It’s a long way from Canora to Texas, but Nick Olynyk has made the move, albeit not directly.
Olynyk is president of Grandpa Gus, a company specializing in vermin control without the use of poisons.
“Our company actually started in Canada,” he explained. “When I was living in B.C. back in 2014 and 15, I would import all sorts of goods from China and export other Canadian brands from Canada, all to be sold online in the U.S. I started exporting some pest control products and found a hole in the market to create a more modern brand, and that brand was Grandpa Gus.”
The move to Texas was born out of necessity, offered Olynyk.
“The U.S. made it possible to grow the business, much less government restrictions down here, and it’s easier for me to run the company when I’m living within the U.S.,” he said. “I fly a lot for meetings and trade shows down here and it’s tougher to do that across the border all the time.”
Texas was simply a practical location.
“I chose Texas because it’s in the Mid-West and it doesn’t snow,” said Olynyk. “In the back of my mind I’ve always thought that we need to be close to our roots and our roots are small cities, small towns and farms.
“In many ways, Texans are closer to Saskatchewan people than Vancouver Island people are, and I like that. Austin is known for being welcoming to entrepreneurs. It’s a tech hub, even though we’re not in tech. The state and city are very encouraging toward private enterprise.”
The company has been around for five years, but the Grandpa Gus brand has really been around for three.
“We create natural pest control products under the Grandpa Gus brand,” said Olynyk. “Our biggest sellers are a pouched mouse repellent, liquid mouse repellent spray and machinery cab fresheners.
“We also have expanded to other pests like mosquitoes, tick and spiders. We have a real wide variety of customers.
“Farmers make up a huge portion of the customer base. The American farmers put the pouched mouse repellents in their combine cabs and semis at the end of the season to keep mice out over winter. Canadian farmers use the cab freshener line formulated just for Canada. The products smell like peppermint so in spring the cab is fresh and clean.”
While Olynyk is the company president he also handles the sales and marketing team.
“We have other people managing the supply chain and factory and financials that go with it,” he said. “They are much smarter than me so I leave it to them.
“We have about a dozen staff between the office and sales team. Our factories are third party facilities. If you count them, the people working on the factory floor and warehouse, there can be over 60 people a day working on Gus during the high season.”
The current career path is not exactly what Olynyk trained for.
“I actually started school as a fine arts major in creative writing,” he said. “Poetry is beautiful stuff but nobody pays for it, so I wrote a lot of sales copy and ads online for other people when I convocated. I realized quickly it would be smarter if I sold my own stuff instead of other people’s stuff.”
But there has been a learning curve to maneuver through.
“Without a doubt, the biggest learning experience has been having a board of advisors who’ve been in business for decades,” said Olynyk. “You need people smarter than you giving you advice. We wouldn’t be where we are now without having them on board.”
So far things have worked out well for Olynyk and Gus.
“We just partnered with Tractor Supply Company in the USA, which is close to 2,000 stores,” he said. “We’re in 4,000 total stores right now.
“We’re also under review for some of the biggest retailers in the business, big chains.
“Occasionally, it’s quick and simple to get on the shelf, but often it takes months or even over a year of persistence and coordination and negotiation. I usually conduct presentations along with our sales reps, who are key to the process of getting on the shelf. They continue the negotiations after that.”
The move into stores came after establishing an online presence.
“Back in 2016, when I started seeing consistent sales online I thought I would try moving into stores,” said Olynyk. “First, I did a couple of day trips around Vancouver Island selling to hardware and feed stores. This led to me buying a beat up, old ‘98 Ford Windstar mini-van, loading it with products and driving around Western Canada until the van broke down at 2 a.m. one night on Circle Drive in Saskatoon.
“It wasn’t a glamorous time, but every sale was very motivating. It kept me going as we got off the ground, and then I fixed the van and sold it.”
Peavey Mart was one of the very first customers back in 2016.
“Getting on their shelf involved a lot of persistence,” said Olynyk. “I’d pick up the phone every day at 10 a.m. and call and ask for the lawn and garden buyer. After doing this for six weeks the buyer answered the call.
“That got the ball rolling for a test.
“Peavey Mart is very particular about quality and giving customers the best price. That is why they are the leader in Western Canada and why we partner with them. That includes the Yorkton store, which is state of the art.”
Things are more formalized now in terms of making store connections.
“Now that we’re established we have more proper routes to showing buyers our new products,” said Olynyk. “I often know somebody who knows who to call and we simply set a formal meeting.
“For the biggest accounts, I’ll fly to the retailer’s or distributors’ corporate headquarters.
“For smaller accounts, our sales reps will have a much stronger relationship and they’ll do presentations.
“The presentations to a retailer are very much like Dragon’s Den except you’re sitting in an office and you’re pitching why you’re good for the shelf. You tell why you’re good, they grill you and you try to strike a deal, but then after that the process takes weeks or months to iron out the kinks and move it up the chain.”
As for the products, those come from others in terms of formulation and creation.
“The formulations for our products are all lab-tested, but we have a limited amount of ingredients that we can play with because of EPA regulations,” said Olynyk. “We took what we knew we were allowed to use and examined how we could improve on what was in the marketplace. It’s like building a better mouse repellent. The hardest part was learning the pages and pages of regulations dictated by the EPA. The testing and yearly registrations are very expensive, so it was a lot of money out of pocket before we even made a sale.”
But Olynyk leaves that to others, as he works on creating the image to sell the products.
“For me, the fun part is the branding,” he said. “That was very intentional. Grandpa Gus, the character, is a mix of the different old timers I would see coming to town for coffee in Canora when I was a kid. I wanted to create a brand that could have a rural and trusting image, and could be fun to market, without being hokey.
“Being raised on a farm, I wanted to draw inspiration from real farmers.
“I went through a couple of artists until I found a professional who really nailed what we envisioned. Everybody trusts a Grandpa. Grandpa knows what really works.”
Olynyk said his roots sell to a larger audience.
“Ironically, it’s that Canora farm Gido that really resonates with urban customers looking for natural solutions and who are most conscious of the ingredients,” he said. “We can get a morning order from a mom in a New York City apartment who wants a natural, safe solution for her family, and another order in the afternoon from a farmer in Illinois who just finished combining a field of soybeans.”
With his success in Texas, Olynyk said he still looks at Saskatchewan as home, and hopes to grow the business up here in the future.
“I really hope to bring some innovative products into Canada that Canadians can’t get right now,” he said. “People in Yorkton shouldn’t have to drive to Minot to get what is available on every corner down here.
“My heart is very much in Saskatchewan and tied to the farm. I love having a company with products that farmers use.”
