Cars in olive oil

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Danny Burns shares his passion for olive oil with her family.

Martine Turenne

Sunday, February 4, 2018 01:00

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Sunday, February 4, 2018 01:00

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What is the relationship between a car and the olive oil ? Probably none, except that both are products, and a guy from marketing as Danny Burns will sell you one as the other.

In the mid-fifties, he has swapped the body and motor for fine bottles containing a nectar dating from Antiquity, and for which he had had an affair fifteen years earlier.

“It was during a trip to Provence,” says the president and founder of MCOlives, a distributor of olive oil and balsamic vinegar of Blainville.

“I had rented a villa, with my family, and I had reported a litre of oil. It stayed in my head. “

He return in 2012, after a successful career in the automotive marketing, for Nissan, Infiniti, Kia and many others.

At 54, he seeks something else. “In the car, it ends up becoming repetitive,” he says. It sells the body. “

Then, his wife returns from a trip to France… with bottles of olive oil. New place.

He resigned from his job in the automotive industry in April, and launching its business of import of olive oil a month later, in may 2012.

Humble beginnings

Danny Burns begins modestly, sending emails, and making a few calls. It follows from the trainings, seminars, in New York and San Francisco, and tastes of olive oil, again and again.

Most importantly, it has retained something of its years motor : choose the battle.

“There are very big players in the market of the olive oil. I knew that it only served me as nothing to fight against them. It was rather that I choose a niche. “

It is thus that he turns to countries as ” least exposed “, as he said, France and Portugal.

His first sale took place in January 2013. Six months after launching his business. This is said to all new entrepreneurs : six months.

MCOlives now distributes its products in nearly 200 stores across Canada.

Danny Burns has invested $ 50,000 in the start-up of its business. His wife, a teacher, is still on the labour market.

“Of course, it helps, it is less insecure. As the bills mount quickly. “

To 55 years of age, when he launched his company, he had the experience of life, ” he said.

“The priorities are not the same. And my two children were great, I had more time for me. “The downside,” he continues, ” is that you don’t have 30 years in front of you. “Time plays against you. One has less the right to error. “

The growth of MCOlives is not fast enough for his taste.

“I think it may be possible to develop partnerships with established dealers, to make a purchase, or have my shop, but in a trade that already exists. “

Its brand

He has recently created his own brand, Olili (contraction of the first name of his grand-daughters Olivia and Liliane). And to broaden its offering, it has put on the market in December, a tablet of chocolate with the olive oil, produced in collaboration with the Chocolates Mathilde, Oka. “Everything has been sold, we are out of stock. “

He had to fight alone. “I did not fall into any box,” he said. I looked, and there was no support for the people of my generation who still want to work. “

He sees the job for a long time.

“The people that have been in boxes their whole life waiting for their retirement as a release. I’ve never been part of this gang. I can’t just stay at home, I want to stay active. “

To make this leap into the unknown, he says, he must believe in them. And to be perseverant.

Danny Burns is up to six hours, responds to his e-mails to Europe, made his accounting. He works ten hours per day, and dream of creating a salon of olive oil, in Montreal. This is never routine. “I have an exciting life,” he says.

♦ 83 % of those aged 55 or over consider entrepreneurship as a career choice that is desirable, compared to 78% among 35-54 years, according to the Index québec’s entrepreneurial 2012.

Source : Foundation of entrepreneurship

♦ 30 % one-third of start-up companies are led by baby boomers, which is two times more than in the 1990s.

Source : report of the canadian imperial Bank of commerce, 2012