Verster’s remarks were dismissed by Crosstown critics who regard the transit line as an over-budget folly that is way behind schedule. Crosstown supporters say the system will provide a plethora of benefits once completed. Everyone agrees that LRT construction—which has been going on for over a decade—has been problematic for drivers, pedestrians, and retail store owners along Eglinton Avenue.

Unlike buses and streetcars, which compete for space with other road traffic, Light Rapid Transit systems are based on dedicated routes. The Crosstown will run 19 kilometers along Eglinton Avenue—a major east-west arterial road in Toronto that bisects Yonge Street—and link to existing subway and bus stops.

While more than half the line is underground, the Crosstown is not a subway; “LRT vehicles are smaller and slower than subways but travel faster and carry more passengers than streetcars or buses. Subways are larger and longer,” explains the Toronto Environmental Alliance.

The roots of the project go back to 1994, when Ontario’s NDP government decided to fund a subway line under Eglinton Avenue West. The new line would augment Toronto’s existing subway system and relieve traffic gridlock while providing inexpensive transportation. Work on the Eglinton West subway commenced but was short-lived. After taking office in Ontario in 1995, the Progressive Conservatives cancelled the project. Ground that had been excavated was filled in.

Toronto Mayor David Miller revived the concept in 2007, throwing his support behind a light-rail network called Transit City that would include an Eglinton line. Politics intervened once more, however, as Miller’s successor, Rob Ford, cancelled the plan and suggested more subways instead. Toronto council dismissed Ford’s concept and voted to forge ahead with a less expensive Light Rapid Transit system (as opposed to a subway) on Eglinton. The Ontario Liberal government hired Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS), a consortium of companies, to design and build the new LRT line, and construction began in 2011.

At first, the advent of a new public transit option stirred up much excitement: “New, modern light rail vehicles operating on tracks separated from regular traffic will offer fast, efficient service and improve travel for people across the region by enabling travel up to 60 percent faster than existing bus service. The Eglinton Crosstown LRT will also help fight climate change by managing greenhouse gas emissions from Ontario’s transportation sector. The new LRT line will have 25 stations and stops along Eglinton Avenue between Weston Road and Kennedy Station, and will also link to 54 bus routes, three TTC interchange subway stations, and GO Transit,” stated an Ontario government press release.

The Crosstown will be joined by the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension to push the Light Rapid Transit line into the neighbouring city of Mississauga, Ontario.

Construction crews used four massive Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) to dig the 10 kilometer underground portion of the Crosstown. Nicknamed Don, Humber, Dennis, and Lea, each TBM measured 10 meters tall by 6.5 meters wide and weighed 400 tonnes. Operated 24/7 by a team of six, the TBMs carved 5.75 meter wide tunnels 16 to 20 meters below the earth’s surface. Don and Humber tackled the eastern portion of the LRT while Dennis and Lea took on the western portion. Yonge Street was the subterranean destination for all the machines.

On August 17, 2016, the Province of Ontario announced that the 10 kilometer underground portion of the Crosstown LRT was complete.

“Today, tunnel boring machines (TBMs) Don and Humber, boring the eastern segment tunnels, arrived at Yonge Street having traveled 3,300 meters from where they started just east of Brentcliffe Road in September 2015. In total, Don and Humber installed 26,178 precast concrete tunnel segments, which formed 4,363 rings. TMBs Dennis and Lea completed tunnelling on the western segments of the Crosstown when they reached Yonge Street in May 2016,” stated a press release from the provincial government.

Of course, tunnel boring was only one aspect of the construction work involved in creating the LRT. In early 2019, Equipment Journal magazine described the development of an LRT station underneath an existing subway stop at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue.

“The station is being built using the cut and cover method, where the excavation is performed, then covered with wooden decking while crews continue to dig and build the station below… Crosslinx is constructing 26-metre deep caissons to facilitate the underpinning of the subway station. In total, building the LRT will require about 450 micro piles and 500 tiebacks. Concrete strength in the caisson piles is a higher strength capacity at about 30 to 40 MPa concrete. The filler piles are about 4 to 10 MPa concrete,” explained Equipment Journal.

This LRT station was slated to be the largest stop on the line, with customers able to move easily from Light Rapid Transit to subway and buses at the stop, or vice-versa, without paying an extra fare.

By July, 2021, over 90 percent of the rail track for the LRT line had been installed. On May 20 of this year, a Toronto Star journalist offered insights about a test ride they took on part of the line which was near-completion.

“Spending time on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, it’s obvious what the public is missing each time its opening is delayed. The trains feel like a sleeker, steadier, more hi-tech version of Toronto’s streetcars—but without the traffic. Whizzing along the street-level portion of the line, past Mount Dennis Station, sun streaming in through the windows, is a transit experience unlike anything else in Toronto… The stations are big, bright, and easy to navigate… The tunnels in the underground portions are lighter and smoother than what Toronto commuters are used to—and so far without rats, at least as far as this reporter could see,” noted the Star.

Impressive, given all the difficulties the project has faced. Endless construction work has entailed barriers, blocked routes, detours, and scaffolding on Eglinton Avenue. Some local retailers went out of business as customers found it difficult to reach their establishments by foot or car, with street parking nonexistent in some areas. Drivers in general found the trip down Eglinton Avenue slow and maddening. Eglinton Avenue East was chosen as Ontario’s worst road in 2019 by the CAA, the advocacy and service organization for Canadian motorists and in 2023, it was Eglinton Avenue West’s turn to be recognized (in number two spot) on the CAA worst roads of Ontario list.

This spring, construction reams realized an 800-metre section of Crosstown track was up to three millimeters off-spec, a variance sufficient to derail an LRT car. This tiny error had to be corrected and the track refitted to proper measurements. Water damage was reported at other stations. Inspections revealed more than 250 quality-control issues that needed to be addressed across the whole system. In total, the LRT budget has grown to nearly $13 billion (more than double original estimates) while opening dates for the Crosstown have been continuously rolled back.

In addition to technical issues, there has been intense conflict between Crosslinx Transit Solutions and Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario. For a variety of reasons, Crosslinx has sued these organizations three times and threatened to stop all work at one point. The Star article describing a ride on the LRT said the “sour relationship” between these bodies posed “the biggest threat” to the transit line.

A blistering July 5, 2023 column in the Toronto Sun described the LRT as “Toronto’s White Elephant” and warned other cities not to emulate the project.

“Numerous small businesses along the route folded as the construction choked off access to their customers, combined with the additional financial burden of the [COVID] pandemic… Residents along the route have endured years of construction noise, dirt and cars idling outside their apartments and homes attempting to navigate along or across Eglinton Ave., which at many intersections became an almost comical maze of traffic cones and cement barriers resembling a go-cart course,” wrote the Sun.

Crosstown advocates point out that many previous transit projects in Toronto, especially subways, have also wreaked havoc, albeit for shorter periods of time. Problems surrounding the Eglinton Crosstown will be resolved and the system will eventually benefit the public, say LRT supporters.

