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A rock solid work ethic, high risk tolerance, 18 hour days and a passion for success and this city helped Neil Madden win the Young Entrepreneur award from the Burlington Chamber of Commerce earlier this year. Add this to a host of national awards from Industry peers and manufacturers, it is no wonder Neils Burlington based coffee company is one of the fastest growing in Canada. Madden, 37 started operating a vend- ing machine business out of his garage 13 years ago part time while working full time as a sales rep. Then in 2000, with two babies at home, he quit his day job and went full time into building his busi- ness, ECS Coffee. It takes a lot to get going... and I wanted to quit many times but having great people behind you makes a real dif- ference. From those humble begin- nings, the business has grown big enough to take up a large warehouse on the North Service Road. Madden has expanded his business to include cor- porate office coffee clients as diverse as small local offices and the TSX and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Last year, with his wife of 15 years at his side, they opened a retail store at their industrial address and launched a web store earlier this year. Both sell a wide range of coffee and tea products focussing on single cup coffee capsules. There was a recession coming in 2009 so we decided start looking at other mar- kets and distribution methods for our products. It has since become a huge part of our success. ECS employs nine in addi- tion to Madden and he is plan- ning on hiring more staff in the next six months. The suc- cess of their retail store comes from old fashioned customer service, low prices and what may seem like a simple con- cept, every customer gets a free coffee while they shop. Although they are a bit hard to find, tucked away in the back of an industrial complex, customers have travelled from as far away as Montreal and there are regulars that come in from London and Cambridge. We had one person that heard about us while on a beach in Jamaica from another customer that shops here regu- larly. We seem to have found a niche and it is great to have so much word of mouth business."While future expan- sion is definitely in the cards, Madden says he will never leave the area. "We are blessed with the best people and business environment in Canada. Why would we be anywhere else?" OPEN Come in. Were QEW AP PL EB Y LN BU RL OA K NORTH SERVICE RD. UPPER MIDDLE W AL KE RS LN C3 Coffee Storage starting at $14.99 Single Cup Superstore Over 170 Types of K Cups 50 Pkg. K Cups 5 varieties $23.99 Make Your Own K Cup Variety Pack ver 18 Types Tassimo and sories in stock! ution & Filters Open: Mon.-Fri. 9-5:30, Sat. 10-4 5035 North Service Rd. Unit C3, Burlington 905.631.1524 ecscoffee.com ECS Coffee succeeding one cup at a time 31 Friday , O ctober 1, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m