Jack Cator was peddling meat in a horse-drawn salt wagon in and around Bowmanville when he launched his business in 1925.

The business — now a Brampton meat processing plant called Cardinal Meat Specialists Ltd. and run by Jack’s grandson, Brent Cator — will be celebrating its centennial this week.

Brent said his grandfather went on to open a butcher shop in Bowmanville on the suggestion of the local minister, who didn’t like the existing shop. Jack then opened several other butcher shops in the Greater Toronto Area.

“He would proudly talk about the few that went out of business because that’s how he learned — through his mistakes,” Brent said of his grandfather. “But he just stuck with it. He was a true entrepreneur.”

Brent said that by the early 1960s, sawdust-on-the-floor butcher shops were disappearing and supermarkets were becoming widespread.

“My grandfather and my father at that time owned the butcher shops (and) started to sell them off,” Brent said in a recent interview.

In 1966, the family business transitioned to a meat processing plant, which was initially on Stanfield Road in Mississauga. The company launched its first branded burger product, Butch Burgers, in 1970 and expanded in 1995 when it bought a former McDonald’s processing plant near Toronto Pearson International Airport.

The company moved to its current facility on Hedgedale Road in Brampton in 2011.

“We upscaled in a big way,” Brent said.

The current 122,000-square-foot Brampton plant now has about 175 full-time staff and 150 to 170 seasonal workers.

“One of the things that was really key was having access to seasonal staff,” Brent said. “A large part of our business is hamburgers, and as you can imagine, the spring and summer (have) a huge rise in (demand).”

The company now has about $250 million in annual sales, according to Brent, who took over the family business in 2004. Its most popular and largest brand is Cardinal Roadhouse Burgers.

Cardinal Meats is marking “100 years of Cator-family leadership in the Canadian meat industry” Aug. 19 with an employee barbecue. The private event is expected to be attended by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and members of the Brampton Steelheads junior ice hockey team.

Brent said his company has become a leader in food safety and innovation.

“We’ve been very involved in ways to advance everything from animal care, sustainability and food safety,” he said. “We’ve taken learnings from around the world … to make our food safety program truly world class.”

According to Cardinal Meats, it was the first in North America to implement sous vide cooking at an industrial level. This method, which involves cooking vacuum-sealed food submerged in water and set to a very specific temperature, ensures “superior quality and freshness while reducing costs for customers,” the company said.

Brent said the company remains focused on innovation.

“I’d love to see the advancements that are yet to come,” he said. “We’re 100 years in, and we’re really eager to see what the next 100 years will hold.”

Read the full article here; https://www.bramptonguardian.com/business/brampton-maker-of-cardinal-roadhouse-burgers-marks/article_80129838-5bb8-5525-a636-8ceae14122fb.html

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