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Seven-year itch brings just rewards; Winemaker honoured for lifetime of achievements
Posted By MONIQUE BEECH
John Howard, a noted Niagara wine industry leader, broke his seven-year rule just once.
For seven years, he ran a Burlington office product and technology company, O.E. Hamilton, which he co-founded in the late 1970s.
Seven years he worked as a top executive with Canon at its New York office.
Then 1993 rolled around.
“And then I bought Vineland (Estates Winery). The little winery up the road.”
Under Howard’s entrepreneurial wing, the little winery on Moyer Road grew from a small “farmhouse and a barn” at the end of a dirt road to a picturesque Niagara winery boutique with much acclaim.
More than 10 years later, in 2004, Howard sold off his controlling shares in the company, which produced 14 times more wine by the time he left.
“Mistake,” he says of hanging on past his seven-year expiry date.
“I didn’t gain any more value for two extra years.
“I should have left. I should have sold it after seven years.”
Through each of his seven-year (or more) entrepreneurial feats, Howard has called Niagara his home base.
Tonight, Niagara is honouring him.
Howard is being recognized with a lifetime achievement award at the annual Niagara Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Niagara Falls.
“I think what happens is that you want something so badly that it’s impossible for you not to acquire it,” Howard said of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
“So, you acquire it and then you figure out how to pay for it.”
Howard’s career started with a Xerox newspaper ad offering $18,000 for a new photocopy machine salesman.
A few years later, the new career path sprouted a company, O.E. Hamilton.
Howard sold the company, made a bundle and ended up staying on as the business changed ownership, eventually being scooped up by Canon.
Canon thought it would be good to “keep him around,” so he worked as corporate vice-president and then an executive vice-president for the multi-national for about seven years.
During it all, Howard always returned to the Niagara property he bought from a fellow University of Western Ontario grad in 1974. He paid for the property by flipping houses in London during his university days.
So, after leaving Canon, Howard saw the for sale sign at Vineland Estates, just around the corner from his spacious home, and decided to buy the little business from nursery owner, Hermann Weis.
The son of a father who was a steel rigger and mother who sold Singer sewing machines lived the good life as a Canon executive and tasted plenty of good wine.
Plus, there was just something about the tranquility of a standing in the middle of a vineyard, he said.
Buying the winery just made sense, he said.
After selling Vineland and “retiring,” Howard thought his life would carved into tidy thirds between fishing, volunteer work and running his 110-acre hobby vineyard.
But Howard, 58, is still running a few companies today.
There’s John Howard Cellars of Distinction, which launched a line of cheeky and successful wines last June called Megalomaniac.
Part of the proceeds go to the Kids Health Link Foundation, which provides computers for children in hospital, so they can stay connected to family and friends.
Production is expected to double this year to about 4,000 cases.
Recently, he scooped up partial ownership of a Chateau Pontet, a winery in the small town of Saint Emilion, France.
And there’s his development company, the Niagara Land Company.
All these things run themselves, Howard says, perched on a silky couch in his grand, castle-style Vineland home, adorned with ancient Greece inspired stone statues and vineyard views.
But Howard, who was born in Toronto, admits his latest ventures have cut into his fishing time.
The University of Western Ontario fine arts and French graduate was supposed to be in Argentina this week casting a line.
Instead, he finalized the French winery deal, spent Thursday in Vancouver to speak at a conference about product branding before returning to Niagara for the entrepreneurial awards.
Still, he says he wants to enjoy life. His only child, Erin Mitchell, is expecting her first child in May.
Perhaps, it signals the start of a new seven-year plan.
“I want to take my grandson or a granddaughter on a run every morning,” Howard says.
“I’m going to do that through Niagara-on-the-Lake, where they live and yell and curse at people who don’t slow down their cars when they’re running down the road,” said Howard, deadpan.
Other local business leaders being honoured at the Niagara Entrepreneur Awards are: George Darte of George Darte Funeral Chapel in St. Catharines, who is being given the community contribution award; Suzanne Rochon-Burnett, a highly respected Metis business woman who became the first aboriginal person to own a radio station, is being recognized with a hall of fame award.
Six other awards will be given out tonight at the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel & Conference Centre.
Article ID# 922344
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