In the summer of 2016, Mike George took time off from his job in the military to visit family in Italy. On the last day of his trip, his uncle gave him some local olive oil to try and asked a question that would stick in George’s mind: “Do you think Canadians would like real olive oil?”
The simple question “really lit something inside me,” George said. So much so that, even with no experience in the food industry or in business, he started drafting pricing schemes and identifying competitors in the olive oil business as he made his way home to Ottawa.
“I don’t know why, but it became an obsession,” George told OBJ of the concept that would later become Aurelius Fine Oils & Balsamic Vinegars. “But I was still fully-operational military and gone six months out of the year.”
Over the next two years, George spent any free time building his business, including networking and meeting with chefs from well-known Ottawa eateries such as Riviera Ottawa, e18hteen and North & Navy.
“I always build a relationship with the chefs, not the owners,” he said. “The chefs are the ones who fight to get my product in there. Plus, if they open another restaurant, they’ll just bring it over.”
He continued building his business and working full-time in the Canadian Armed Forces, but at one point he realized things had to change.
“I was told I would have to go to Iraq to backfill a person who got injured. But it was Christmastime and I had a dinner at e18hteen planned where they were going to showcase our oils, from the appetizer to the dessert. It was a big, fun event and I thought, ‘Crap, this is ruining my oil plans.’ That’s when I knew my focus shifted,” George said.
Once George returned in January 2018, he put in his release and left the military that June. By September, he’d opened Aurelius Fine Oils & Balsamic Vinegars on Wellington Street West.
At Aurelius, customers can taste products from the store’s two categories: exclusive small-batch products and a general line of flavoured oils and vinegars.
“The small-batch oil and balsamics are my big differentiators. It’s the olive oil that comes from a community mill just north of Rome, very close to where my family lives. It’s an artisanal product, meaning they’re not on a distribution list. They don’t export to North America,” George said. “So I buy it and pay the shipping fees for one crate every six months.”
The small-batch olive oils are his most expensive products but George said they are his best-sellers as the taste is “more grassy and bitter with a peppery finish,” something not easily found in a grocery-store olive oil.
The general line includes up to 40 flavoured oils and balsamic vinegars ranging from rosemary olive oil and lemon olive oil to apricot, cherry, fig and chocolate balsamic, he said.
The transition from the military to working at Aurelius full-time was a slow process, George said, as he was learning everything about business “from scratch.”
“Between ranges, I’d have my oil at work and I’d have guys taste it. I’d go from squadron to squadron selling my oil. I would go to restaurants on the weekend to get people to learn about it. It was a slow process.”
Communication did not always come easily. “There are a lot of things like how we deal with communication and conflict specifically that just don’t work in the civilian world compared to (the) army world.”
He hired a business coach to help him address key issues, from staffing to time management. “When you’re facing issues, it’s not an obstacle to be avoided. It’s a chance to grow.”
George said he bootstrapped the business initially, eventually turning to the Futurpreneur Canada program and support from Veterans Affairs Canada.
This year, Aurelius’s revenue is up 20 per cent year over year and, in April, George acquired The Unrefined Olive, an Ottawa-based olive oil competitor. The acquisition boosted his store count to three, with the other two locations on Second Avenue and Terry Fox Drive.
The idea to acquire another company versus opening a second location came to him from a podcast. “I learned about acquisitions through podcasts. (It showed me) I don’t have to be a mergers-and-acquisitions, venture-backed tech startup to do this. I can do it as a retail store.”
Still, George said he doesn’t want to grow for growth’s sake.
“I’m not interested in just growing revenue and being at a loss for the next five years … We’re always seeking excellence and it applies to everything; to how I answer the phone to my sales skills to how I consistently fill the bottles to the same amount and put my labels on straight with no bubbles. I’m in it for the long haul and that benefits my customers, my staff and my family,” he said.
To keep his team aligned with the mission for the business, George developed a list of values: “Save the relationship, not the transaction,” “Turn one-star reviews into raving fans” and “If you’re not happy, we’re not happy” are all a part of the Aurelius way of thinking.
Spending time on customer experience has paid off, George said. “If someone has a negative issue we’ll go out of our way to make it right because that extra effort is going to turn them into that raving fan … We’re aiming to give you the best service, the best experience and that will lead to more sales.”
George said applying the military precision he learned in his earlier career is instrumental in running his business.
“It’s always been about quality. We always had the best equipment, the best training, the best leadership and the best people in my organization. Being able to lock in and focus until we reach our objective and being mission-focused,” George said.
Looking to the future, George said he wants to make sure his three locations are well-oiled machines before looking for what’s next.
“Six months since the acquisition we’re stabilizing and getting ready for Christmas. We are making sure that we are building the teams up for success and, hopefully, a record-breaking season. Over the next year, we’re going to be improving our systems, our people, our communication cadence and boosting profit,” he said.