Weekly Regional Business Intelligence |
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“The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates customers.” — Shiv Singh
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Michelle Quintyn and Tina Bax announced as 2022 JA London and District Business Hall of Fame laureates
Junior Achievement South Western Ontario has announced this year’s laureates to be inducted into the JA London and District Business Hall of Fame. Tina Bax, founder and former president of CultureWorks ESL and founder of Canada Immigration Pathway, and Michelle Quintyn, president and CEO, Goodwill Industries, Ontario Great Lakes, were announced as the 2022 laureates at a presentation held on Thursday. Established in 1990, the JA London and District Business Hall of Fame was created to honour respected members of the city’s business community, past and present, for their outstanding contributions to business, entrepreneurship and philanthropy.
The upshot: In their selection, JA is wisely honouring two exceptional leaders who are not only empowering other women to follow in their footsteps, but who also deserve special credit for transforming their entire industries. Bax founded English skills training program CultureWorks ESL in 1998 as a public-private partnership first in Canada, and it has graduated thousands of students to Canadian colleges and universities. Under Quintyn’s watch, Goodwill Industries, Ontario Great Lakes, has grown to become a $59-million social enterprise with 1,200 employees training and working on several platforms, including thrift/recycling, food and hospitality, light manufacturing, power industrial sewing and commercial/industrial contracts. The duo will be celebrated at an induction ceremony on October 22, 2022, at RBC Place London.
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London’s housing market correction “far from over”
Mirroring a trend country-wide, the cool-off of London’s housing marketed accelerated rapidly in June. According to statistics released from the London St. Thomas Association of Realtors (LSTAR), only 499 homes sold in the City of London proper (the LSTAR catchment area also takes in Strathroy, St. Thomas and portions of Middlesex and Elgin counties.) in June, a decline of almost 40 per cent from the same period a year prior, and the average home price in the city fell to $688,644. “While the number of new listings is the highest ever recorded by LSTAR in the month of June, the number of June home sales is at its lowest point in the last ten years,” said Randy Pawlowski, 2022 LSTAR president.
The upshot: According to London Inc. real estate analyst Marcus Plowright of Re/Max Hallmark A Team London, while a correction was expected, the speed at which the market has changed has caught many by surprise. “One hundred days is all it took to transform from an unprecedented seller’s market to one that clearly now favours buyers,” Plowright said in his weekly On the House column. And with another interest rate hike on the horizon and plenty of recessionary uneasiness in the market, the transformation is likely to continue. Added Plowright: “This softening, moderating, relaxing, correction ― let the economists argue over the naming rights ― that we encountered in June is far from over.”
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Odd Burger acquires Innovation Drive site for new plant-based food facility
Having grown from a small London-based vegan fast-food joint into a larger franchise concept, the team at Odd Burger (formerly Globally Local) announced this week that they had bought a parcel of land from the city with the intention of building a vegan food production facility. The facility, which will be located on Innovation Drive and will operate as Odd Burger’s manufacturing subsidiary Preposterous Foods, will come in at around 50,000 square feet, cost around $20 million to build, and the company expects that it will create 100 jobs or so. “We will be creating one of Canada’s most advanced plant-based food manufacturing facilities and we believe that through this investment we will be able to make a tremendous change in the industry by creating more affordable, healthy and sustainable food,” said co-founder James McInnes.
The upshot: Since taking the company public in 2021, McInnes and co. have pitched ambitious plans for the Odd Burger franchise — they say they have 92 locations in the pipeline, including 40 in Ontario, all of which will be supplied by the production facility in London. (They also plan to launch a retail and wholesale line of products as well.) Which is, it must be said, an ambitious plan: right now, there are only about a half-dozen Odd Burger franchises in operation, and they are just beginning to expand beyond Southwestern Ontario.