“I think the LRT will produce winners and losers in all neighbourhoods… But I think overall it will have a positive impact. [The new line] will give people better access to transit and improve their quality of life,” noted Toronto councillor Josh Matlow, who represents the Eglinton Avenue area, to the City Centre Mirror on September 27, 2021.

“Improved transit is the dream, construction is the nightmare,” added Matlow.

The post A Controversial Project Nears Completion<p class="company">At Look at Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown Light Rapid Transit Line</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

In 2019, leaders in the mid-Michigan community of Bay City decided to put forward an aggressive economic development plan that set measurable goals for success and would set the path for future prosperity and growth in this re-emerging Midwestern town. They had been thoughtful in their methodology of getting community feedback to craft the goals and had agreed on the tactics they would implement to meet and exceed the goals. Following on from recent successes, they had taken a tried-and-true path of identifying the strengths and opportunities of the community and were finally ready to put their plan in to action and drive forward.

Then COVID happened.

For Bay Future, Inc., the economic development engine dedicated to driving business retention, attraction, and expansion efforts, job creation, and entrepreneurial support in Bay County, Michigan, they knew execution is where they excel. So, they got to work. The result? The metrics speak for themselves.

Since its final adoption in early-2020, Bay Future has been tirelessly executing its strategic action plan, ‘Bay Future: Drive. Forward.’ In doing so, the organization has raised the benchmark in terms of what is possible when it comes to growth and investment in the community.

Megan Manning, Investor Relations and Marketing Manager for Bay Future, provides some insight into the organization’s exceptional performance: “In terms of goal completion, when it comes to numbers, we set a goal of $500 million in new economic development project investment and have surpassed that to secure nearly a billion dollars of capital investment in our community. By the time this article is published we will have met or exceeded our 800 job goal as well, with nearly a year and half left to complete our strategic plan,” she shares.

Excelling in unprecedented times
Despite facing an unprecedented pandemic during this time, Bay Future has managed to secure more economic development project investment over a matter of five years than it had in its previous 10 years. It has also worked with companies to secure more capital impact in the community than at any other time in the community’s modern history. As one can imagine, this has had substantial impacts on the growth and vitality of the area.

For President and CEO Trevor Keyes, “Our organization will celebrate 20 years of securing economic impact and new jobs for all of Bay County, next year. I’ve been with the organization for more than half of those 20; we are a totally different community, and our organization has evolved immensely since my first day, and that’s an amazing testament to our team here, our Board of Directors, our investors, and our partners in really embracing what the future could be.”

The reason for Bay Future’s success is simple: hard work, partnership, resiliency, and the willingness to adapt. The organization wasted no time when the pandemic hit, quickly pivoting to ensure the business community had the resources and the support necessary to withstand the economic impacts of these uncharted waters. Instead of setting aside its goals, Bay Future found a way to actualize its goals while simultaneously addressing the challenges COVID brought. This was done in tandem with county, state, and federal government partners and by leveraging funding made available through private foundations and the American Rescue Plan Act.

Keyes notes that, “We were called to act and called to serve in a very different way than we ever had been before. We looked at issues holistically and we prioritized things in tandem by identifying what we were going to be able to accomplish while we were also pivoting and helping where we needed to.”

He continues, “That plan was a solid foundation on which we were able to build what was to come and has turned into initiatives that were able to be supported through the American Rescue Plan Act that made weathering the storm much more tolerable.”

A plan in action
Funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, approved by municipal support, played a major role in supporting local businesses that had been adversely impacted by COVID in three different ways, in accordance with three different timelines: immediate, intermediate, and long-term.

In the immediate-term, the focus shifted to small business support, as this segment of the economy was at the greatest risk of incurring losses associated with the closure of non-essential businesses to curb the spread of COVID. Bay Future secured and operated financial support programs that produced more than $4 million in additional resources that were dedicated to small businesses during that time to help them navigate the changing landscape.

Through the Small Business Grant Program, one of over 15 new programs created to spur economic development in Bay County, “we were able to support 141 small businesses by reimbursing them for their rent, mortgage, or utilities, during a defined period of time that helped them to continue to operate in a way that was going to lead to success for them,” Keyes explains.

Secondly, in the intermediate-term, to support local businesses and entrepreneurs, Bay Future worked with the Small Business Development Center and created a Small Business Consultant Program in partnership with Saginaw Valley State University.

“We were able to hire a consultant whose office is here at Bay Future, and make that person the subject matter expert available to small businesses. She can set up meetings to discuss their most pressing issues or discuss what they want their future to be; she can then work with them to identify and ultimately provide tools to assist them in being successful,” explains Keyes of the effort.

“Helping with succession planning,” he says, “is going to be just as helpful as working with a company to help them grow. Sometimes success is with succession, so having that small business subject matter expert working with the small business owner to focus on the future is invaluable.”

By being good stewards of the investment funds bestowed upon them, Bay Future can move economic development efforts forward while exponentially increasing the positive impact felt by the community. This makes it a place, as Keyes says, “where people want to live, work, worship, and play.”

Business growth
To further facilitate talent attraction and retention over the long-term, Bay Future has partnered with the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce on the “Hey! Bay City” initiative, as well as with Michigan Works, the local workforce agency, to bring together job seekers and employers who would like to call the area home. This is an especially important focus given the rate of industrial growth and investment taking place in Bay County. While economic uncertainty was characteristic of the pandemic, Bay County managed to secure some of the most impactful projects measured by capital investment and job creation totals in the community’s history.

SK Siltron CSS, a silicon carbide wafer manufacturer that supports the semiconductor industry, doubled its Bay County workforce to 240 employees, and counting, thanks to a $300+ million investment in its manufacturing capacity. Word of the investment in this critically important industry sector made its way to the White House and garnered a visit by President Joe Biden late last year. The anticipation continues to build as the company plans to increase production capacity sixteen-fold by 2025, meaning more money and more jobs ahead for Bay County, the state, and the nation.

Similarly, Hemlock Semiconductor, in a neighboring community, broke ground on a $375 million expansion late last year that will bring 170 more jobs to the state, while Mersen USA, an advanced materials and manufacturing operation, is investing more than $70 million and adding more than 70 jobs in Bay City, further signaling the strength of the semiconductor industry in Bay County.

Another major investment in the area is being made by Michigan Sugar Company, which has operated in the area processing sugar beets since 1906 and is one of the country’s largest sugar processors. The company is investing over $70 million to build a new desugarization facility with the capacity to extract more sugar from molasses and more efficiently use their resources.

These investments prove that Bay County is at an interesting economic crossroads with its legacy industries and the industries of the future: from agriculture and automotive to the shift to electric and autonomous vehicles, advanced materials, and manufacturing, there is significant economic potential in these historic sectors thanks to technology and innovation.

“Knowing that Michigan is the state that put the world on wheels and that the next maturation of the automobile industry would be centered around the mobility, autonomous, and electric vehicle sectors, including opportunities in the semiconductor supply chain… for us it was a question of, ‘how can we position ourselves and our community, much like the forefathers of our community before us had, with the automotive industry as the industry is growing? That was the blueprint,” Keyes suggests.

