Trucorp making its mark
Local company recognized with prestigious management award
Blame it on the mouthwatering taste of donairs.
Bill Hay was just looking for a storage and distribution centre for his KFC franchising company, House of Hay, when he and his partner picked up a small New Brunswick business in Dieppe and its sister company’s assets.
It was a fairly small, meatprocessing plant. There was a bit of space for offices and 10 franchise restaurants. But those companies, Greco Donair Foods and Greco Donair Franchise, made pizzas and a food Hay had never tried – a donair.
Hay and his partner decided to, ah, sample the products.
“We tried the products and found they were really good,” says Hay, now chairman of Trucorp Investments Inc.’ s board of directors. “I thought it was very tasty – and they had a great pizza product.”
With that deal for an amount Hay will not divulge, Truro-based Trucorp Investments was born and later boomed.
Now it’s gaining national recognition. This year the Nova Scotia company was recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies by Deloitte, one of only two companies in Nova Scotia to be so honoured. The other was developer George Armoyan’s Armco Group of Companies.
In the 36 years since Hay got his first taste of donair, the entrepreneur has transmogrified the old Greco Donair
Foods into what is now known throughout the country as Bonté Foods, Atlantic Canada’s biggest and most diversified food manufacturer.
“Bonté is Atlantic Canada’s largest deli meat processor,” said Trucorp president Michael Whittaker. “We serve both the restaurant business and the grocers ... Every day there are about 10,000 meals in Atlantic Canada that have some component of a Trucorp product.”
But even as Trucorp was growing its Bonté subsidiary, it was also expanding its franchise operations, which it owns through what is now called Grinner’s Food Systems.
The original 10 Greco Pizza franchise locations the company had back in 1981 formed the backbone of a company that now has 156 franchises at 120 locations, including 100 Greco restaurants, 40 Captain Sub and 16 Frozu!
At these franchises, sales have been climbing. In the past four years, Grinner’s same- store sales have jumped 38 per cent.
At the company’s Truro head office, the Canada’s Best Managed Companies award has everyone smiling.
“We’re very excited to receive it this year,” said Don Moore, executive vice- president at Grinner’s.
So what’s the secret to becoming a best- managed company? Hay and Whittaker give all the credit to their employees.
“It’s just great people,” said Whittaker. “We just have so many talented people in our organization and so many of them are leaders. They have great ideas.”