MBiz | December 2020

Spencer (left), Kathryn and Riley Day. Photo courtesy of Westman Progressive

Portage la Prairie,” Day says. Pandemic or not, there is always a demand for the company’s products and services, and it continually adds items to meet customers’ needs. “Early on, we had some supply-chain shortages, so we had to find creative opportunities to address them,” Day says. For example, a world-wide shortage of hand sanitizer resulted in many products being made too cheaply at the beginning of the pandemic. “Some of the ones you could get smelled like a crazy Sunday-morning tequila hangover,” Day jokes. Suffice to say, Progressive Westman found a better-smelling product for its customers. “We also came up with a way to make commercial disinfectant wet wipes,” Day adds. That can-do spirit is just what Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest would have expected

from the Day brothers’ company. “They’re a very resourceful pair of young guys,” Chrest says. “Obviously, a lot of suppliers had to scramble to get enough PPE, sanitizers, gloves and what have you. They really needed to jump to the pump to up the ante. They’re really energetic, bright people who would have found a way to do it.” The Day brothers learned the business when they worked for a Busy Bee Sanitation Supplies franchise in Winnipeg. They started out in Brandon as a Busy Bee franchise in August of 2009, and have grown into their own as a true family business, with Spencer’s wife Kathryn onboard as Progressive Westman’s controller/CFO. The company was honoured at the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce MBiz Awards gala in 2016, when Spencer and Riley accepted the award for Outstanding Small Business. Currently, Spencer serves

as president for the Brandon Chamber of Commerce. “These are individuals who are really community-minded,” Chrest says. “They’re very well known and very well liked.” Chrest notes that the Days recently purchased a new mobility scooter for Phillip Emmerson, a local wheelchair bodybuilder and disability advocate whose own scooter “had given up the ghost.” Riley Day, 34, met Emmerson, who has cerebral palsy, when they both began serving on the Career Connections board of directors a few years ago. An inclusive workplace, Progressive Westman has employed people with disabilities and other barriers through Career Connections, and has also been recognized by the Interprovincial Association on Native Employment (IANE) as a Champion of Aboriginal Employment. ■

WINTER 2020