Crafting Cider in Caledon

Nick and Lindsay Sutcliffe talk about why they left Toronto in 2011 to establish Pommies Cider in Caledon.

Tell us about your journey from the corporate world to starting your own business in Caledon.

Nick: It’s been great! We used to have paychecks, we used to have other people looking after the major stresses and we used to have a good night’s sleep! But now we control our destiny, with a great team, a great product, a great lifestyle, and a 15-minute commute to work. We work very hard; every entrepreneur knows how hard one has to work to get a business started. We have a six and a five-year-old, the beauty of being an entrepreneur is that we control when we work and how we work. Our family dinners are sacrosanct.

Why did you choose Caledon to establish your business?

Lindsay: I was born here, we have been in Caledon my entire life and it made sense to make Caledon Pommies home.

Nick: The location is great, it’s close to Toronto. The best part is that we are still in the country but close to GTA. It’s rural and it’s beautiful. We met in Toronto, moved to Caledon and I like the people in Caledon! We are legitimately friends with many of the small business owners in the area. There is a great sense of community.

I read that you want to build a destination cidery that will help cider become to Caledon what wine is to the Niagara region. Tell us about your future plans for the company.

Nick: Right now Pommies sits on the shelf but we want Pommies to sit on people’s mind. We want an experiential component to the brand. We also want to put more trees in the ground. I dream of driving a tractor and tending to an orchard, growing our own apples. Propagating an indigenous Caledon apple to make a unique Pommies cider: everything we do, we try to put some sensibility in.

Do you think it’s important for people to shop locally? If so, why?

Lindsay: It’s very important. We buy everything locally and we support family businesses.

Nick: As a family business, we like to support other family businesses. We give tours of this place because we don’t hide anything. When was the last time you got a tour of a large multinational plant?

What can your customers look forward to in 2018? Anything new?

Lindsay: We have a new seasonal cider that’s coming up but we can’t tell you what it is. It’s a secret [laughs]. It’s something completely new that we have never done before.

What is it like to work with each other?

Lindsay: We used to share an office but now that we have moved to a larger facility we each have our own office, but I can still hear him, he’s a loud phone talker [laughs].

Nick: I am the dreamer and Lindsay is the doer. We never step on each other’s toes. We complement each other.

Fun Fact:

Do you know Frankie? Frankie is the carbonation system that adds the CO2 bubbles. Nick tells us they get lots of compliments for those bubbles. Frankie, the machine, has been with them since the beginning.

About Pommies Cider Co.

Pommies’ ciders are crafted from 100 per cent Ontario apples and pears, no concentrates. The growing company now employs 14 people and recently expanded to a 15,000 square foot facility in Bolton. Pommies Cider produces about half a million litres of cider annually. We met Nick and Lindsay Sutcliffe and asked them about living and working in Caledon.