Brad McMullen knows the benefits of a good education.

He said three generations of learned experienced and methodically accumulated equity have enabled him and his sister, Christy McMullen, to expand their independent grocery enterprise, with their dad’s guidance.

“The experience that we accumulated over the 50 years of running the business gave us the knowledge,” he says.

Brad and Christy’s grandfather, Frank McMullen, developed Summerhill Market in Rosedale back in 1954. Frank was a teacher and school principal with five children when he and his brother bought a store on Summerhill Avenue right beside the Rosedale Market, run by Frank’s brother.

Together those brothers created the Summerhill Market and after five years, Frank bought out his brother.

Frank’s son, Bob, later took over the company, which today his children, Brad and Christy, run.

Food preparation began in the 1980s at Summerhill with takeout items like chicken pot pies – considered a unique offering at the time. The second floor of the original Rosedale store was developed as a bakery.

For the first five decades the company operated a single store, although it underwent three expansions. The McMullens incorporated their uncle’s store, Sherwood Market, into their business in 2011. What followed was an aggressive expansion that consumed the past eight years.

“We felt we did enough things that were unique that we could expand,” says Brad.

A commissary kitchen was developed in Toronto where they produce the take-out foods for all their stores. And then they opened four more stores, bringing their total to six, confident their accumulated know-how would carry the company into the future.

The McMullens makes it all happen with the help of 500 employees.

Summerville owns its operating locations. This has enabled the company to self-finance new projects, and kept it insulated from rent hikes or landlords’ requirements. It’s challenge has been to find locations suited to high-end clientele.