Jim Treliving: From RCMP Beat to Boston Pizza Empire
Jim Treliving
Jim Treliving was born on May 12, 1941 in Virden, Manitoba, and served in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta and British Columbia from 1959 to 1966.
His second act was food: he bought the rights to open a Boston Pizza in Penticton in 1968, and with partner George Melville bought the whole chain in 1983.
The long tenure
He joined the CBC show in 2006 and left in 2020, staying for the first fifteen of its seasons.
That makes him the operator's voice in the room for most of the show's history, the dragon who asked how the thing actually gets made and sold at scale.
The recognition
He is a member of the Order of Canada and was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2019.
For anyone reading a franchise or food service pitch on this site, his questions are the template: supply chain, unit costs, and whether the model repeats.
Products Jim Treliving backed in the Den
Three Ships
natural, plant-based skincare sold at accessible prices
Cuban Lunch Corp
a revived retro Canadian chocolate and peanut candy bar
RateHub
a comparison site for financial products with an in-house mortgage brokerage
InspectaCAR
an independent pre-purchase vehicle inspection service
LeakPro International Inc.
a mobile automotive water-leak and wind-noise repair service