Each year, Caldwell Partners International chooses 40 Canadians who were under 40 in the past year to honour for their outstanding achievements. Click here to learn more about the program, and find more winners in the list below.
He was headed for a career as a chartered accountant, but upon completing his designation, Gregory Roberts instead bought a small gas station in rural Newfoundland and left the firm.
“Everyone thought I was crazy,” Mr. Roberts said. But: “I wanted to be self-employed.”
He now heads up Mary Brown’s Famous Chicken & Taters!, a national fast-food franchise with more than 80 locations in Canada.
Mr. Roberts got a bachelor’s of commerce degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland and was articling at a chartered accounting firm.
When he started Pilley’s Island Enterprises, he used credit cards and got personal loans and credit from suppliers. He had four employees.
Despite the difficulty accessing capital in Atlantic Canada, he started expanding and bought a local pharmacy, some real estate and franchise restaurants.
When he became interested in Mary Brown’s, there were seven groups interested in buying it, he said.
“I owned a few outlets and understood the value of it,” he said, so he fought for it and beat out the others.
Since the purchase, the company doubled sales, he said, and is now expanding internationally, for instance into Guyana, Pakistan and Eastern Europe.
“I went from a little rural business to effectively an international business,” he said.
Mr. Roberts has won several entrepreneur awards and said his management style is “getting good people, empowering them, and giving them resources.” He adds, “I come from a modest business background and can relate to front-line workers.”
Married with two girls, Mr. Roberts is involved with the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada, both personally and on a corporate level. The foundation grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. Mr. Roberts has been involved with community food hampers since he started his first business. He also supports Agape Home for abandoned and orphaned children with HIV and AIDS in Thailand and has volunteered at his local school board and with economic development committees.
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