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PRESENTED BY: THE ACHIEVEMENT CENTRE
Effective communication in leadership is your most important skill
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Effective leadership demands interacting with people in a way that motivates and energizes them. This requires communicating in a manner that goes beyond just relaying information. The most successful leaders inspire others, build connections between people, and create alignment throughout the organization. |
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Wilma, a women-only ride-hailing app, gears up to debut its platform on Forest City streets
A new, women-only ride-hailing app is gearing up to introduce its platform to the world on London streets this summer. Wilma, developed by Vancouver-based Wilma Technologies Inc., bills itself as North America’s first ride-hailing option for women and gender-diverse riders, and is pretty much what it sounds like: Uber, but for women. Unlike Uber, however, it runs on a membership service ($12.99 to $14.99 a month), which means the cost per ride doesn’t include a booking fee (bringing the cost down by about $3 a trip, the company says). They hope to do a Beta test of sorts in London through the summer, before rolling out to GTA communities in the fall. They’ve put out a call for women interested in becoming drivers, too, hoping to attract around 200 drivers to the company.
The upshot: It’s probably not the very first to try the concept of a women-only ride-hailing service (there’s Trips4Her, HERide and others operating in the U.S., and Uber itself has tested a feature that allows both drivers and passengers to choose to pick up female passengers or be picked up by a female driver, though the service is only available in specific areas), but it does hope to solve a persistent issue among female riders and drivers, who often report that the apps are less than helpful in responding to harassment and safety concerns. “For every woman who has ever felt uncomfortable, had to make up a story, fake a phone call or mention a non-existent husband to ensure her safety when ride-hailing, Wilma is for you,” said Wilma’s VP of partnerships, Mary Morrison.
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Fanshawe announces partnership with prestigious Swiss baking school
A couple of things the Swiss are very good at: banking and baking. If you’re a prospective student interested in the latter, then you’re in luck, as Fanshawe College announced this week that it was partnering with Richemont Craft School on the Baking and Pastry Arts Management program. Fanshawe’s program will be under license with Richemont, meaning that graduates of the program will receive, along with their Fanshawe diploma, a certification from Richemont — which, given that the Richemont name carries a lot of weight in the world of bread, could be a major resume booster for the next great Canadian baker.
The upshot: The partnership will inject some new prestige into Fanshawe’s baking program. The two institutions have had some dealings before, with the Baking and Pastry Arts Management program offering a study trip program with Richemont that sees students taking a five-day baking course taught by European patissiers. The new announcement will likely see more overlap between the two institutions, and right now Richemont professor Thomas Doetkotte is visiting to teach students the ins and outs of yeasts and flours. And who knows — perhaps it will produce a hometown Great Canadian Baking Show champ (and anyone who watches Bake Off knows that bread week, more than any other, is the toughest part of the competition).
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London Chamber and The Achievement Centre partner to offer free pandemic recovery workshop and mentoring program
The London Chamber of Commerce, in a partnership with The Achievement Centre, announced this week that they were launching a pandemic recovery workshop program, aiming to “support businesses in the hardest hit sectors.” Called Propel: Moving Business Forward, the program will consist of six workshops, covering topical subjects like talent retention and stress management. It will also include one-on-one business coaching services to dive into businesses’ more specific hurdles as they navigate their way out of the pandemic. “This program will offer training in some of the most needed areas in today’s economic climate,” says Chamber public relations VP, Kristen Duever. “We are delighted to be partnering with The Achievement Centre on this initiative that will give businesses the skills and knowledge to thrive and grow.”
The upshot: One of the key features highlighted in the program announcement is that it’s free, having been the recipient of a grant from the London Community Recovery Network, a program launched in 2020 to support the local small biz economy through the recovery. The Covid recovery mountain seems perpetually challenging, with a summer Covid wave upon us and turbulence in consumer demand on the immediate horizon. “Often business owners most in need of professional development and coaching are the ones who can least afford it,” says Marc Lacoursiere, president of The Achievement Centre. “There is no cost for businesses to participate in this program, thanks to a London Community Recovery Network grant.”
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Dispatch: July 8, 2022
A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week.
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