“We’re bringing in technologically advanced companies and supporting those companies that want to grow. We are supporting the needs of our heritage industries like agriculture and agricultural processing. We are working collaboratively to help bridge the gap between the needs of business today and gearing up the workforce of tomorrow with the skills they need to be competitive in the economic landscape. There is a lot more to do, but we have worked closely with those companies to assist them in positioning themselves to take advantage of some of those opportunities and changes in culture, changes in industries and changes in our world,” he adds.

Room to grow
To ensure that Bay County is as business-friendly as can be and continues to grow with the needs of its current and future companies, additional efforts have been expended to ensure that development-ready sites are available to accommodate the growth that is taking place. Via its “Build Ready Bay County” property site readiness program, the area will ensure that vetted sites of different sizes are available for immediate development.

Bay Future is working closely with its municipal and private sector partners to bring this site readiness program to fruition, and by the end of 2024, Keyes hopes to have a portfolio of shovel-ready sites ready for site selectors to peruse.

“It continues to be a very real need and if you don’t have sites that are ready, that means those companies are losing time to market. If you’re losing time to market, you’re losing competitiveness. So if we can produce sites that are ready for development that have a shorter lead time, then our propensity to secure these companies and additional investment in to our community is going to be high,” he explains.

With programs like the Bay County Small Business Grant Program, Small Business Consultant Program, Hey! Bay City, and Build Ready Bay County, in addition to executing on its strategic action plan, it would be easy to sit back and celebrate these various wins as a team, but the truth is, Bay Future has only just begun.

From Keyes’ perspective, “We’ll continue to aim high. We’ve been very fortunate that our Board of Directors, our partners, and our investors agree with that kind of mentality. With the team we’ve put together here, we’ve been able to hit those goals and continue to reach higher. We’re building a community for the future.”

The post Building a Community for the Future<p class="company">Bay Future, Inc.</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

“Across the Southwest, you’re going to find very few places where you’re going to be able to enjoy being outside for the entirety of the year,” says Jack Fitchett, Business Attraction Manager for the city of Flagstaff. “We have four seasons.” And yes, this includes winter, when tourists and residents flock to the local ski resort, Arizona Snow Bowl.

In addition, Flagstaff boasts an ideal balance between metropolitan opportunities and small-town charm. “It’s got these larger city amenities, but it’s still got that small-town feel,” Fitchett says. “And it’s coupled with great weather. You can actually get outside and you don’t need to suffer the 120 degrees that’s currently going on with some of our friends down south.”

Home to Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Coconino Community College, Flagstaff’s population is particularly well educated, boasting the highest number of bachelor degrees per capita in the state. This emphasis on education is reflected in the city’s high-ranking public education, which includes a number of charter schools. “Compared nationally, Flagstaff does quite well,” Fitchett says of the local school system.

In terms of local industry, Flagstaff has a strong historical connection to astronomy, space exploration, and the aerospace sector. Pluto was discovered at Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory. Founded in 1894, the research center continues to play an important role in both education and exploration, using the fifth largest optical telescope in the continental United States to conduct research.

“We also did a lot of the lunar rover testing just outside of Flagstaff for several of NASA’s missions,” Fitchett shares. “That’s a great bit of history.” In 1963, the USGS Astrogeology Science Center was founded in Flagstaff to map the moon and to help train the Apollo astronauts. The center plays an important role in space exploration to this day, with researchers continuing to test space suits and pressurized rovers in the nearby volcanic field for future missions. “Flagstaff has a really strong connection to space exploration,” Fitchett says.

The nearby Meteor Crater, also known as Barringer Crater, was an ideal spot for NASA to train astronauts. One of the few places on the planet with a fully exposed and fully intact meteorite impact site, the vast crater emulates the surface of the moon. Today, the 550-foot-deep, nearly mile-long crater has become a significant tourist attraction with guided tours, the Discovery Center & Space Museum, the Collision! 4D Theatre, and one of the Apollo 11 Space Capsules in which Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins trained for the moon landing.

Naturally, aerospace companies have flocked to the area. Katalyst Space Technologies recently relocated to Flagstaff to take advantage of all the area has to offer the sector. Partnered with the Air Force Research Lab, the United States Space Force, and commercial organizations, the company’s goal is to revolutionize satellite operations by providing upgrades post-launch, using in-space servicing. This will give satellite operators a second chance to add capabilities and features to outdated equipment, allowing them to stay competitive as technology advances.

In business since 1996 and based in Flagstaff since 2001, Novakinetics produces composites for OEM aircraft manufacturers, including next-generation ballistic protections systems.

Biotech is another major sector in Flagstaff. Founded in a family home 65 years ago, W. L. Gore & Associates has grown to be one of the area’s largest employers and a leading-edge biosciences company. Axolotl Biologix is making exciting progress developing and producing human biologics and biological-related products. And Poba Medical is a market-leading medical balloon developer and manufacturer. “They’ve been able to grow quite substantially, Fitchett says. “They’ve gone from this start-up idea to a whole manufacturing processing business where they’re now filling orders internationally.”

Meanwhile, TGen North—home to TGen’s Pathogen & Microbiome Division—has a team of leading scientists and researchers working on diagnostic, analytic, forensic, ecologic, and epidemiologic research of microbes. TGen North is a founding member of STEM City, an organization that helped Flagstaff earn the title of America’s First STEM Community.

“With that kind of collaboration [from the STEM community] and with the access to NAU and those professors, as well as the great access to labor that’s coming from those graduates, those businesses have done really well,” Fitchett says. “It makes it very easy for me to sell Flagstaff as a location for other biomedical companies.”

Advanced manufacturing is another major industry in Flagstaff. “This is probably where we’ve seen the most growth recently.” For example, UACJ Automotive Whitehall Industries (UACJ-Whitehall), which manufactures precision fabricated aluminum extrusions, recently opened a location in Flagstaff. “They’re planning to invest about $65 million dollars in capital investment and create 350 jobs, and all of that is well underway,” says Fitchett.

This investment is related to an overall upward trend. “It ties in to the larger electric automotive sector that’s been rapidly expanding in Arizona,” he says. “It’s been a really great, growing sector, so it’s been awesome to see Flagstaff take advantage of those high quality jobs that are being produced from that specific industry.”

The city is working hard to keep attracting companies to Flagstaff, with several key incentives. The Job Creation Incentive offers an incoming company up to $25,000 for a variety of different expenses, “whether that’s relocation expenses, new employee training, or some workforce development measures,” Fitchett explains. Funding is available for companies that are within a targeted industry and that create ten or more jobs within Flagstaff’s municipal boundaries with median wages above the county median wage.

The Development Reinvestment Incentive reimburses new businesses for local construction contracting taxes that were paid for new improvements or developments. This money can be used for relocation expenses, job training, workforce development, or site improvement projects that involve beautification efforts, energy efficiency, public roads and lighting, code-required landscaping, public water, and wastewater.

