After 26 years at the helm of central Ontario’s largest coffee company, Jim Dykes is filtering out.
The Orillia-based Madison County Food and Beverage Company, which Dykes started after buying its predecessor, Simcoe-Matic Canteen, in 1992, has merged with Imperial Coffee and Services.
Eventually, the Madison County name will be replaced by Imperial Coffee and Services, but the well-known Madison County brand of coffee will remain.
“It will get a lot more exposure because Imperial is a bigger operation,” Dykes said of the company that has branches across the province.
Imperial has closed its Barrie operation and moved it to the Orillia office, bringing its employees with it.
Dykes expects to see more jobs created as a result of the merger.
“There’s a real opportunity to grow this thing in fast fashion,” he said.
With Madison County being the largest coffee company in central Ontario and Imperial being the largest in the province, Imperial was “a logical merger partner,” he said.
Throughout his years in business, Dykes strove to expand the company’s reach while remaining locally loyal. He takes pride in Madison County being the only food service provider for Lakehead University since it opened its Orillia campus.
“All local businesses will tell you the more we support each other, the benefits to the community are much greater,” he said. “Lakehead understood that and they recognized that a successful university has to be integral to the community.”
Dykes isn’t out of the business yet. He is helping the company transition its customers.
While he looks forward to retirement, the decision to merge the companies was “extremely difficult.”
“You worry not just about yourself. There are 50 people at Madison County who built that company, too,” he said. “When you leave, you want to be sure they’re taken care of.”
He believes those employees, none of whom lost their jobs as a result of the merger, are in good hands.
While “the full impact of being retired hasn’t hit me yet, I think it’s going to be difficult,” said Dykes.
However, it will give him more time to dedicate to his volunteer efforts in the area, including his role on the board of directors for the Child Advocacy Centre Simcoe/Muskoka.
“That’s a cause I’ve got a passion for,” he said, adding it’s “unfortunate” the agency’s services are in demand.
He is also a board member with the Community Foundation of Orillia and Area.
He will now have more time for those organizations and will also be able to get involved with other causes he didn’t have time for while running the business.
He thanked the community for helping to make Madison County a success.
“We are all so lucky to live in a community like Orillia,” he said. “As a businessperson, I’m very thankful for the community that was there for us as we grew the company.”
