Pino Di Ioia wants to deliver more Canada to the rest of the world — on a bed of fried dough.
The co-owner and CEO of Canada’s iconic confectionary brand, BeaverTails, believes the global appetite for our nation’s culture is high, regardless of trade tensions.
“We are committed to taking Canada to the U.S., and I know that these days that’s a challenge,” Di Ioia says. “We really do believe, humbly, that we are a very good vehicle to represent Canadian snack foods in the U.S.”
The quintessentially Canadian treat made its debut at the Killaloe Craft and Community Fair in the Ottawa Valley in 1978, where Grant Hooker and his wife Pam sold a pastry pioneered by his grandmother.
In 1980, Grant handcrafted the first cottage-inspired BeaverTails booth for Ottawa’s ByWard Market, which grew so popular the couple became the first to set up a stall on the Rideau Canal.
Today, the company’s 47 brick-and-mortar shops and roughly 140 temporary stalls, trucks and kiosks can be found just about anywhere Canadians go to celebrate.
“With full kudos to Tim Horton’s, McDonald’s and Starbucks, you need your morning coffee; you don’t need a BeaverTail,” Di Ioia says. “We punctuate memorable moments, whether you’re at the Toronto Zoo, Wonderland, Blue Mountain or the waterfront.”
As a business that even the most enthusiastic of its millions of customers enjoy just a handful of times a year, BeaverTails has learned to lean into its special treat status.
The brand is reaching new heights after introducing other Canadian classics such as poutine, and making the BeaverTails experience available at home via its cookies, spreads, ice cream sandwiches — even scented candles and vodka.
BeaverTails has seen consistent growth since Di Ioia took over ownership in 2011, along with his wife and twin brother, though his tale with the franchise began much earlier.
In 1987 Di Ioia became the company’s first employee outside of Ottawa, then its first franchisee, and was later responsible for developing and overseeing the Quebec market before becoming CEO in 2001.
The Star recently caught up with Di Ioia from the company’s headquarters in Montreal to discuss how the treat has remained so sticky with Canadian consumers, why he believes the world is eager for a taste, and why the brand that doesn’t take itself — or calories — too seriously is ready to deliver.
How did you first get involved with BeaverTails?
I was always a bit of an entrepreneur.
Growing up next to a public golf course I used to collect and sell golf balls back to the golfers, along with soft drinks and snacks, starting at age 11. That’s also where my love of hospitality started. That business gave me enough money to start a T-shirt printing company.
When I was at Champlain College I applied at a clothing store to learn more about that industry, but I didn’t get the job and was looking for something to do that summer.
Around the same time, BeaverTail’s founders, Grant and Pam Hooker, were looking for students to work at their first Quebec location at the LaRonde amusement park in the summers. They went to the only English-speaking college campus on the way to La Ronde to place an ad in the student newspaper.
As luck would have it, the newspaper editor wasn’t in that day, so they knocked on the office next door, which was the student council office, where they met the student council president — which was me.
They seemed like a delightful couple, and it seemed like a challenging and intriguing opportunity. They were in Ottawa, and they were looking for someone who was entrepreneurial and could steer the ship for them in Montreal, which was perfect for me.
How did you go from store manager to CEO?
I managed their La Ronde location for four summers until I finished my undergrad in marketing at McGill, and I applied for business school, but I didn’t think I would get in.
I didn’t even have a car, but that summer I took the train to Ottawa and approached the founders and said, “would you consider selling me the store I worked at as your first franchise?” I argued that if some young punk like me could be successful, they could say anybody could do it, and it worked.
Then I got into the MBA program at McGill, where I did every research paper on my own business. My twin brother, Anthony, got into the same program. We’re both entrepreneurial, but he’s much more analytical, whereas I’m more operational.
The original owners, however, had some trouble with their expansion. It took us a long time to realize that we could not succeed in commercial areas; we are reserved for special occasions and memorable moments, not between the Loblaws and Esso in a strip mall.
By 2001 it was clear they couldn’t continue that version of growth. They let go of their team in Ottawa, hired Anthony, my wife Tina and I for a combined sum of $10,000, and gave us shares of the company, with a mandate to turn it around. That’s when I was put in place as CEO, my brother was named CFO, and my wife Tina Serrao is our creative director.
We’ve said that the day we don’t have fun doing this is the day we’ll sell it, and that day hasn’t come. There’s ups and downs, as in any business, but we’ve had a lot of fun growing it.
How did you turn things around?
My very analytical accountant brother was in his element doing the financial restructuring at the time, while my wife and I had to define what it was we were selling.
We realized there was something magical about this product that was essentially a doughnut we sold for the equivalent of $100 per dozen. That inflection point is where the finance magic hits the operations and marketing magic. This is a premium product, and like Starbucks we’re selling an experience, a vibe — not just a product.
Our stores already looked like cottages, but we really doubled down on offering a quintessentially Canadian brand experience through our decor, and our products, like our maple toppings.
Then one day a franchisee suggested that, since we already have the fryer and exhaust equipment, why not sell french fries? But everyone sells french fries, so we looked at it through the Canadian lens and said, ‘let’s do poutine.’
It became so popular that we added a product called the BeaverDog — an all-beef hot dog wrapped in a BeaverTail — which became so successful we created four different kinds. Now we have a whole savoury thing going with products that are quintessentially Canadian and you can’t get anywhere else.
Since we purchased the business in 2011, we have had continuous year-over-year growth and doubled our sales during COVID.
How did you accomplish that?
After the initial wave, people were looking to get back to those iconic memorable places where we already have a presence, especially outdoor recreational sites, but we also saw huge demand in unexpected places.
Festivals got cancelled, so our food trucks would park in grocery store parking lots. People were so excited to have a treat during what might have been their only family outing that week to pick up groceries.
We also made a conscious effort to develop some packaged goods that people could take home with them or buy at the grocery store, like BeaverTails ice cream sandwiches, baked-on-site cookies for the bakery section, and spreads that emulate the taste of BeaverTails. So now we can maintain the vibrancy of the brand and be part of special moments that happen in your living room.
Then we have more whacky ones like our collaboration with the Whitewater Brewery outside of Ottawa, which did a cinnamon sugar BeaverTails inspired craft beer, followed by a chocolate hazelnut.
We now have a partnership with Polar Ice Vodka, which is doing a BeaverTails cinnamon sugar Vodka, and we partnered with Seracon to develop three unique BeaverTails scented candles.
All these products celebrate the quintessential vibe of Canadiana and punctuate memorable moments.
Do you have a presence outside of Canada?
We are humble and proud to have two locations in the United States, and that’s a key part of our plans — notwithstanding tariffs. We’re also in Christmas markets in France that reach as far as Belgium, and one store in Qatar that opened two years ago. We used to be in Japan, Mexico and Korea, but unfortunately those did not survive COVID.
We’re very eager to export a little bit of Canada overseas, and when someone has an interest and resources to do it we’re always interested in exploring it.
Doesn’t the U.S. already have a similar product?
Elephant Ears are an American invention, but a generic invention.
It’s not a brand, the name isn’t trademarked, and anyone can sell them, so you might have some that come close to the taste of BeaverTails, and others that are just fried pizza dough.
We believe those products have seeded the terrain for a unique, consistent, Canadian version. We are the only branded product in our category worldwide.
We are committed to taking Canada to the U.S., and I know that these days that’s a challenge.
We really do believe, humbly, that we are a very good vehicle to represent Canadian snack foods in the U.S, whether that’s poutine or BeaverTails or BeaverDogs.
That’s our intention moving forward.
