Maverick’s Donuts franchisees Jon Martin and Liz Ellwood are stepping away from their Ottawa locations after nearly five years in the community. They’re selling their Ottawa locations in Alta Vista, Barrhaven and Stittsville as well as the Maverick’s Donuts food truck as they explore other ventures. The “bittersweet” decision was announced by the couple on […]
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Maverick’s Donuts franchisees Jon Martin and Liz Ellwood are stepping away from their Ottawa locations after nearly five years in the community.
They’re selling their Ottawa locations in Alta Vista, Barrhaven and Stittsville as well as the Maverick’s Donuts food truck as they explore other ventures.
The “bittersweet” decision was announced by the couple on LinkedIn last week.
“It’s a lot to manage one location, let alone three or four. Any business is going to succeed best when the owner is involved,” said Martin, who is also vice-president of franchising with the company.
While Ellwood’s focus will shift to her business development and marketing firm LE Strategies, Martin will continue to grow the Maverick’s Donuts brand nationally.
The couple started with the company in June 2020, when they met with co-founder Geoff Vivian about opportunities to franchise.
During the pandemic, Martin and Ellwood opened the Maverick’s location in Stittsville, where they live.
“It was a big success. People were really looking for things to get excited about. We had lineups all the way from our shop to the Johnny Leroux Arena. It was almost like a story of hope in the midst of the difficulties of the pandemic,” Ellwood said.
They opened multiple locations during their time as franchisees, all while Martin was helping to develop the brand with 22 locations across the country, including in Toronto, Halifax, Barrie and Calgary.
Martin also secured Maverick’s as the official doughnut for Ottawa sports teams at TD Place, including the Redblacks and the 67’s.
The couple helped raise funds for organizations such as CHEO, Queensway Carleton Hospital and the Boys and Girls Club. They also helped local radio personality Angie Poirier raise funds for her son’s cancer treatments in Boston. Through those efforts, Poirier’s former co-presenter Stuart Schwartz, known locally as “Stuntman Stu,” became a spokesperson for the brand.
Reflecting on their five-year journey as franchisees, Martin and Ellwood said the community aspect of their business is what has stuck with them the most.
“It really has made us get to know people in our community and it’s been such a gift in so many ways,” Ellwood said. “I personally feel like the pandemic would have been a lot harder if we didn’t have Maverick’s because it got us out of our house and seeing people.”
He pointed to Maverick’s work with minor sports leagues in the city as a highlight of community engagement.
“This (past) year alone, we (gave out) 4,000 player of the game coupons to young kids. We fundraise with them so they can raise money, instead of doing a bottle drive, which means we constantly have kids coming into the shop showing that they’ve earned something. We applaud them and make them feel good,” Martin said.
“I think as much as we’ve given to the Maverick’s brand over time, it’s given back to us,” Ellwood said.
In a message to the next owner or owners, Martin said while the business itself is simple, dealing in doughnuts and coffee, it takes “constant work, being on the ball and building relationships.”
“This is not a business where you can just be behind a computer. You need to be out in the community, building partnerships, building relationships,” he said.
Maverick’s may have a sizable social media following, but Ellwood said that it's having a presence in the community that spreads the word.
“If someone is having a great community event, we’ll do a post about it. It’s very much a mentality of pay it forward and do good and good will come back to you,” Ellwood said.
As they search for the next owners of their three Ottawa locations, Ellwood said, “it’s hard to pull away when there are exciting things coming.”
“We'd like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to the Ottawa community for being so behind our brand and giving us the support and being our customers over the years. We couldn't have asked for a better community to have done this in and we are eternally grateful for that,” Ellwood said.
