Retail

Nancy Nasr Headshot
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A vision of helping women feel great about themselves

Design, Fashion & Garments, Retail 0:19:23

Nancy Nasr is the Founder of Think Stunning, a boutique located in Southcentre Mall that offers Women, Baby, and home accessories made and designed by women. In 2017 with a vision of helping women feel great about themselves with fun and stylish accessories, Think Stunning became a brick-and-mortar store. Each accessory is carefully curated and crafted, and it tells a story written by the incredible women she has had the privilege to collaborate with, each bringing a unique touch to its collections. Think Stunning has overcome many challenges, and has moved with resilience to adapt to different markets. In essence, Nasr is creating a movement by giving women a platform to shine and offering exceptional products.

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Emily Hosie headshot
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Effecting industry-shifting growth and success in the retail space

Fashion & Garments, Marketing & Advertising, Retail 0:22:05

Emily Hosie has a track record of effecting industry-shifting growth and success in the retail space through her tenure at fashion powerhouses, TJ Maxx, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth, and Holt Renfrew. A dynamic millennial mom, Emily recognized a huge void in the baby gear retail market that was ripe for innovation, within a legacy industry in need of an update. Her solution for the industry was Rebelstork – a certified B Corp and purpose-driven company dedicated to creating a marketplace that connects brands and retailers to parents across North America. Her innovative AI-powered ecosystem enables frictionless movement of overstock, open box (store returns), and quality used baby gear between buyers and sellers. In four short years, Emily has brought her vision of a re-commerce and circular economy to life across two countries. To date, Rebelstork has saved over 180,000 pieces of baby gear from ending up in landfills and instead into the homes of parents across North America at a fraction of the original retail price.

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Sean Alexander headshot
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From oilpatch layoff to successful entrepreneurial journey

Business, Oil, Gas & Mining, Retail, Sports & Athletics 0:24:08

In 2017, Sean Alexander and his family built a home in the new community of Harmony, a lake community just west of Calgary. For a side business, outside of his oil & gas career, Sean began importing Standup Paddleboards (SUPs) to sell to his neighbours out of his garage in late 2019, branding them KAILANI. Shortly after that, he realized not everyone wanted to paddleboard, so he expanded his product range and began manufacturing and importing brightly coloured coolers and started initially selling them to his Friday night shinny hockey team. In early 2020, he found himself laid off from his job in the oil and gas sector, and that’s when he decided to go all in on his idea of starting an outdoor lifestyle company.

Eight months later, following a 7-day road trip through the interior of BC, he had secured $130,000 in purchase orders for his colourful collection of coolers, landing him a $1M investment with an Alberta-based private equity group. On November 2, Sean appeared in episode 7 of Season 18 on Dragons’ Den and secured a $1,000,000 deal with Wes Hall, $500,000 for 15% of his company and an additional $500,000 as an Operating Line of Credit. You can view the segment at https://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/pitches/kailani.

Today, he is selling coast-to-coast in over 200 retailers, 120 Pro Shops, 50 Promotional Marketing Companies and successfully selling in his Amazon Canada Storefront. He is an Official Partner with PGA Alberta and as of Nov 28th, 2023, and just signed a 3 year Agreement as a National Partner with the CPRA, Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, which is the sanctioning body for Pro Rodeo Events in Canada with 1100+ Athlete Members.

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John Kirk headshot
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Get great on the areas of life you’re most passionate about

Business, Distribution, Retail 0:36:40

Growing up John Krik‘s dad was a pitchman. You could see him slicing and dicing at the country fairs, PNE or home shows throughout Canada. That business grew from shows to television or products being sold on television and then mass distribution in major retail stores like Walmart. John has followed in his father’s footsteps. He’s developed several products that have gone from concept to millions in sales all based out of his home office in Surrey, BC. This is where he conceives the products, brings them to consumer shows, proves the salability, develops a pitch and from there brings it to mass distribution via direct response television.

