About Us
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Hi, my name is Michael Hayes Along with my wife Marg we are proud residents of Newfoundland, Canada where we started making spoons in 1994 in a basement of a small boarding house in St John's. Here's a short story of how we started. |
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"Dory Dan" is our registered Trade Mark, and Business Name. The name began with a dancing puppet dressed as a fisherman! |
I had originally built a manually operated 3-foot tall ventriloquist's step dancing puppet for adult and children's concerts.
We wanted the puppet to have a name connected to Newfoundland's cod fishing since this was the main industry
on the Island at the time. The name Dory Dan naturally emerged from the Newfoundland dory,
a stackable flat bottom two-man row boat developed for the old time Grand Bank fishing schooners.
Two men were launched into the sea to fish until the dory was full. It then returned to the mother ship
to gut and salt the catch. This process continued until the ship was fully loaded before returning to port.
As we developed our musical spoon business, Dory Dan became the perfect company mascot.
He can be seen dancing through the credits at the beginning and end
of our instructional DVD " How To Play Musical Spoons."
I started demonstrating and selling our uniquely designed musical spoons at local flea markets.
People really liked our spoons and their popularity began to spread throughout the area.
It wasn't long before we introduced new innovations in our shop by building a number
of machines to help automate our assembly process. Then, before too long we decided to
wholesale to music and speciality shops in Newfoundland as well as other Provinces in Canada.
In order to introduce our spoons to an even wider audience, we began demonstrating them
at various festivals, farmers markets, trade and craft shows in both Canada and the US.
With only my wife Marg as my assistant this was a lengthy labor-intensive process.
And, because of our combined efforts our business has managed to grow.
As an example, we expanded our wholesale locations to include the US and Australia.
Since we began, 197,000 singles and approximately 6,000 doubles have been sold.
Average annual sales are between 6,000 and 9,000 sets depending on economic fluctuations.
Over the years we've managed to keep prices relatively the same despite increasing costs.
And, by offering a lifetime guarantee, our customers are always assured of high quality.
Thanks for taking the time to explore our "DORYDAN.COM" website.
Please know that we encourage open dialog with our customers,
so feel free to Contact US
anytime you have questions or comments.
Mike & Marg Hayes
We wanted the puppet to have a name connected to Newfoundland's cod fishing since this was the main industry
on the Island at the time. The name Dory Dan naturally emerged from the Newfoundland dory,
a stackable flat bottom two-man row boat developed for the old time Grand Bank fishing schooners.
Two men were launched into the sea to fish until the dory was full. It then returned to the mother ship
to gut and salt the catch. This process continued until the ship was fully loaded before returning to port.
As we developed our musical spoon business, Dory Dan became the perfect company mascot.
He can be seen dancing through the credits at the beginning and end
of our instructional DVD " How To Play Musical Spoons."
I started demonstrating and selling our uniquely designed musical spoons at local flea markets.
People really liked our spoons and their popularity began to spread throughout the area.
It wasn't long before we introduced new innovations in our shop by building a number
of machines to help automate our assembly process. Then, before too long we decided to
wholesale to music and speciality shops in Newfoundland as well as other Provinces in Canada.
In order to introduce our spoons to an even wider audience, we began demonstrating them
at various festivals, farmers markets, trade and craft shows in both Canada and the US.
With only my wife Marg as my assistant this was a lengthy labor-intensive process.
And, because of our combined efforts our business has managed to grow.
As an example, we expanded our wholesale locations to include the US and Australia.
Since we began, 197,000 singles and approximately 6,000 doubles have been sold.
Average annual sales are between 6,000 and 9,000 sets depending on economic fluctuations.
Over the years we've managed to keep prices relatively the same despite increasing costs.
And, by offering a lifetime guarantee, our customers are always assured of high quality.
Thanks for taking the time to explore our "DORYDAN.COM" website.
Please know that we encourage open dialog with our customers,
so feel free to Contact US
anytime you have questions or comments.
Mike & Marg Hayes