A Merlin-based honey company is expanding into two of the province's most popular grocery stores.
Summer's Gold Honey Company has signed contracts with both Loblaws and Sobeys and are preparing to launch their product into 70 more stores across Ontario.
According to owner Mike Davidson, he will be heavily involved in the distribution process.
"We're actually going to be doing what's called DSD, we're a DSD vendor which is direct to store delivery. We won't actually be sending our product to a warehouse for redistribution" Davidson explained. "There are a number of things about that that are nice. I get to go in and put eyes on the product, make sure its always in good shape."
Davidson owns Summer's Gold Honey with his wife, Pamela. He got into the business in the 80s when he worked as a beekeeper. The job went on the backburn when Davidson began his career as a truck driver, where he worked for 30 years. Once he retired, he went back to his original love- the honey business. He was able to grow the company into commercial size, producing, packing and selling their honey in addition to several other products including lip balm and candles.
According to Davidson, their unpasteurized honey offers unique benefits not found in a lot of the mass-produced products available on store shelves.
"These days people are looking for the medicinal value that comes from honey and they want raw or unpasteurized because heating breaks down a lot of the enzymes that are beneficial. So that's the kind of product that we produce," he explained.
Before the expansion, their products could be found at 50 retailers, including several Home Hardware's in the Chatham-Kent area. The expansion will put their products on Loblaws shelves all the way to London and in Sobey's stores all the way to Woodstock.
Davidson said it's taken months of hard work behind the scenes to make it all happen.
"First of all, it took knowing someone to get the contact information just to get the ball rolling," he said. "Then you have to be onboard, Sobeys and Loblaws for example, you have to be onboarded as a vendor, which means they want to see copies of our product liability insurance and our CFCA certificate and all the things that distinguish us as operating a clean operation and expunging them of liability. That took probably about two months of back and forth."
The process also included preparing to list all the company's products in the two grocery stores' computer systems as well as buying a license to use barcodes.
Although the expansion involved some burdensome effort, Davidson has his eyes set on even bigger goals for the company in the future.
"My mother always quoted 'a man's grasp should exceed his reach or what's a heaven for?' With that in mind, I want to be Canada's next national brand," exclaimed Davidson. "Why not? Set a goal, work to a goal, achieve a goal."
Even with all of the growth, Davidson still plans to continue to offer local service that the company has built a reputation for.
“Oh yes, we will still be delivering to homes in the area. We have long-standing customers that we value because they have been with us for the entire journey and we want them to know that we are still there for them,” he said.