Manitoba Chamber of Commerce
Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/70344
<< Continued from page 29 Yumpeez samples were sent to a Canadian airline which handed out the snack food to customers on flights. Fliers enjoyed the taste and were satisfied with the "feeling of fullness" the snack provided, but cabin crew members said the peas were too messy to clean up, especially on flights with a fast turnaround, Hughes says. However, General Mills has Yumpeez showcased on a shelf in its innovation department in Minneapolis because the snack is "four to five years ahead of itself," according to the company's head of innovation for Canada. "There's a feeling in people's heads that if something is good for you, it can't taste good," Heal says. The sisters used to attend major food and trade shows with a bag of pea flour, which just wasn't "new or sexy," she says. Now they arrive armed with Yumpeez and pea flour chocolate brownies. "People really do a double take when they sample the brownies and the pea snack because they can't believe how good they taste," Heal says. Yellow pea flour has also been used to make batter for chicken and fish nuggets, and is an ingredient in low- fat muffins sold by Loblaws, as well as gluten-free breads. To keep up with market trends, kosher or halal pulses are available. A rabbi from Vancouver visits the BCP plant in Portage, as does an imam from Toronto. The company has 17 employees in Portage and a further 20 between its two mills in Regina. It exports its natural and certified organic products to countries in North America, South America and Europe. In 2010 and 2011, Trudy and Margaret received Done Deal international business awards from WEConnect International, a Women's Business Enterprise certifier. www.bestcookingpulses.com 30 MBiz June 2012 HARNESSING A NICHE MARKET GLEN JONES WAS IN THE RIGHT POSITION AT THE RIGHT TIME by Pat St. Germain GJ's Aircraft Belts owner Glen Jones. Photo credit: Darcy Finley Donald Trump's private plane has gold-plated seatbelt buckles, and he isn't the only jet-setter with bling in his wings. GJ's Aircraft Belts owner Glen Jones, who's carved out a niche in aviation restraint repair, says most clients just want standard hardware. But occasionally, he contracts out gold plating work. He's usually a subcontractor himself in those cases, so he rarely knows the identity of the client. His own clients range from recreational pilots to airlines such as Calm Air, Canadian Helicopters and the government of Panama. And most of his new business is due to word-of-mouth referrals. "There's hardly a week goes by that we don't get a new customer," he says. A staff of five — including Jones and his wife Carol — work out of the couple's home in Portage la Prairie. Jones and his former partner, John Zorn, launched the unique company in 2000. A retired Air Force aircraft life support equipment technician, Jones has had plenty of experience maintaining seat restraints and other vital equipment. In the late 1990s, he and Zorn were working at Southport Aerospace Centre, doing maintenance work on aircraft used for military flight training. The job included seatbelt repair, which wasn't covered under Canadian Air Regulations at the time. "What was happening was people were taking them to upholstery shops, they were taking them to shoemakers, they were taking them home," he says. New regulations that came into effect in 1999 stipulated that repairs had to be completed by a certified Aircraft Maintenance Organization (AMO), which meant they had to be sent to the original manufacturers for repairs. That's when Jones and Zorn heard opportunity knocking. "The cost accelerated immensely. What might cost $100 was now costing $400 or $500," Jones says. "John and I realized there was a definite need for it in the industry because if it happened to us, it happened to the entire Canadian industry." The pair applied for AMO certification and became the first Canadian company licensed by Transport Canada to repair aircraft restraints. Jones sold his share to Zorn soon after the company was launched. But when Zorn retired in 2006, Jones bought out the company. www.gjsair.ca CENTRAL