Hillside Gardens

What Hillside Gardens does

A four-generation, family-owned farming business, Hillside Gardens Ltd. grows, packs, and ships fresh root vegetables — onions, carrots, turnips, beets, and parsnips — plus specialty heritage varieties of coloured beets and carrots. The company operates from two production sites: a Canadian headquarters on muck soil in Bradford, Ontario (in the Holland Marsh region of Ontario's Greenbelt) and a branch operation in Reidsville, Georgia, that takes advantage of the longer southern growing season to extend supply windows. Customers are primarily enterprise grocery retailers in Ontario and beyond, with Loblaw's Zehrs identified as a named wholesale/in-store partner through the 'Grown Close To Home' program across multiple stores in the GTA and Barrie; end consumers are also engaged directly through in-store events, a recipes-focused blog, and an active Facebook/Instagram/Pinterest presence.

Underlying the operation is a proprietary, award-winning traceability program co-developed with OMAFRA: ProducePak software running on PDAs, used to track every bag of produce from seed to final retail destination. The system enabled Hillside to win the Ontario Minister's Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence (2008) and underpins food safety and quality assurance. All produce is certified to CanadaGAP food-safety standards, and the Ontario branch holds Local Food Plus certification. The Canadian site further invested in 882 solar panels (Q.Plus L-G4.1) across four roofs in 2018 to reduce energy cost and environmental impact.

Revenue is generated through one-time wholesale sales of place-packed root vegetables shipped to grocery retailers across Ontario and the broader North American market, supplemented by in-store promotional activity at Loblaw's Zehrs locations. GTM is event- and sales-led, combining wholesale distribution agreements with in-store consumer engagement at named retail partners and a content-marketing layer (recipes, blog, social) to build local-brand affinity. The company is privately held with no external institutional capital disclosed, and operational decision-making is multi-generational within the owning family.

Name

Hillside Gardens

Legal name

Hillside Gardens Ltd.

Website

https://hillsidegardens.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

1935

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

A four-generation family farm that grows and packs root vegetables (onions, carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips) and heritage varieties for grocery retailers, distributing across Ontario and beyond from operations in Bradford, Ontario and Reidsville, Georgia.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Fresh Produce (Root Vegetables)

NAICS

Other Vegetable (except Potato) and Melon Farming (111219), Vegetable and Melon Farming (11121)

SIC

Agricultural Production-Crops (100)

akta.pro primary industry

Root & Tuber Vegetable Farming (Carrots, Beets, Radish, Turnip, Sweet Potato) (AFAGADAC)

Keywords

• Fresh produce supply
• Root vegetable farming
• Wholesale produce distribution
• Farm-to-retail traceability
• CanadaGAP-certified produce

Headquarters

HQ city

Bradford

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Fresh Produce Sales: Hillside Gardens generates revenue through selling fresh root vegetables grown at their farms in Ontario and Georgia. The company grows onions, carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, and heritage varieties of coloured beets and carrots which are place-packed and shipped to retailers.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Hillside Gardens Ltd. grows, packs, and ships fresh root vegetables — onions, carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, and heritage varieties of coloured beets and carrots — from its Holland Marsh (Bradford, Ontario) farm and a Georgia branch operation, supplying grocery retailers across Ontario and beyond through wholesale distribution. The company also operates an innovative ProducePak-based traceability system (developed with OMAFRA) that tracks every bag of produce from seed to retail, complementing CanadaGAP and Local Food Plus food-safety certifications.

Product overview

Hillside Gardens Ltd. operates as a vertically integrated produce company offering a focused portfolio of root vegetables. Their core product line consists of conventionally grown vegetables (onions, carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips) supplemented by specialty heritage varieties of coloured beets and carrots. The company has developed a proprietary traceability program (ProducePak-based) that enables end-to-end tracking of produce from seed to retail, which they offer as a distinguishing feature supporting food safety and quality assurance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Root Vegetables (Onions, Carrots, Turnips, Beets, Parsnips) Core product line of conventionally grown root vegetables — onions, carrots, turnips, beets, and parsnips — grown at the Holland Marsh (Ontario) and Georgia farms, place-packed, and shipped across Ontario and beyond to grocery retailers.
• Heritage Varieties (Coloured Beets and Carrots) Specialty heritage varieties of coloured beets and carrots offered as part of Hillside Gardens' product line, targeting grocery retailers seeking differentiated, locally-grown SKUs.

Quantifiable outcome

• Traceability from seed to retail for every bag of produce

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.

• Loblaw's (Zehrs)majorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2012Participated in Loblaw's 'Grown Close To Home' events at six Zehrs grocery stores around the GTA and Barrie. Plant manager, farm manager, and three generations of owners attended to meet customers and promote local produce.
• OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOMAFRA helped implement Hillside Gardens' computerized traceability program, transitioning from paper-based tracking to ProducePak software and PDA scanning system for tracking produce from seed to retail.
• CanadaGAPcoreOthersAll produce is safety-certified to the high standards of the CanadaGAP program, a food safety certification for produce operations.
• Local Food PluscoreOthersOntario branch is Local Food Plus-certified, indicating sustainability and local food production standards.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Mastronardi Produce: Canadian-founded greenhouse produce powerhouse (Sunset brand) supplying major North American grocers including Loblaw's. Overlaps on retail distribution and Canada/US dual-region supply, but operates in greenhouse categories rather than root vegetables.
• Bonduelle: Global vegetable producer with significant Canadian operations and processed/ packaged vegetable lines. Overlaps on Canadian retail vegetable supply, but operates at far greater scale across processed and fresh categories.
• Taylor Farms: Major North American fresh-produce processor and supplier of value-added vegetable products to grocery and foodservice. Comparable retail-channel exposure and supply-chain traceability requirements, but operates at national scale with broader product mix.

Direct peers

• Pero Family Farms: Multi-generational family vegetable grower supplying fresh vegetables (including root crops and specialty varieties) to US retail. Comparable family-farming heritage, fresh-produce focus, and heritage-variety differentiation strategy.
• Bolthouse Farms: Carrot- and root-vegetable-focused producer with branded retail SKUs across North America. Comparable product mix (carrots-centric) and retail-channel orientation; substantially larger scale and consumer-brand investment.
• Grimmway Farms: Largest US grower of carrots and a major producer of other root vegetables, supplying national retail and foodservice. Directly comparable on core crop category (carrots/beets) and seed-to-retail traceability orientation, though at materially larger scale.
• Earthbound Farm: Organic fresh-produce grower and packer with strong retail traceability credentials and grocery-banner relationships across North America. Comparable farm-to-retail traceability narrative and premium-channel positioning.
• Gwillimdale Farms: Ontario-based family vegetable grower producing carrots, onions, beets, and other root vegetables for Canadian grocery retail. Most directly comparable peer in terms of geography, crop mix, family-farming heritage, and Canadian retail customer base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/hillsidegardensltd
• Instagraminstagram.com/hillside.gardens
• Pinterestpinterest.com/hillsidegardens

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hillside Gardens