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Nancy Portelance headshot
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Comment contribuer à la pérennité de la fromagerie artisanale du Québec

Business, Food & Drink, Retail 0:53:55

Quelques années après avoir travaillé dans le secteur de l’aviation, en 1999, Nancy et son mari ont eu l’étincelle pour démarrer un réseau de distribution pour les fromagers artisanaux québécois : Plaisirs Gourmets.

L’entreprise a d’abord démarré avec le fromage Pied-de-Vent des Iles-de-la-Madeleine et rapidement l’intérêt des artisans fromagers et négociants a conduit à la création d’un réseau représentant aujourd’hui une quinzaine de fromageries artisanales, 1 fabricant de fondue et un charcutier.

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Jennifer St. John headshot
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Profits and Purpose with Jennifer St. John

Design, Fashion & Garments, Retail 0:25:52

Founder and Head Designer at MARNIE & MICHAEL, Jennifer St. John, has been involved in art and design since her earliest days. In 2020, Jennifer launched her business, along with a mission to start a mental health initiative and began a retail shop during the peak of the pandemic, taking a risk that has paid off. With an online shop and six retail locations, Jennifer creates and hand sews her own line of high end leather bags and accessories and devotes up to 15% of all profits to mental health initiatives. She just completed her first successful mental health annual fundraiser and fashion show, with proceeds donated to RVH hospital Foundation.

Jennifer’s mom was untreated and undiagnosed with mental illness for her first fifty-two years of life. Growing up in this very unstable environment with her sisters, no one talked about mental health and everyone around her was distracted by her mom’s unhealthy coping strategies. The only constant in her life was instability and shame. The name, Marnie & Michael, is in honour of her parents and her mother’s journey – now she is determined to be a part of the conversation and space that is changing the stigma!

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Tammie Hunter headshot
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Supporting Staff for Success

Business, Communications, Fashion & Garments, Retail 00:21:07

Tammie Hunter was raised on Vancouver Island and as an adult lived in several communities around BC before settling in Nanaimo near her family. After exploring a few careers, she discovered later in life that being an entrepreneur is the most rewarding and engaging. She often says she wishes she had known what being a business owner was like earlier on in life.

As an artist she has had a very successful career selling her art in several galleries and art shows over the past 20 years. Since she started LegArt Apparel her art has taken a backseat. But she’s itching to get back into her studio to continue her lifelong dream of being a serious artist.

Tammie started LegArt Apparel in 2014. Since then, it has grown to be one of the top apparel companies in Canada in its particular style of clothing, mainly leggings. The company has grown from the original box of 100 pairs of leggings in the basement to over 4,000 pieces of inventory in a large warehouse and storefront in Nanaimo.

After almost 10 years in the industry, Tammie has gained much experience, having learned mostly through trial and error what it takes to be successful in the apparel industry. Through many ups and downs, hard work both mentally and physically, and learning with a team of dedicated employees and mentors she feels it’s time to implement an exit plan that will set her successor up for further success. The next three years will bring new challenges but she is up for it!

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Krista Halliday headshot
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The Importance of Defining Success with Krista Halliday

Business, Retail 00:24:18

Krista Halliday is a serial entrepreneur on a mission to disrupt the brand ecosystem as we know it. Leading by example, Krista is focused on creating and supporting better products and building better brands that are led with purpose, integrity, and prioritize social good.

Krista is passionate about educating the everyday Canadian on their vital role in this eco-system, to challenge the norms and demand better of brands and retailers by using our purchasing power as leverage.

A daughter of a single mother from humble beginnings, Krista quickly learned the value of hard work and started her first job at the young age of 12. After University, Krista forged her retail experience at household brands including Revlon, Holt Renfrew, Rexall and Jarden Home Brands where she acknowledged a white space in the market – a need for experienced consultation that would help US and European beauty brands navigate the unique Canadian retail landscape.

At just 28 years old, Krista started her first company, Global Edge Brands based in Toronto, and grew it to be Canada’s leading retail and brand consulting company that worked with renowned brands such as the Honest Company, Disney, Nurtibullet and more. Maneuvering this male-dominated industry as a young female executive was no easy feat, and fortified Krista’s dedication as a woman-in-leadership advocate and supporter.

