Food in Canada

He’s No Nut

to hear stories about people

who risked everything to follow

their dreams, he always thought,

“Why on earth would anyone do that?”

Today Goldenberg understands. He’s put

everything — including all of his savings

— into bringing his new peanut butter

to the market. Called Nut ’N Budder, his

product isn’t a household name yet, but

it’s definitely starting to show commercial

promise. And Goldenberg is thrilled with

his decision to make that tough leap into

the entrepreneurial world. “You just have

to persevere,” he says. “If there’s a roadblock,

move that roadblock.”

It all began at the gym a couple of years ago. Goldenberg’s

brother is a strength training coach in Ottawa with a

number of professional hockey players as clients. One day

Goldenberg noticed a player putting peanut butter in his

protein shake after a workout. “He started telling me that

peanut butter is very high in protein,” says Goldenberg.

“He said it gave him a quick burst of energy. But he didn’t

like the natural stuff.” Goldenberg was surprised to see this

professional athlete – who is typically quite concerned with

what he puts into his body – using peanut butter containing

additives and preservatives. “It got me thinking that there’s

got to be a better way of doing this.”

So Goldenberg, who was then – and continues to be

– a full-time systems specialist at IBM in Ottawa, began to

devote all his free time to developing a healthy peanut butter.

Aiming to create a great-tasting product with no additives,

preservatives or salt, the entrepreneur spoke to myriad peanut

butter fans across the continent, uncovering what they liked

and disliked about most natural peanut butters. The main

complaints he heard were that the taste is often bland, and

that the oil separates from the peanut butter, leaving a rockhard

centre that “breaks your wrist when you try to stir it.”

Armed with this feedback, Goldenberg began tirelessly

experimenting with recipes, and eventually came up with

the perfect – albeit unusual – blend, which includes peanuts,

almonds, honey, flaxseed and flaxseed oil, without preservatives

or salt. Everyone who taste-tested it began urging him to

sell it. “What everyone likes about my product is its unique

flavour. Nobody’s ever tasted anything like it before,” says

Goldenberg. “People tell me it’s addictive.”

He says it also has a nice consistency, and

doesn’t suffer from the “wrist-breaking”

problem that many natural peanut butters

have. Admittedly, Nut ’N Butter is a little

liquidy because it doesn’t have any additives

or preservatives. “But you just need

to put it in the fridge and let it chill up a

bit, and it thickens up to a nice, spreadable

peanut butter,” says Goldenberg.

While Goldenberg had some experience

in the foodservice industry, he knew little

about the food production business. So a

year and a half ago he made the wise move

of getting involved with the Guelph Food

Technology Centre (GFTC) in Guelph,

Ont. “They took my recipe and helped me commercialize

it,” says Goldenberg, noting that the GFTC helped with

everything from tweaking the recipe for mass production, to

designing packaging and labels, and developing a marketing

strategy. “Everyone there was great,” he gushes. The GFTC

also gave him credibility with certain retailers who wouldn’t

have given him the time of day prior to his affiliation with

the centre.

Under the company name Pro Butter Inc., Goldenberg

finally had a product that was ready to hit the stores about

a year ago. Sobey’s stores across Ontario now carry Nut ’N

Budder, as do numerous health food stores in Ottawa and

throughout Quebec (retailing for $7.99 a jar). In the past

year, sales have reached the $15,000 mark, and Goldenberg

is projecting approximately $125,000 in sales for 2007 as

the product reaches more stores and he begins his full-scale

marketing efforts. The entrepreneur isn’t content to stop at

just the one recipe either, and is already toying with other

flavours, including a dark chocolate peanut butter. “It’s still

healthy, because dark chocolate is good for you,” he says.

Despite the fact that many schools are now banning peanut

products due to allergies, Goldenberg has no worries

about the future of peanut butter. Based on his own extensive

research throughout North America, he found that most

households still consume a great deal of peanut butter.

Besides, Goldenberg’s enthusiasm for Nut ’N Budder is contagious,

driven by a zeal equal to any of the professional

athletes his brother works with. “It’s go hard or go home,” he