BeaverTails bets on skiers and fair-goers being in the mood for its quintessential Canadian treat
BeaverTails found success when the Montreal-based company finally decided to embrace the iconic dessert’s biggest asset — marketing the decadent hand-stretched sweet pastry made to resemble a beaver’s tail as a treat for special occasions, rather than positioning it as a food for people to eat every day.
To that end, BeaverTails, which has 98 locations in Canada and eight others in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Dubai, has been careful to locate its restaurants where there are people in the mood for celebratory treats: from the tops of snowy ski hills and amusement parks, to street fairs and holiday festivals.
The company’s success didn’t unfold in the typical way, however. BeaverTails was launched in 1978 in Ottawa by Grant and Pam Hooker, who based the business around an old family recipe. Di Ioia came to the business in 1988, taking a part-time job with the confectioner before he went to university.
“I took the proverbial fast food job that not every kid wants, but many of them end up getting,” he recalled. “After university, my brother and I offered to buy their first ever franchise at the Six Flags amusement park in Montreal. I did my undergrad at McGill and I did not think I would get into the MBA program there, and as luck would have it both things happened. Amusement parks run during the summer only, so it was the perfect marriage.”
Read full article: , 5 February, 2016