Now based in Hamilton, Ontario – Krista’s latest venture, Ray Management Group, was designed with the intention to support and create products that are led with integrity and prioritize social good. The team at Ray Management Group is responsible for major brand entrances to key retailers including Kristin Ess Hair and Hey Humans to Shoppers Drug Mart, Hairtiage by Mindy McKnight to Walmart, and Drew Barrymore Flower Beauty at Loblaws.

A serial entrepreneur gaining speed in the Canadian marketplace, Krista has leveraged her leadership, innovation and business prowess to launch three additional businesses in the last 5 years, greatly supporting the local Hamilton economy – Little Sprouts Daycare, Nest Coworking, and retail shop Luv La Vie, two of which have been nominated and won Readers Choice Awards 3 years running. With much more on the horizon, Krista is one to watch. This year, she is also the recipient of Hamilton Business Link 40 under 40.

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Purush Cannane headshot
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Purush Cannane is the king of upcycle, the bigger sister to recycling

Business, Environment, Manufacturing, Retail 00:28:17

Purushothaman Cannane (Purush) creatively combined his engineering skill, passion for solving environmental problems, and his drive to help vulnerable communities when he founded Greenii to create paper bags from clean waste papers such as newsprints, magazines, flyers, and brochures. Avoiding post-consumer paper in order to bypass the need for additional environmentally unfriendly chemicals and processes, he sources high-quality paper wastes from libraries, corporate offices, paper mills, flyer distributors, universities, and printing presses, offers employment to recently immigrated women or refugees, and has now sold thousands of carrier bags in Canada and the USA to replace single-use plastic bags.

Not stopping yet, Purush has gone on to invent equipment (Semi-automatic assembly, first in the world to swiftly process newsprints, and magazines into paper bags) to facilitate growth in production volumes, and is expanding into box packaging as well. While handmade bags may continue to form a part of the product offering, it is the raw materials used that ensure bags will always remain unique. He even affords customers the opportunity to convert their unused, expired marketing materials and paper products into new packaging products for use by themselves or another environmentally conscious and creative business.

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Vincent Chatigny headshot
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Un restaurant complet 3 mois à l’avance depuis 2015 voici un des succès de Vincent Chatigny de Chez Biceps B.B.Q

Business, Food & Drink, Retail 00:33:24

Encore à l’école de cuisine, Vincent Chatigny commence sa carrière en 1998 au Laurie Raphael ou déjà, les produits locaux sont mis à l’honneur dans un cadre gastronomique.

Six ans plus tard, il quitte pour travailler, entre autres, avec les italiens ou il se découvre une véritable passion pour une cuisine traditionnelle simple, savoureuse et un modèle d’affaire axé sur la passion et la performance. Par la suite, un passage à la Boucherie de la ferme Eumatimi ou il approfondit ses connaissances autant techniques que sur le métier de fermier en travaillant étroitement avec (feu) Mario Pilon, un éleveur bovin devenu boucher. Des stages en France, cours de nutrition, Vincent à aussi enseigné durant un an à l’école hôtelière de la Capitale.

C’est au cours de ses nombreux voyages à travers l’Amérique du Nord dans le cadre de l’émission Bouffe en Cavale, une série qu’il a coanimée pendant sept saisons sur les ondes d’Évasion, qu’il a développé un lien étroit entre son style de cuisine, le contact avec le produit brut et l’engagement social d’un restaurant.

C’est ainsi qu’en décembre 2015, il a ouvert Chez Biceps B.B.Q, ou les produits locaux sont mis en valeur dans un environnement fortement inspiré par la culture B.B.Q. du sud des États-Unis. Une carte des vins originale, des bières de microbrasseries et un grand choix de whiskys nord-américain côtoient le fumoir artisanal texan de 1 000 lb fonctionnant au bois d’érable.

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