Small Business Month

11 S M A L L B U S I N E S S M O N T H - S U p p L E M E N T T O T H E W I N N I p E g F r E E p r E S S - W E d N E S d A y , O c T O B E r 2 2 , 2 0 1 4 Backtobasics LEARN,NETWORK,CELEBRATE! REENERGIZE BUSINESS YOUR BDCSMALLBUSINESSWEEK ™ OCTOBER19 - 25,2014 DerrickEmsley, DavidLuba& KalenEmsley TentreeInternational Saskatchewan REENERGIZE YOUR FOLLOWUS BDCEntrepreneur linkedin.com/company/bdc bdc.ca/sbw @BDC_News #sbw2014 Gerry Bellett Postmedia News T here was a time 14 years ago when Eric Gaunder ran his diamond drill bit company from the kitchen table of his Richmond home. How times have changed. Now he sits in his own large office on Number 5 Road in Steveston above a manufacturing plant that turns out about 110,000 diamond-tipped drill bits a year for the mining industry worldwide. A collection of industry and community awards on the wall grows bigger each year. The latest to be hung in the gallery is a 2014 Ethno BC award from the Ethno Business Council of British Columbia, which recognizes the achievements of new Canadian entrepreneurs in helping expand the country's economy. "We are very proud of those awards," says Gaunder, president and founder of Hayden Diamond Bit Industries, who came to Canada in 1986 from Fiji. More than 70 per cent of his Richmond-made drill bits, which are mostly used by the mining exploration industry to take core samples, go for export. Gaunder came to Canada to study accounting at the University of B.C., where he received a business diploma and qualified as a Certified General Accountant, and went to work as a comptroller for a company servicing the mining industry. A downturn in the economy caused the company to shut down and he was left without a job. "I had two options: I could go back to accounting and go on with that or do something in business. I had an interest in the mining service industry because I knew something about that sector," he says. That led Gaunder to import drill bits manufactured in South Africa and sell them to mineral exploration companies. In 2002 he opened a small warehouse with seven employees. "That's how we began. The major product I was dealing with was a diamond product. I was importing them to service the mining industry in the North American market," he says. However, it wouldn't be long before he began thinking about making the drill bits himself. "With my knowledge and skills I began trying to make a unique product. When I say unique I mean building a better matrixes — the diamond surface which cuts the ground. "There are many different types of rock so you need different ingredients to cut different rock, and I wanted to improve on what we had," he says. Rock varies from the softest type — overburden — to the harder, chert or flint. "In 2004 I decided to manufacture my own drill bit here in Richmond. We have a unique technology. We purchased high-tech equipment, set it all up, and designed our own matrixes. My focus was to create a quality product because with a quality product, we could get well into the market," he says. The diamond bits the company produces range in size up to about 40 centimetres — the largest being designed for an experimental project in a uranium mine. "We started with seven employees and in 2009 we bought this property and built this building, and now we have 75 employees," he says. He also operates a manufacturing plant in China to service the Chinese market but those bits do not match the quality of the Richmond-built pieces. Those cheaper products are made for mining operations in China, the Philippines or Indonesia, he said. "It's hard to penetrate the markets in those countries because of the price (of North American- grade bits). Here we make high-quality bits but in those countries they find they can serve their industries with a lower-cost product," he says. The mining exploration industry is notoriously cyclical, dependent on the ups and downs of the economy, and last year was a down year. "It was a bit slow but we kept all our employees and didn't lay anybody off. Now it's picking up," he says. "The employees have been a big plus in growing this company and we're focused on giving back by providing full benefits, pensions and bonuses. We also give back to our community," he says. Last year the company donated about $50,000 to a number of causes from the Richmond General Hospital to churches and temples, while employees also helped out coaching sports teams and providing other volunteer activities. "We want to keep contributing to the community and increasing what we do because it's part of our corporate philosophy," Gaunder says. From kitchen table to the wider world — and with diamonds, too Eric Gaunder, President of Hayden Diamond Bit Industries, is reflected in the mirror in the company's showcase room. They produce diamond bits for use in metals mining all over the world. Photo by Kim Stallknecht Paul Delean Postmedia News M ONTREAL — Montreal twins Jon and Marv Gurman are dreaming in colour. And that colour is pink. They've put it on taxis, luxury cars (their own Lamborghini and Ferrari, among others), T-shirts and business cards as part of an eye-catching promotional blitz for their chain of self-serve frozen-yogurt shops, Yeh! Yogourt. "We're painting the world pink," said Jon, 55, in an interview outside one of the chain's 11 Montreal locations. "We needed something to get the brand out there, to rise above the clutter," added Marv. "And we did it ourselves, without paying some big agency to do it." Nationally, they now have about 30 outlets from Nova Scotia to Alberta, two-thirds of them franchised. Another eight are in the pipeline. Not bad for a business that started with a single independent store in Montreal five years ago. But the Gurmans say they're just getting warmed up. They expect the Canadian market can handle 75 to 100 stores, but they're not stopping there. If things go according to plan, the chain will go global and more than triple in size within three years. Their first Middle East location will open in Lebanon this month. Peru and France will be next. The key market, however, is China. Through contacts established with their other business, apparel wholesaler JCorp Inc., the Gurmans have found partners in China keen to help them introduce Yeh! there in a joint venture. "The fact we're already dealing with the world in our clothing business is a big plus. We've never seriously marketed ourselves internationally, but we know a lot of people, and that's paying dividends," Jon said. "We've already set up an office in Shanghai. The business plan is to open more than 100 stores in China in the next three years. That'll be our biggest market. China is at a point now where it wants real brands selling a more high-end product, and the way I see it, we're the Starbucks of the yogurt business. We've got atmosphere as well as a great product." As strongly as they believe in Yeh!, the Gurmans didn't create it. It was founded in 2009 by a young Montreal couple, Grace Yeh and Jean-Daniel Nadeau. Jon Gurman happened to walk into their newly-opened shop one day, seeking only a bottle of water for his daughter, and left the premises blown away by the taste of the non-fat frozen yogurt (made on the premises), the colourful decor and the pay-by-weight concept. The Gurmans soon after acquired a stake in the business, then bought out the founders in 2012. Since then, they've been aggressively adding locations and expanding the concept. To counter slower sales in the fall and winter, they're adding less-seasonal items to the menu, such as grilled cheese and protein shakes, and putting a new emphasis on coffee. "The key to longevity will be to make our stores more than just yogurt," Jon said. "We want them to have more of a cafe feeling, a place you can go for breakfast or lunch." Instead of stand-alone stores exclusively, they now have food-court counters and kiosks in malls and Walmart stores, plus portable carts for special events. A Yeh! store in Wasaga Beach, Ont., will be set up next summer in a collapsible container. Mobile hawkers sell Yeh! yogurt during events at the Bell Centre and it's available at several cinemas in the Montreal area. A catering division is being developed to supply weddings, parties and charity events. montreal yogurt kings 'painting the world pink' Gurman twins growing Yeh! into global brand with expansion into Middle East, Europe and China Twin brothers, Marvin, left, and Jon Gurman in front of a Yeh Yogurt outlet in Montreal. Photo by Phil Carpenter

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