The Business Retention and Expansion Incentive, meanwhile, provides up to $30,000 for companies that have been in Flagstaff for over a year. The money primarily funds workforce development training and business improvements. “That’s another great program [because] once we attract businesses here, that incentivizes them to stay as well,” says Fitchett. “And then, obviously, we have a great relationship with the Arizona Commerce Authority, which has a whole slew of very specific, but also really great incentives for a variety of different industries, available at the state level. The three [Flagstaff incentives] are additional tools in our tool belt and help differentiate us a little bit from some of the other northern Arizona communities.”

Flagstaff currently has two development projects underway that will help keep the city’s industries thriving. A city-owned, 32-acre parcel adjacent to the airport is planned to be developed into a research and development hub. “It’s going to create up to 750,000 new square feet of space that can be used for either light manufacturing or R&D purposes that really fit into [Flagstaff’s target industries] so that businesses that are already here can continue to grow and we can continue to attract other businesses that have the ability to partner with some of our existing players,” Fitchett shares. “And it’s really going to be a great project, a state-of-the-art space to allow them to do higher-end technology delivery and research.”

In addition, Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) is working through its planning processes to construct a major new facility in Flagstaff that will make health care more accessible to the entire region. “They’re looking to make a really huge investment in our community and therefore, Arizona, to provide the best possible medical and health care that they can to our residents and, really, the residents of all northern Arizona, because it will be the only level one trauma center in Northern Arizona,” Fitchett says. “It’s a huge capital investment from NAH—over $800 million at this point.”

Additional land (130+ acres) is available adjacent to the hospital complex for other medical-related developments, as well as for businesses within the retail, restaurant, and hospitality sectors that will serve people utilizing the new medical facilities.

To be sure, the city of Flagstaff is eager to keep attracting new businesses and to keep supporting existing ones well into the future. “We want to continue to provide high-quality jobs and opportunities to our residents,” Fitchett summarizes. “I’m really looking forward to what’s on the horizon.”

The post Sunny Days and Starry Nights<p class="company">City of Flagstaff, Arizona</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

As many American cities battle their way toward economic growth, the City of Westland in central Wayne County, Michigan is transforming as its growing diversity, hard work, and determination turn the region into a flourishing urban haven. With time, energy, and money pouring in from its team of economic developers and other stakeholders investing in its future, the city is harnessing the drive and energy of its multicultural populace. As its entry-level urban housing market expands through new builds, it’s also becoming the ideal city for those starting out or downsizing in life.

Flanked to the north by the City of Livonia, to the south by the City of Wayne, and to the west by Canton Township, the City of Westland is proud to call itself an inclusive community.

During my conversation with Aubrey Merhib, Economic Development Director, and Michael P. Londeau, Mayor, it quickly becomes evident that revitalization and redevelopment are top priorities. Alongside this, the team is committed to bringing more talent to the area to support its goal of growth and prosperity for the region.

Home to nearly 86,000 people, Westland is the smallest of Michigan’s top ten largest cities. Setting up shop here is eased by an economic development team ready to invigorate its prospects.

“We promise to provide a business-friendly, expedited approval process in an effort to help developments and expansions get started and become reality,” says Merhib, who ascribes her team’s enthusiasm and efficacy to the mix of talented young blood and seasoned public-sector professionals combining their energy, knowledge, and skills for the benefit of the region.

“It’s one thing to say you’re a business-friendly community, but if you don’t have the right people in key places, you won’t get very far,” she says. “There’s a lot of talent here and a lot of passion.”

Responsible for the development, implementation, and maintenance of the city’s economic development plans, and for ensuring that Westland not only attracts but also retains business, Merhib has also grown the department over the past year, with an approach that is practical yet modern.

By empowering his team and encouraging them to collaborate and voice their thoughts openly, Mayor Londeau has established a citywide culture of trust and healthy teamwork. All this fits well alongside a large part of his citywide mandate: revitalizing the region and the lifestyle it offers.

A background as a City Council member gives Mayor Londeau the knowledge needed to build and maintain the networks of key role players that are pivotal to the economic well-being of the city at large. “Businesses can have faith that when they choose to work with the city of Westland, we won’t allow politics to get in the way of progress,” he says.

Westland offers a good variety of business premises and a legendary workforce widely respected for its skill. Just 20 minutes from Detroit’s harbor, Westland is easily accessible, making transportation of goods and business travel a cinch. With easy access to the I-94 and I-96, Westland is only 7 and 10 miles away from Detroit Metro and Willow Run airports, respectively.

While many towns across America have interesting histories, Westland has perhaps one of the rarest stories around—especially for its age. Originally, the area’s earliest infrastructure was established in what is known today as the Norwayne Historic District to house tradesmen, engineers, and others building bombers at Willow Run Airport during World War II. But then the city developed a life of its own sometime during the ‘60s.

With old-fashioned malls morphing into more urban-friendly arrangements as a relatively new trend, this city was undeniably ahead of its time when, in 1963, residents decided to establish independence from the city of Livonia, which is said to have set its sights on annexing an area of Nankin Township, just over 20 miles from Detroit, part of which was earmarked for a new shopping center to be built in response to Detroit’s growing sprawl at that time. This move proved a mistake on Livonia’s part as residents rallied in protest and got to work opposing the motion.

Westland’s incorporation was made official on May 16, 1966. It was decided to name it after the famous, state-of-the-art mall designed by Austrian-born Victor Gruenthat, famed for being the doyen of the modern shopping center. And so, the city of Westland was born and its central business district developed with the mall as its heartbeat. “Westland is special,” says Mayor Londeau. “I am a lifelong resident here. It has a small-town feel, yet it’s a big city.”

Today, growth continues to be a deciding factor in the city’s fortunes, with a major expansion taking shape on the Ford Road Corridor during the first part of this year, attracting more new developers, investors, and tourists alike. By reimagining the overall look and function of this main economic artery with the support of the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) budget for façade restoration, the area will soon look sharp. And while high investment and new employment ensure a healthy, more diverse economy, more available cash also means improved quality of life.

Going by the reported spend on redevelopment and new businesses to date, it’s clear that the people of Westland do things well.

Dairy Queen recently completed a new, 2900-square-foot restaurant at nearly $1.5 million, while its neighbor spent just over $6 million to establish a Tommy’s Express Car Wash in another newly built facility of 5,448 square feet. The new Heartland Vet Clinic is also under construction on a rehabilitated site. The $925,000 investment secures the new 4,865-square-foot facility for the Westland community. There is also a new cannabis supplier in town, Common Citizen, setting up a 5,747-square-foot facility.

In addition, the DDA has spent $3 million to build a trailblazing “Mission to Mars” playscape, which opened in June this year and has gone viral. This development fully adheres to the American Disabilities Act to ensure ease of access for all children.

The DDA also refurbished the H2O Zone Spray Park built in 2022 on the corner of Orr and Carlson Drives, as well as refurbishing Ford Road’s Tattan Park, home to the city’s farmers market. The market is held every Thursday from the end of May to the beginning of October from 3 to 7 p.m. alongside numerous other outdoor events.

Following the steady decline in the support for traditional malls over several decades, the city of Westland is stepping up to reimagine the use of the building while encouraging its original purpose—to bring people together in shared space while reinvigorating the economy.

