Episode #19 - Mrs. Dunster's Scales its Home Style Baked Goods - Co-CEOs Rosalyn and Blair Hyslop (Scalerator Alums!)

Introduction

Rosalyn and Blair Hyslop met as teenagers Atlantic Canada in Junior Achievement and from the start dreamed of running a business together. That dream became reality when they acquired Mrs. Dunster’s, a beloved regional bakery known for its authentic donuts, garlic cheese buns, and grew it to offer hundreds of other homestyle baked goods. At the time, the business had about $7M in revenues and 50 employees; today it is 6–7x larger, with over 250 employees, multiple bakeries, and retail stores of its own. They expect to double again within 3–5 years. 

Key Themes

• Maintain emotional connection: Customers don’t just buy Mrs. Dunster’s products; they buy into stories, memories, and tradition—grandmothers’ recipes, family road trips, and comfort food.

• Prioritize quality while you scale: Even as they’ve grown, Blair and Rosalyn have insisted that they must replicate the texture and taste of homemade food. If new machines don’t match their quality standards, they are rejected—even if that slows productivity. And overhaul systems even if it is painful and takes time and money.

• Be a platform to scale acquisitions: Growth has come not just from buying revenue but from acquiring family bakeries that add new capabilities (bread, rolls, retail). 

• Hire ahead of need. Sometimes you must stretch for top talent before you can “afford” it—because the right person pays for themselves many times over.

• Celebrating wins: A key cultural shift inspired by their Scalerator experience was starting every meeting with “wins”—big or small—to balance the daily grind of problem-solving.

Key Takeaways

• Protect authenticity as you scale – Don’t sacrifice taste and emotional connection for efficiency.

• Use acquisitions for capability, not just revenue – Strategic buys can open entire new categories to build revenues on your existing platform.

• Invest in people ahead of growth – The right hires unlock capacity.

• Scaling requires systems – Growth without process maturity chokes the business.

• Celebrate wins internally – It builds pride and balances the stress of scaling.

• Follow your customers – Many of their biggest growth moves came directly from customer demand.

Favorite Quotes

• “We don’t want to be like everybody else—we’re not going to out-white bread the white bread guys.”
• "Scalerator taught us to celebrate wins, large and small, ALL the time. It was a massive culture shift for us and has paid off." 
• “We’re not sending out units. We’re sending out food that people are going to eat, their kids are going to eat.”
• “Sometimes you need to make the leap and hire the higher-level person you don’t think you can afford—they end up paying for themselves.”
• “We grew 30% a year for five years and ran out of money four times. Growth eats cash.”