Howard Selig never imagined that a small experiment at North Queens Nursing Home in Caledonia 25 years ago would turn out to be a successful business model.
After leaving the culinary industry and retraining, Selig worked there as a Dietician.
A previous Dietician had implemented a progressive nutritional program that incorporated the use of whole flax seeds to help the residents maintain regular bowel movements.
The program was extremely successful, reducing constipation and eliminating the need for medicines, leading to huge cost savings. The whole seeds, however, were getting stuck under dentures.
“The residents were not keen on the program because they were using whole flax seeds. I was working there for six months and given the task to overcome the problem. I started grinding the seeds and reformulated the product. It worked even better than the previous program,” says Selig.
According to Selig, flax seeds don’t give much benefit if they aren’t ground. He coined the term flax flour for ground flax seeds in the 1990s.
“A couple of years later, I had several other facilities that were interested in this program and started supplying them. From there, the program continued to grow. As the sales grew, my wife and I thought that this could be a good business model. That’s how Valley Flaxflour started,” adds Selig.
The company was named Valley Flaxflour by Selig after the Annapolis Valley as they are located in Middleton and flax flour is the primary product.
Benefits of consuming flax seeds
According to Selig, flax seeds are a natural product that help lower cholesterol levels, control blood sugar after a meal, are a great source of prebiotic fibre, and promote regular bowel movements.
“For every two-tablespoon serving, you are getting four grams of fibre. If you are looking at getting 25 to 30 grams of fibre in your diet, you should take two to four tablespoons of ground flax every day,” says Selig. “People who are on diet can incorporate flax because it’s a low carb and high protein food,” explains Selig.
An 800g package of flax flour costs only $14 CAD, which is less than 10 cents per day.
Flax flour can be used in a variety of foods including oatmeal, porridge, cookies and cupcakes. Valley Flaxflour sells products including flax flour, gluten free bread mix, gluten free pancake and cookie mix, all-purpose flour, whole rolled oats and even a flax and apple soap bar.
Health care, equine are major consumers
The majority of customers are comprised of senior citizens in nursing homes.
“Apart from senior citizens, there are a lot of young people working in nursing homes who appreciate the benefits of flax. In online sales, it is primarily older people. Over the last couple of years, we have acquired customers from the 30 to 35 years old age group through online sales,” explains Selig.
Valley Flaxflour also caters to horse owners with their ground flax feed supplement.
“Feeding flax to horses is beneficial because it is a source of omega-3 fatty acids, soluble and non-soluble fibre, minerals and antioxidants,” says Selig.
“One of the customers gave feedback that after consuming flax seeds, her horse’s hair shines brightly and it really brings out the hair colour very nicely,” adds Selig.
Many customers at Valley Flaxflour are women.
“It’s a 70/30 split for women and men in the retail products,” adds Selig.
Half of the revenue generated by the company is contributed by the health-care market. The rest comes from the equine and retail market.
The company employs one full-time person and three part-time employees. The full-time person is responsible for production, food safety program, grinding flax seeds, milling, packaging, and shipping.
“I have another person who helps me with bookkeeping, marketing, and the food safety program. Another one works exclusively for co-pack companies. She packages products for other companies,” adds Selig.
Milestones achieved
Early in the development of their marketing strategy, Valley Flaxflour was able to grow beyond the Maritimes into the Ontario long-term care market. This market has been a major contributor to their ongoing success.
Through the strategic development of complimentary markets, including equine and retail, Valley Flaxflour has survived through some extremely challenging events, including Covid.
The company’s products are available at retailers including Noggins, Foodland and some farmers’ markets and are available online through their website https://www.flaxflour.com/products/all-purpose-flour
Diversification
In 2011, Selig introduced Valley Kitchen brand, which is a gluten free line of products for the retail market.
“We have an all-purpose flour, bread mix and pancake mix. These are the products we sell through our website-flaxflour.com The reason that we chose those was because it was easy to incorporate flax into those products,” says Selig.
“You can make two loaves of bread using our 1kg bag of gluten free bread mix. One of the benefits of our products is there is no need of Xanthum gum to make them work. The blend of fibre in the product helps make good gluten free bread and cupcakes,” adds Selig.
CBDC’s role in setting up Valley Flaxflour
Selig has been working with CBDC ever since he started the business.
“They had a program called Self Employment Benefits Program. It was an employment program through which I could get some revenue to help me setup the business in 1998,” says Selig.
“I worked with them constantly for the last 25 years. They offer both financial assistance for an ongoing project and understanding where I am at with financing the business,” adds Selig.
When Selig purchased his current production facility in 2009, Annapolis Ventures CBDC provided financing for the purchase.
“Howard is a pleasant and optimistic entrepreneur who is determined and works hard to grow his business. It has been motivating to witness his accomplishments over the years,” says Andrew Welch, Business Development Officer at Annapolis Ventures CBDC.
Community Business Development Corporations (CBDCs) are not-for-profit organizations that support the success of small businesses in rural areas by providing financing, training and advice to entrepreneurs. Learn more about CBDCs at cbdc.ca.
Future plans
Selig plans to continue to grow the health care market in Ontario. They will also expand in Quebec for which they are translating resources and setting up a bilingual website which will be online next week.
“In health care, we are moving into the larger provinces to Western Canada in the last couple of years. In retail, we are focusing on our online market and stores,” says Selig.
“We are very happy to have started the flax flour business. Consumers like our products because of the health benefits and cost-effectiveness. When you consider the cost of flax relative to money saved for not having to buy pharmaceuticals, you save in the range of 60 to 70 per cent of pharmaceuticals just by adding two to three tablespoons of flax every day,” adds Selig.