Following City Hall’s relocation to Warren Road in 2015, the city has set its sights on the redevelopment of nearly four acres of centrally located, open land that it had reserved for future public recreational use—directly abutting the Westland Mall. The exciting revitalization project is aptly named “The Annex at Nankin” and aims to establish a sense of community in what will be a reimagined, modern downtown area. With ample access to park areas and stunning outdoor entertainment spaces catering to adults and children, the year-round space will, no doubt, also draw more development.

The Annex at Nankin will be within easy reach of existing communities and is designed to provide for people’s needs. Safe, functional, and beautiful, this well-thought-out development will also double as a venue for other activities like corporate events, learning workshops, outdoor cinema, and more.

As a major draw for future income for the city, the Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA) has committed to contributing toward the cost of construction. “With the continued support of TIFA, the city will have the means to provide programming and park maintenance through a dedicated funding source well into the future,” says Merhib, who is enthusiastic about this key investment.

For those looking to relocate, the city’s central location means that families with school-going children and young adults at university can have their pick of secondary and tertiary education in the Wayne-Westland Community School District, with nearly 20 schools educating almost 10,000 students. In Livonia, the public school district offers the choice of another 20 schools serving more than 12,500 students alongside pre-schools and adult learning options.

Westland is also home to the William D. Ford Career Technical Center. This next-generation resource facility recognized for education excellence boasts 100,000 square feet of space and serves locals with a prospectus of more than 20 fields of study. From health services, digital media, and graphic design to manufacturing, technology, and culinary arts, its up-to-date teaching provides the local economy with a well-prepared and capable workforce.

Health and wellness are also well provided for, with the $10 million Westland Community Health Center welcoming its first patients in 2021, also in the heart of the city. Its location is especially practical as the brave staff of the Fire Department, next to the City Hall, are always at hand to bring in elderly residents living close by.

Other nearby facilities include the Beaumont Hospital and Wayne’s Level III trauma unit. Livonia’s Trinity Health Hospital also provides Level II trauma care.

Additional community services include a neighborhood makeover program that has its finger closely on the pulse of infrastructure repair and improvement, with a new focus on refurbishing damaged sidewalks. There is also a Friendship Center offering a space for senior citizens to connect and socialize, learn, exercise, dine together, and have fun.

Less expected, perhaps, but very welcome, is the Westland Rotary Canine Corral, ensuring that dogs are also cared for, with the city’s first park of its kind opening earlier this year complete with secure fencing, separate areas for small and large dogs, benches, pet drinking points, and training options.

Locals also enjoy dining out, with numerous options for takeout and on-the-go restaurants as well as a shop-and-dine district where patrons can choose from more than 150 shops, dining establishments, and other amenities. Another favorite attraction is the MJR Theater on Wayne Road which welcomes more than 300,000 attendees every year.

There’s also the Emagine Theater with its Super EMAX screen that not only provides viewers with much bigger screens but also connects the border of Canton with Westland as its footprint spans both areas. The local Inspire Theatre also provides a fun evening out with live performances keeping all and sundry entertained with good, old-fashioned theatre.

The city’s vulnerable are not forgotten in the whirlwind of advancement, however. It is home to several charitable organizations like the Wayne Ford Civic League, Westland Community Foundation, Wayne Metro Community Action Agency, Salvation Army, and others.

To this end, the City of Westland provides a Community Development Block Grant, which serves those in need alongside its youth and senior citizens with services that include affordable housing, infrastructure and home repairs, community building, and more. There are also the Wayne Westland Community Schools, and two dedicated animal care and rescue specialists that work full-time to protect and save animals in need.

With a bright and promising future ahead, the city is strategic in how it proceeds to implement its plans for progress. Consequently, it will continue leading with quality amenities that provide citizens with a high standard of living while leveraging its ample, growing housing market.

To secure sufficient housing for the future, Westland is also renegotiating zoning laws to ensure a wider range of accommodation types. Part of this mandate is to enable higher-density developments to help stimulate the local economy. In addition, it will bring mixed-use development to the area around Westland Mall that will give new communities access to the Annex at Nankin for its beautiful recreational and outdoor spaces. This is one area that truly has something for everyone.

The post Knuckling Down, Sprucing Up, and Growing Better Each Day<p class="company">City of Westland, Michigan</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

That’s because they truly want to invite non-Indigenous people into their community and share experiences, as Jamie Thomas, Director of Culture and Tourism for Lennox Island First Nation, tells us. “There seems to be a misconception among some non-Indigenous people who think they wouldn’t be allowed to come into a First Nations community, and that notion is something we are working to change, and something Amanda and I have talked about.”

We enjoy a wide-ranging conversation with Thomas, who in addition to her culture and tourism role, serves on the national board of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and is the Business & Partnership Development Manager with the MCPEI – Skills Partnership Fund for the Lennox Island First Nation, and Amanda Barlow, Interim Executive Director for North Cape Coastal Tourism Area Partnership (NCCTAP), which is a member of the Tourism Association of Canada (TIAC) and partners with Lennox Island First Nation.

Working together
A recurrent theme in our conversation is the importance of working together. Barlow speaks about partnerships NCCTAP has formed with over 100 members who provide accommodation, experiences, restaurants, entertainment, and “anything to do with tourists coming to the western side of PEI; from Summerside on the Northumberland Strait to Lennox Island in Malpeque Bay—linked via a causeway—and to North Cape on the northwest tip.

“We welcome people from everywhere, from Souris on the east coast of the island, from anywhere in Canada, or from around the world, which includes international tourists arriving on cruise ships.”

The traditional tourist season opens on the Victoria Day weekend in May, with plenty of activities around the beautiful beaches on each side of the region. There is the Keep it Canadian Dinner Theatre, daily free entertainment, and an impressive concert series lined up at the Stompin’ Tom Centre, (named for the iconic singer, Stompin’ Tom Connors) in Skinner’s Pond.

There’s the Village Musicale Acadien in Abram Village, and a unique opportunity to learn about the province’s Indigenous people on Lennox Island.

There are also activities in the off-season. The Mill River Resort offers cross-country skiing, skating, and horse-drawn sleigh rides and has the capacity to host conferences. New this winter will be an ATV tourism product, the result of a partnership with the ATV Federation, which has connected existing trails.

And in October, the area will host five Fall Flavours events, part of an island-wide culinary festival which includes 26 events. One large event, featuring oysters and the best that local craft breweries and live entertainment have to offer, has drawn up to 300 people to Tyne Valley every year for the past three years.

The fall flavours of Lennox Island First Nation
Last October, for the first time, Lennox Island First Nation’s Culture Centre hosted a Fall Flavours event featuring local Indigenous cuisine.

“We dug large fire pits, four by four, and brought up lobster from the holding tanks at the wharf so the chefs could cook them over an open fire,” Thomas recalls. “We served sweetgrass steamed mussels, a quail dish, salmon, root vegetables, a dessert component, and bannock. And we incorporated culture, with a group doing a welcoming performance in what is truly a shore-to-table experience.”

Long before English settlers named the island Prince Edward Island, and before the Acadians called it Isle St-Jean, it was known as Abeqweit, “the land cradled on the waves,” with archaeological evidence of Indigenous civilization dating back 15,000 years.

