Virgin Mobile, Nike, Coors and thousands of hot dog cart vendors around the world have something in common – Willy Dog Hot Dog Carts designed and manufactured here in Napanee.
Will Hodgskiss, President and ‘Top Dog’, built his first hot dog cart approximately 23 years ago and from this humble beginning, this business savvy entrepreneur has grown his company into the number one position in North America. A year ago, Hodgskiss was searching for larger facilities to support expansion of his US subsidiary and more aggressively tap into the rapidly expanding mobile epicurean and deli food tuck segment.
“My facilities were located in Kingston, so I searched in this general area along the 401, from Brockville to Cobourg,” Hodgskiss explains. “A friend suggested that I should check out Napanee and without question, it’s the best decision I could have made. There is an excellent pool of qualified tradespeople here and I found Lennox and Addington County and Napanee municipal and economic development staff to be helpful, easy to do business with and just genuinely interested in helping me to get my facility up and running.” Willy Dogs manufacturing facility is located on Camden Road attached to the historic East Ward School building, built in 1872, and employs approximately 20 people.
Willy Dog hot dog carts can be found everywhere in the world – in North and South America, Europe, Russia, China, Australia, New Zealand and even in a small village in the Northwest Territories that was delivered by truck on the ice bridge and is being used to feed local fisherman and hunters throughout the year.
Although the bulk of his business is crafting these ubiquitous food carts, he manufactures one-of-a-kind carts for company product promotions such as Virgin Mobile and for Hollywood movies - his carts have appeared in at least 10 movies and he still gets a chuckle recounting the fact that his cart was crushed by The Hulk! He is moving into the mobile epicurean food cart segment to capitalize on the growing trend of consumers wanting healthier ‘street’ food choices.
Hodgskiss knows the business intimately. “I operated a hot dog cart years ago, and thought, great, I can develop this into a franchised, food service operation, which I did for a number of years,” explains Hodgskiss. As this strategy grew over time, he discovered that it was becoming too unwieldy and time consuming as a business model. He also believed he could design and manufacture a better cart…Willy Dog was born and the rest is history.
Hodgskiss also believes that helping his customers succeed is part of why his business is so successful. Anyone interested in getting into this sector can access the company’s Hot Dog Cart Business Manual which offers a step-by-step guide to setting up and running a thriving hot dog cart business. His company also staffs a help hotline to respond to customers’ questions and problems. Willy Dog Hot Dog Carts also sells accessories from tank covers to wind guards to cash drop boxes and ice cream boxes. Willy Dog was named Manufacturer of the Year in 2011 by Lennox and Addington County and has received numerous other business achievement awards.
Selling it from L&A. For more information: www.willydogs.com
Stephen Paul
Manager, Economic Development
Lennox and Addington County
613-354-4883 ext 234
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