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Business News
What's going on at Red Lobster and is the endless shrimp promotion to blame?
Posthaste: More Canadians improving financial wellness as costs climb
'Predatory monopoly': Canadian North, feds criticized over new baggage fees
Two weeks ago, the airline unveiled sweeping changes and increased costs. While passengers still receive their first bag for free, the cost of a second bag on the lowest ticket fare has jumped by 50 per cent, and the cost of an overweight bag (anything over 51 pounds) has tripled on all fare types.
Is mass timber the next big thing in cheaper, greener construction? More provinces are saying yes
Interest is growing in mass-timber construction and new manufacturing facilities are popping up all over Canada. Proponents say the material is more sustainable and faster to work with than concrete and steel, but some builders and climate experts are skeptical.
Google research shows the fast rise of AI-generated misinformation
From fake images of war to celebrity hoaxes, AI technology has spawned new forms of reality-warping misinformation online. New analysis co-authored by Google researchers shows just how quickly the problem has grown.
How Leila Keshavjee Turned a Healthy-snack Craving Into an Ice Pop Empire
In early 2016, I was finishing my bachelor’s degree in kinesiology at the University of Toronto. I was also working part-time as a research assistant and coaching gymnastics, and I’d been accepted into master’s programs. Life was busy, and I pretty much lived on smoothies I made for myself.
That spring, I decided to take up a new hobby: making my own healthy ice pops. I’d found that grocery stores lacked snack options that were low in sugar and additives, so I gave it a go. I got access to a tiny commercial space near my home in Toronto that belonged to a family member and got to work. For my first batch, I mixed fresh mango, water, lemon juice and organic cane sugar into a base that I then froze to make 50 ice pops. I’m a South Asian Canadian, so fresh fruit was a staple snack at home growing up—we always had some in the fridge.
The ice pops turned out impressively tasty, so I decided to try selling them at a local farmers’ market. Seeing people enjoy the treats brought me so much joy that I bought more equipment on Kijiji, started lugging cooler boxes filled with my ice pops to more farmers’ markets and incorporated under the name Happy Pops.
By the fall, despite having no entrepreneurial experience, I’d put my studies on hold and joined an incubator program at the University of Toronto called Impact Centre. I went on to land catering contracts with clients like Google, Scotiabank and Aeroplan. I then launched at local food stores, like Summerhill Market in Toronto.
In 2018, searching for new ways to grow, I auditioned for Dragons’ Den on a whim. I landed a spot on the show and received an offer from Arlene Dickinson for $150,000 for 30 per cent of the company. I took the deal on-air but later decided not to proceed because I was not ready to give away such a big chunk of the business. Still, the show was a huge moment for me. Until then, I’d hesitated to tell people that I had paused my studies to become a food entrepreneur, because it sounded like such a random pivot. Getting Happy Pops on TV was an inflection point for the business.
Related: How to Pitch Your Start-up to Investors
The exposure helped me scale. I invested the money I made into renting a larger commercial space with more freezer capacity, hiring a manufacturing team and an accountant, outsourcing marketing and design and developing new flavours, like Passion Fruit, Guava, Matcha, Lychee Lemonade, Orange N’ Cream and Lemon Mint. Meanwhile, I was sending pitches to Canada’s largest grocery stores. In 2019, Sobeys started stocking Happy Pops in its stores in Ontario, and eventually across the country; Metro followed suit in 2020 with its stores in Ontario and Quebec. We began shipping coast to coast in cooler boxes with dry ice. The ability to ship across Canada and fulfill orders from our new e-commerce store helped keep us alive during the pandemic.
Seven years into this business, some parts of it have not changed: I’m still Happy Pops’ sole owner, our base recipes remain the same and we’re still selling at farmers’ markets on weekends. On the other hand, there are some things that I never could have predicted: We had a partnership with Aeroplan and created a custom flavour for Sesame Street. We’re also currently developing limited-edition ice pops for Mattel, which will launch later this year. We produce more than one million ice pops annually, and they’re sold in 1,500 grocery stores across Canada as well as at attractions like Canada’s Wonderland and Ripley’s Aquarium.
And yet our team remains lean—we just hired our first administrative assistant. Along with making the executive decisions, I still run our social media and develop and taste-test flavours. It’s busy, but I have become better at finding a work-life balance by carving out time in my day to ride my bicycle, play golf or be with family and friends. Hearing that people love my ice pops and knowing that kids have access to a high-quality snack that I didn’t have while growing up makes it all worthwhile.
The post How Leila Keshavjee Turned a Healthy-snack Craving Into an Ice Pop Empire appeared first on Canadian Business – How to Do Business Better.
Economic conditions are there to support a rate cut, Freeland says
Scotiabank's international operations show signs of improvement as earnings top expectations
Posthaste: Canada could face two more decades of stagnant growth, report warns
Got thoughts on flying in Canada? The Competition Bureau wants to hear from you
The federal Competition Bureau says it's going to look the domestic air travel industry in Canada, and it's looking for input from Canadians as it prepares for a study of that market over the coming months.
Indigo shareholders vote in favour of privatization sale to companies owned by CEO's spouse
Indigo Books & Music Inc. shareholders have voted to approve a deal that will see the retailer become a private company.
Court greenlights shareholder class-action lawsuit against Bombardier
A Quebec judge is authorizing a class action from shareholders against Bombardier Inc. over claims that the plane maker presented a false picture of its financial situation in 2018, a turbulent year that saw its share price tank.
Posthaste: Most Canadians want public servants in the office more often despite ‘summer of discontent’
Another hold on interest rates risks further damage to the economy
Bank of Canada will cut rates before U.S. Federal Reserve: Ed Devlin
Stressed at work? Anxious about the wider world? You might be part of 'The Great Exhaustion'
The Great Exhaustion is a new term coined by analysts and economists to describe a pervasive form of burnout that starts with stress directly related to work and piles on anxieties about the state of the world in general.
Why does Drake have so many companies?
Amid the feud between Drake and rival Kendrick Lamar online sleuths uncovered details about the former's businesses and other holdings that started a buzz on social media. CBC News looks into Drake's business and property holdings and why he has so many.
How much the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates in 2024
Defunct Lynx Air selling off life-jackets, oxygen masks in bid to recoup losses
Lynx Air hopes to sell off everything from life-jackets to oxygen masks as it tries to recoup a portion of the losses it suffered before filing for creditor protection earlier this year.