Measuring 540 hectares, Lennox Island, just off the coast, was originally known as L’nui Minegoo, “people’s island,” until surveyor Samuel Holland renamed it. It was one of the earliest reservations in Canada and in 1870 became the first reservation owned by the people living on it. Today there are 1056 band members, with 450 living on the island and the rest off-reserve.

Eight years ago, Thomas accepted a six-month position here with two tasks—one to run the annual Powwow, or Mawio’mi Festival as it was originally known in eastern Canada, and the other to re-open a cultural centre in what was once the home of the island’s priest, built in 1904, and later managed by Parks Canada.

“The centre was originally set up in dark green with interpretive panels, and people could walk through and learn from what they read,” she shares, “but we changed it to make it interactive with pictures and artefacts and with one room focused on the residential schools, and we also wanted to focus on authentic experiences. I went to a meeting about food security and sustainability and overheard two Elders talking about how their mothers and aunties made bannock, but they had to do it in secret because they weren’t allowed to do anything connected with our culture.”

That conversation led to “Bannock and Clams in the Sand,” a well-received experiential tourist activity. Now the Culture Centre offers two more experiences: “The Beat of the Drum,” in which participants create their own handheld drum to take home, and “Quill Work on Birch Bark,” in which participants use birch bark, porcupine quills, and sweetgrass to create a piece of art while listening to stories and teachings passed down through the generations.

In partnership
“Partnerships are important,” says Thomas. “Because I work with Amanda, we were able to host a group tour with Adventure Canada, a cruise company that came into Summerside in 2017, by setting up rotating stations for a variety of cultural aspects and food. That company came back in 2022 and although this time they docked in Charlottetown, they brought three busloads to Lennox Island, so now we have a strong relationship with them and we’re able to offer group experiences and adventures. We also collaborate with other companies and customize experiences for them.”

For the past 145 years, St. Anne’s Sunday, the longest-running festival in PEI, has been observed at the end of July, in addition to National Indigenous People’s Day on June 21 and the annual Mawio’mi Festival in late August, all intended to attract people to celebrate together. “In 2023 we had Morgan Toney from Nova Scotia coming to perform. We’ve partnered with a concert series from Mount Carmel, and we continue to partner as much as we can to bring people in and make visitors feel welcome.”

Lennox Island First Nation’s cultural tourism initiative reaches far beyond the shores of Lennox Island, however, with Thomas reaching out to other organizations and Indigenous entrepreneurs.

“We have been marketing our experiences at events like Rendez-vous Canada,” she says. This annual signature event for the tourism industry rotates through all provinces and territories, with the 2024 event set for Edmonton, Alberta.

“We’ve found that a lot of people are interested in learning about Indigenous culture, so we’ve created a learning series and we conduct cultural awareness sessions with different groups, government agencies, or non-profits, with presentations around tough topics, things people don’t talk about,” she says. She goes on to note that when dealing with those difficult subjects, she makes every effort to make people feel comfortable in a safe space. “Following the presentation, we debrief while engaged in hands-on learning where participants create their own beaded lanyard.” She has also offered a program on Indigenous tourism for the Tourism Association of PEI around the idea of working together and “enhancing relationships with others.”

Since most tourists will come to Charlottetown, it makes sense to engage with them there. To that end, a storefront operation, Indigenous PEI, just opened, “after we went through the entire province and sourced products from Indigenous artists.”

Previously, as many as 50 of these artists had been regular exhibitors at the annual Christmas Market, but now they have a permanent place to sell their products. Among them are entrepreneur Jimmy Bernard, who has a basket-weaving shop on Lennox Island where he pounds ash branches to create baskets, and Melissa Peter-Paul, from Abegweit First Nation, the only other First Nation on the island.

Melissa Peter-Paul’s exquisite quill work has received wide recognition. Most recently it received a prestigious award from the 2023 Atlantic Indigenous Tourism Summit held in Newfoundland and Labrador, while Nike has sought her skill in designing a logo.

Tourists in Charlottetown may also encounter Julie Pelletier Lush, author and PEI’s former Poet Laureate, who with her son and an amazing group of young people has created a troupe of Mi’kmaq heritage actors who do daily lunchtime performances during the summer.

Unique experiences
Meanwhile, back on Lennox Island, Thomas is working with other Mi’kmaq entrepreneurs to incorporate their products into a local traditional harvesting experience for tourists: lobster, oysters, and mussels grown on the island’s reefs, and produce from the massive blueberry fields and the community’s organic gardens.

“They all work together to enhance the experience,” Thomas says, “and while our guests are enjoying oysters cooked over the open fire or are sitting down to eat a freshly harvested salad from our organic garden, we talk about our philosophy of sustainability and not taking more than you need. We talk about what we ate traditionally and how vegetables in the Three Sisters Garden—squash, beans, and corn—support each other; how we bottle lobster for winter; and the importance and sacredness of our medicines: sage, cedar, sweetgrass, and tobacco. It’s all-encompassing.”

Concludes Barlow: “Amazing things are happening on Lennox Island! Pjila’si!”

The post Pjila’si! – The Perfect Invitation to any Traveller<p class="company">North Cape Coastal Drive</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Jeffery Homes was founded by Scott’s parents, Wayne and Muriel, back in 1964 and maintains the same commitment to quality, value, and service to this day. Coming to Ontario from Nova Scotia at the age of 19, Scott’s father worked at General Motors in Oshawa as a millwright. With help from his older brother, he started out making a few homes—1,050 square foot bungalows—and eventually left GM to pursue his dream, leaving his pension and benefits behind. The decision was not an easy one for the Jeffery family, but it was one that had to be made.

“To go out on your own, you’ve got to have a lot of confidence that you’re going to make it work,” says owner Scott Jeffery. “It was a big decision on his part, and he made it work.”

After all these years, Jeffery Homes remains a proud, family-owned builder. Along with his sons Eric, 31, and Lucas, 29, Scott has assembled a team of industry pros.

Carrying on the commitment to quality set in place by his father, Scott works with trusted subcontractors and suppliers. Some have been working alongside Jeffery Homes since the 1980s. Others, including framers, are themselves in their second generation, with sons taking over from their fathers.

To work for award-winning Jeffery Homes, construction trades must not only be experienced, but respectful to each other and to the buyers who visit the site of their dream home as it’s being built. Standards for carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, and other trades are high because that’s what the company and its customers expect. “I’ve worked hard to build a team, and once you get the person that fits how we want to do business, you keep them,” says Scott. “At Jeffery Homes, we build each home to the same standards we would want in our own home.” Quality and attention to detail start long before shovels are in the ground.

Taking a bespoke approach to projects, Scott and the team look for a few choice locations that are unique and highly desirable. Preferring quality over quantity, Jeffery Homes creates between 50 and 100 residences annually. Earning new and repeat business alike, the company frequently has clients who prefer to hold on for a Jeffery Home instead of going with other properties.

Many of the company’s developments are so sought-after that they sell out quickly, such as the luxury townhomes of West Scugog Village in Port Perry, and Orchard East and Orchard West in Bowmanville.

