but never got anything done. We got more serious in 2019 but decided to suspend our search when COVID hit. Then in the middle of the first lockdown in April, about two years ago, he called me and said, 'hey, I've got one, but the numbers aren't great, and it doesn't meet any of our investment criteria, and you have to suspend your disbelief a bit.' I said, 'I don't want to even hear about it. He said, 'no, it's good; we should look at it.' I said, 'what is it?' He said, 'it's a horseradish company.' I said, 'get the $#@%* out of here, we don't know anything about that – we don't know anything about farming or food or grocery or retail, it's not even B2B.' That was Dennis' Horseradish, which of course, we promptly bought a few weeks later. Mark Vandenbosch was my boss at Ivey - he had retired and has a background in agriculture - he joined us shortly thereafter.

I love the business because we are bringing good food to market - Elevating every day - as we like to say while providing employment opportunities and growing a business for Ontario and Canada.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I think there are a few things I could point to, but the one I am always proudest about is where some of the folks I have hired and developed have ended up. To get to bring on and work with great people, and help with their journeys and career arcs, is very gratifying.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

A friend of mine in Toronto, another Mark, has an expression - it's 'the weight.' He means the constant pressure of responsibility. This is not lost on me; owning a business comes with a lot - and constant - responsibility. To partners and employees, customers, suppliers, the government, and the community. It is not to be taken lightly. It is always there, even when you don't feel as though you have the energy needed to do it justice.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

The first would be to ask yourself if you really want to run a business - in your heart of hearts, are you are ready for the lack of a steady paycheque, at least for a while, and for the responsibility - you can't just close the fridge on it when you want to.

The second is to trust your gut. A lot of people will tell you why your ideas or plans won't work but won't tell you how to make them better. And often, they lack your context and understanding. Trust your gut. If you're wrong, you're wrong, fix it and move on. Most of the time, you are not wrong anyway.

And #3 - be obsessively persistent. With relationship building. With communicating. With sales. With product or service improvement. Things that are healthy grow, and obsessive persistence is the key to growth.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://dennishorseradish.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DennisHorseradish/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dennishorseradish/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dennis-horseradish/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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