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SMALL BUSINESS MONTH - SUppLEMENT TO THE WINNIpEg FrEE prESS - WEdNESdAy, OcTOBEr 22, 2014
Prairie small business shines
Creative director for Farmfresh Ben Lamothe describes the various features of their sunglasses at Spare Parts inSaskatoon. Photo by Richard Marjan
With Quality, ‘Heritage-Inspired Products’
meant to be passed down from one generation to another and they get better over time. “Farmfresh means quality, heritage-inspired products, the kind our grandfathers would have made in Saskatchewan. It has a bit of the pioneering spirit to it ... the kind of product you would be proud to pass on to your son or daughter as time goes on.” Being from the middle of the Prairies may seem like a disadvantage to some, but Mysak said being from Saskatchewan
and Farmfresh sunglasses are one of the top three brands, being outsold only by Oakley and Ray Ban. “People like the story that it is from Saskatchewan and it is made by local designers,” Lamothe said. “We embrace our Saskatchewan roots and that spirit.” When it comes to marketing, the company has to find creative ways to get the word out. For example, it has been involved with setting up a pop-up store
Scott Larson Postmedia News A s a small business that’s competing head to head with international companies with multimillion-dollar budgets, one has to carve out a unique space in the market. For Saskatoon-based Spareparts, one way to compete is to create a brand of products that are on par or superior to the high-end competitors’ products. Enter Farmfresh, founded in 2012 by Spareparts president and founder Danny Mysak, which offers “timeless, prairie-hardiness- inspired, pass-them-down-from-generation-to-generation” pieces such as watches, sunglasses, vintage soft leather briefcases and wallets. “There is a craving to have your own house brand and to do something on your own,” said Spareparts/Farmfresh creative director Ben Lamothe. “There is a benefit financially, but also it separates yourself from everyone else. “This puts us in a position where we have something unique for our customer.” Spareparts has grown to seven stores — two stores in Calgary, two in Winnipeg and one each in Regina, Saskatoon and Kelowna, B.C. “Basically (we sell) everything that you would wear that is not clothing — luggage, watches, sunglasses, backpacks, women’s fashion bags, men’s messengers, footwear, underwear, cellphone cases — all of your spare parts,” Lamothe said. He said Farmfresh products are designed in-house and use the best materials, such as hand-crafted Italian acetate for the sunglass frames along with Zeiss polarized lenses, Japanese Miyota movement in the watches and Texas full-grain leather for the bags. “(The bags) come with a 100-year warranty,” he said. “They are
“Artisans are making a big comeback,” he said. “There is a real movement toward quality products that are built in small batches by local people.”
means access to a great resource — its people. “Agriculture, potash and uranium are commodities,” Mysak said, “Saskatchewan’s greatest resource is its people. They are an immediate and apparent asset to any business considering our province. “Truth be told, the advantages far outweigh the challenges,” he said. “Saskatchewan has a spirit of enterprise and collaboration. Building a brand is not an insular pursuit and while Spareparts possessed many of the resources necessary to do so, Saskatchewan definitely filled in the gaps in our capabilities.” Lamothe said since the economic crash of 2008 people have become somewhat cynical of big business. “Artisans are making a big comeback,” he said. “There is a real movement toward quality products that are built in small batches by local people.” The brand has done well — Farmfresh wallets are the top- selling wallet in the store, outselling Nixon and Fossil brands,
and it has identified local people who possess the same qualities as the brand. “We call them Citizens of Common Kin,” Lamothe said. “The strategy is to get it on people with influence in the market, those people that are well-respected and the kind of person that are hard- working and humble.” They are artisans and musicians, and even a cool barber. This small collective of people have become ambassadors of the brand. “You don’t just buy a billboard and hope for the best,” he said. “When you are local and small you really have to be creative in how you market yourself.” The goals now are to expand the market by doubling the number of Spareparts stores over the next two to three years, to have clients go online at a recently launched website and to offer the Farmfresh brand in 20 non-Spareparts shops across the country. “It doesn’t matter where you are from anymore,” he said. “They are drawn to people who are doing something that is unique.”
Dan Barnes for Postmedia News E dmonton — The combination of China’s unrivalled thirst for beer and the beneficial local knowledge of a joint venture partner convinced P.J. L’Heureux to tap into the world’s largest market. The founder and president of Craft Beer Market, a three-restaurant chain based in Calgary, announced in early October that the company will open five restaurants in five years in China, starting with a Shanghai location in 2015. It’s a joint venture with First Growth Holdings of Vancouver, which has an office in Shanghai. “China is not a place where you can go and just open the doors. We couldn’t just go and open a location,” L’Heureux said. “We needed a partner in the market and we’ve got a very strong one so we feel very good about it.” Craft’s locations in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton are sized at 10,000 square feet and have room for 350 patrons. The kitchen serves up inspired pub food with a focus on local ingredients, but with more than 100 beers on tap, brew obviously fuels the bottom line. China has been the world’s largest consumer of beer by volume since 2002 and sales reached 500 million hectolitres in 2011. According to Beer Canada, in 2013, Canadians bought 22.6 million hectolitres. By 2017 China will also be the largest market by value for suds, according to EuroMonitor International. The most popular brand in China, by far, is Snow, produced by the leading brewery, China Resources. Tsingtao, Yanjing, Harbin and Laoshan round out the top five brands, while Tsingtao Brewery, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Beijing Yanjing and Carlsberg fall in line behind China Resources in terms of sales. “Quite honestly, the numbers are unbelievable,” L’Heureux said. crAFTy MOvE TO cHINA FOr ALBErTA-BASEd rESTAUrANT cHAIN
Your Entrepreneurial Journey Begins Here
“The growth is unbelievable in that market so we feel it’s a well- calculated risk.” L’Heureux said company executives had not been considering a move outside Canada before First Growth came to them with the proposal. But he was immediately intrigued, and subsequent market research, including a visit to Shanghai, set the deal in motion. Shanghai boasts 24 million residents, while a further 100 million live within an hour’s drive. It is home to several popular craft breweries, and European brews are also doing well in the market. He believes the Chinese palate for beer rivals that of the West Coast, where craft breweries have taken flight. In 2013, Russell Brewing of Surrey partnered with a Chinese company to open a test brewery in Hefei, a city of 5.7 million people in an eastern province. “There’s quite a few Canadians or expats who have done very well in the (Asian) market,” L’Heureux said. “The craft beer scene in all of Asia is growing at such a rate and the population base is so high, even if you’re doing slightly well, you’re doing better than some of the breweries out here.” Despite this offshore deal, Craft’s growth strategy is unchanged, limited to one new location per year in Western Canada, with particular emphasis on adding second restaurants in Calgary and Vancouver. And L’Heureux said the restaurants’ food menu won’t change overseas either. “The Chinese public is really interested in North American brands. Companies like Starbucks and Burger King and KFC are doing really well because that’s what the Chinese people want. They want burgers, flat breads and pastas.”
Entrepreneurship Manitoba offers a range of services to businesses and entrepreneurs at every stage of the business life cycle, including: � information on starting and growing your business � company registration and searching � business counselling � financial programs � workshops and seminars Contact us today: 204-945-8200 toll free 1-855-836-7250 embinfo@gov.mb.ca manitoba.ca/emb
Craft Beer Market founder PJ L’Heureux in his Edmonton restaurant. They are expanding to China. Photo by Shaughn Butts
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