Both Orchard East and Orchard West feature detached homes on premium 36 by 120 foot lots in Orchard East, and 40 by 120 foot lots in Orchard West. Jeffery’s completed projects include 51 homes at Courtice Woods in Courtice, Ontario; Brookhill in Bowmanville West; and Kedron Park, in Oshawa.

Continuing its tradition of creating entire communities of high-quality homes, the company’s latest projects include the 1919 Estates of Bobcaygeon—featuring modern, farmhouse-style estate homes on large lots of one to two acres—and VIEWS, in North Oshawa. Located in a growing area, VIEWS is situated close to schools, shopping, entertainment venues, and other key amenities, and the company is in the process of building 700 homes for the community.

From meticulous design/build services to planning, budgeting, and construction, Jeffery Homes handles all aspects of the building process under one roof. Refining its processes over the years, the company is accountable and efficient, ensuring everything goes as planned.

With its industry-wide reputation for excellence, a surprising proportion of Jeffery Homes’ sales are to repeat and ‘move up’ buyers who are now building their dream homes. “We’ve carved out a reputation in Durham Region as a premium, better-than-the-rest builder, not so much geared toward first-time buyers, although we’ve done some townhomes in the past,” says Scott.

While he respects most big companies, he feels that some are merchandisers more than builders. “They could have chosen to manufacture pants or something else, and they’re very good and smart at business, but technically, they don’t know anything about building a house,” he says. “They hire people who have the technical knowledge to build the house. So, are they really builders, or are they merchandisers?”

In contrast, the Jeffery Homes team is ahead of the curve in terms of client needs in this ever-evolving housing market. Committed to an outstanding level of workmanship and finishes, the company is also a leader in environmental initiatives, including Smart technology and Energy Star® building practices.

While many of us are familiar with the distinctive Energy Star blue logo on appliances, not everyone is aware that the independent rating system also applies to houses. According to Jeffery Homes, “It comprises a number of prescribed practices of home building whereby the house often surpasses minimum building code requirements by 25 percent or more. The house is tested at completion, and the system is simply ‘pass or fail.’”

Not only is Jeffery Homes an Energy Award Winner for 2021 and 2022, but it’s one of the first in Canada to build an Energy Star home. It was Scott’s father who set in place the parameters that made the transition to Energy Star so much more efficient.

“The way we were framing and putting houses together was on par with the Energy Star specs of that time,” Scott explains. “Once you start on that path, you can’t go backward. We’re building at that Energy Star level, Version 5.0, right now. We’ve continued to evolve with it and build our houses to that specification. It’s been ingrained in our company for a long time, and that’s the way we do it.”

The company is building several model homes at the moment, one of them through the Net Zero Ready program. According to the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA), Net Zero Homes are up to 80 percent more energy-efficient than conventional new homes and produce as much clean energy as they consume. Superbly well-constructed, Net Zero Homes are known for their high-performance windows, extra insulation, advanced lighting and mechanical systems, and more.

Built to the same efficiency standards as Net Zero Homes, ‘Net Zero Ready’ Homes already have everything in place to accept renewable energy systems such as solar panels, but they’re not yet installed.

“Think of a Net Zero Ready Home as wired for its future renewable energy system, so that when the homeowners are able to invest in installing solar panels, it’s ready to go,” says the CHBA. “This is called ‘PV Ready.’”

Before working on the model Net Zero Ready home, Scott created one for his son and another for his sister, completely off the grid with solar energy and a backup generator.

With the future of the family-owned company in very good hands, Scott Jeffery is pondering stepping back from the company in the coming years, entrusting it to his sons and the excellent team in place.

“Whether you ever truly get away from it…” he ponders. “Well, I don’t think I ever will, but I’d like to have the flexibility that if you called me to go golfing, I could,” he laughs. “I’m not in the daily grind, as I put it. So that’s my goal in the next few years, but I don’t think I’ll ever disappear. I enjoy the interaction with the trades and working with my boys, and being here as a mentor,” he says. “Pick up the phone and call me. I might be in Florida or up at the cottage, but I’ll always be accessible to have someone to lean on.”

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The company consistently ensures quality assurance and homeowner satisfaction by collaborating with skilled, certified tradespeople and competent industry partners. The team also employs effective software solutions to offer rental property management services to landlords, whether with a single property or a portfolio of properties.

Huron Creek’s expertise also extends to the development of rental income units and condos for sale, as well as project management services for private clients wishing to build their ideal homes. The company maintains longstanding ties with a number of regional and national organizations and programs including the WRHBA, OHBA, Tarion, and Energy Star.

“I started with my partner Peter Catana almost 25 years ago now, when he was building around 40 to 50 homes a year at EastForest Homes Ltd.,” says Vice President Rick Martins. “At that time, during our best year we built 923 homes. When you’re growing, you only do that one way—by learning and trying to get better and surrounding yourself with good people.”

Together with Catana, Martins started building a family business, and while it continued to grow quite a bit and developed its own policies, procedures, and standards, it wasn’t a company beholden to shareholders, he says. There was the owner, and then there were the people in charge of doing what they were doing. This allowed for a lot of flexibility in learning, innovating, and continually coming up with new ideas.

“Peter’s vision was always one of, how can I provide something that I wanted when I came to this country?” Martins says. “My parents, for instance, were first-generation. They wanted the Canadian dream: a home, education for their kids, and a better life.”

Together with Peter at EastForest, the team built close to 16,000 units together, with the majority of them being products for first-time homebuyers, dwellings that have changed drastically over the years. “When I started with Peter, the first-time home product was a townhome, and at that time a townhome was $99,000 and a single [detached] was about $139,000,” Martins shares. “Today, a townhome is $800,000 and a single is a million.”

While townhomes weren’t considered viable products back then, over time they became both desirable and affordable, particularly for first-time buyers searching in the $300,000 to $350,000 range. For those having a hard time with that price, Huron Creek came up with a new product called the Quad—a semi-detached house with a finished basement, with a unit in the upper storeys and a separate unit in the basement—essentially four units housed inside what traditionally would be only two semis.

“When we started that, I think the first ones we sold were $90,000 for the basement units. Then when the Quad started to get into that $350,000 mark, we had to reinvent the wheel again, and we started building stack townhomes,” Martins explains. “Unfortunately, now, as much as we reinvent the wheel, land cost is so expensive that a starter dwelling—not a single-family home, but an apartment-style dwelling with its own entryway—is over $500,000.”

Throughout the 25 years they’ve been together, this kind of reinvention has been key, says Martins. For this company, getting better means that the company grows and evolves alongside the community, with the homeowners ultimately receiving a better product in a better neighbourhood.

To be sure, doing better is the name of the game. “We are always looking at energy efficiency as well; environmentally, how can we do things differently, better, smarter, with less material and a better product? It was always ingrained in us; it was innate,” says Martins. Reinvention has also meant taking a closer look at accessibility and age-friendly living, greater efficiency from an affordability standpoint, and helping to lower monthly bills for occupants.

“When you’re working with people who are like-minded, such as the staff here and we as owners, we’ve always been about, ‘how can we be better and do better?’ If you can achieve that, everybody wins. We’ve gotten better over the years, because when you’re building something, you always learn,” he says.

Martins is particularly proud of Westwood Village’s second phase in Cambridge, Ontario, which is going Net Zero Ready with the goal of all singles—about 65—to be fully Net Zero. The company is also building 144 Net Zero stack townhomes which will be affordable units through a CMHC program in the City of Kitchener. These homes will contain a dual-fuel system with tankless systems for gas and heat pumps in the units handling the air conditioning. Depending on the price of electricity or gas, a mechanism will change out to use the most affordable heat source.

“We’re always looking at doing something different,” Martins says. “We’re probably the first builder in southwestern Ontario, if not in Ontario, to adopt the AeroBarrier, a sealant product that we apply just after we’re done drywall in our homes that gets into all those little cracks and crevices and takes airtightness to under one, which is extremely tight.”

Another example is that, where Huron Creek used to use HRVs (heat recovery ventilation) because they were more common, the team now uses ERVs (energy recovery ventilation), as they’ve come to understand over the years that ERVs are much better in the sense that they will also condition the air. And while customers appreciate these details, Martins adds, at the end of the day, buyers today are most concerned about affordability.

“We’re at a crucial turning point,” he emphasizes. “Housing [costs are] probably at their peak due to taxation that we have and due to the land supply shortages. Homelessness is at an all-time high, housing affordability is out of reach, and then inflation is where it is. Our leaders need to say, ‘enough is enough.’ They also need to curtail our banks, because they’re making money hand over fist,” Martins says. “One simple fix is removing HST on new housing, and I understand the HST is a tax and it’s revenue that comes into the government, but they can easily remove HST on new housing and replace it with a flat tax across all housing.”

Short of the $24,000 that the provincial government gives in Ontario, there is no other rebate, he says, which means when Huron Creek builds a new home, it’s 12 percent more expensive. “Every time I build a new home, or someone else builds a new home, you’re technically inflating the price of housing, and like I said, there are simple solutions.”

Until these solutions take hold, however, availability and affordability will remain out of reach for many, particularly younger people who will end up living at home or making other, less desirable arrangements for their futures.

“Basically they’re going to have to cohabitate,” Martins says. “But I also say that community has to shift too; when my parents came over [to Canada], we lived with my aunt and uncle in their home and they had six kids and we made do. We’ve been a society of consumption, and truthfully, we have to take a look at some of those aspects as well.”

Other challenges facing the industry include labour shortages, particularly in the skilled trades, and the team at Huron Creek believes it’s important to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to look into this rewarding career—whether young people still in school or those looking to make a career change. Martins himself went through university to be a teacher, and now runs a successful construction company. It’s that ability to pivot—a valuable skill he learned from his father—that has led to his ongoing success.

“You have to be able to contribute,” he says. “Young people were sold a different bill of goods, being told to go to university, and while it was a great experience for me, it cost me $40,000.”

Conversely, the construction industry—while facing its share of challenges—is one that Martins has succeeded in thanks to taking advantage of opportunities and working hard. There are still concerns to be addressed, however.

“Our systems are really broken, and they need to be fixed,” he says. “I’m okay with unions, and we actually use union trades and union companies, but I’m an open shop, and I really believe in the bidding system. People should be given an opportunity, and it has to be open and fair.” Shortages will continue to keep housing unreachable, he adds, and some union restrictions could make the issue worse as strikes are limiting who can and cannot bid work.

In the meantime, Huron Creek will continue to grow, learn, and find better ways to achieve the best products for its clients and provide the best working environment for its employees and its contractors.

“What sets us apart is our staff, our trades, and the family atmosphere,” Martins says. “Our company is all about family.”

As an example, anyone who gets married at the company receives a $500 cash bonus, while $500 is given for the birth or adoption of a child. Any employee with the company for two years or longer is eligible to receive a minimum $30,000 discount off the purchase of a Huron Creek home. “We were given a lot of opportunities, and while we worked for those opportunities, we were able to get ahead. And now we can give back,” says Martins.

“We’re always learning and always trying to be better. As long as you do that, you end up, I think, at the right place.”

The post Affordable, Liveable Homes, From One Family to Another<p class="company">Huron Creek Developments</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Certainly, half a century is a milestone to be celebrated in any industry, but for Cardel Homes, it is a chance to acknowledge how far it has come and the people who got it there—as well as an opportunity to position the company for another 50 years of success.

From humble beginnings
Cardel Homes came to be in a very unusual way. In 1973, while schoolteachers Del and Caryl Ockey were using their summer off from teaching to build their own home in Calgary, Alberta, they caught the attention of others in the community who were interested in having a home of the same calibre built for them.

The couple put their heads together, their efforts together, and the first three letters of their names together and the rest, as they say, is history. Cardel Homes became a family-owned custom homebuilder in the Calgary market.

From a handful of custom homes to start to more than 20,000 homes built in over 150 communities spanning four regions in two countries, Cardel Homes remains a family-owned company today, though its scope and reach has significantly grown.

In 1996, Cardel Homes ventured beyond the Alberta border to establish a presence in Ontario and in 2001 it traversed international borders to expand into Florida, and four years later into Colorado. Each of these expansions was borne out of the strong relationships the company has built throughout the years with its partners who asked for support in their own expansion activities.

According to Chief Operating Officer (COO) Greg Graham, “We were looking for long-term growth opportunities, stability within a market so that we can stay there and be there long-term. Every time we look at an opportunity, if we don’t see long-term duration, if we don’t see land position and lot position, we won’t endeavour to go there just to do one project.”

A winning philosophy
Despite the company’s impressive growth, now under the leadership of Ryan Ockey, Caryl and Del’s son who was sweeping floors and picking up nails at a young age, the roots of the company and the driving philosophy remain the same 50 years later.

“The philosophy, it’s about family, faith, and community,” says Graham. “The philosophy is filtered down through the organization where leadership treats staff as family and we listen to them, we engage with them, we enable them and empower them to make decisions and really try to support them in everything we do.”

For Graham and the leadership team at Cardel Homes, the goal is simple: “Do the right thing for our customers, the right thing for our community, and maintain that family attitude and hands-on approach in everything we do.”

Cardel Homes’ projects are built by their family for yours. From single-family homes to multifamily projects, which the firm added to its repertoire in 2002, Cardel Homes continues to set new benchmarks with its exquisite designs, thoughtful layouts, and calculated elevations.

“We believe our homes are built for real life, meaning we look at how people will use their homes, how they will furnish them and do the layout, the natural light, the traffic flow; design is certainly a big element,” says Graham of the care that is taken by the architectural team to produce quality homes that make sense.

The company’s “production mind-frame,” as Graham refers to it, includes an offering of low-rise single-family homes ranging from 1,200 to 5,000 square feet as well as townhomes, stacked townhomes, low-rise condominiums, and apartments. “We don’t get into the concrete and steel—that’s a very different business model—but as far as homes, low-rise or what we call ground-oriented homes, we build every style and every kind of those,” he explains.

In 2004, Cardel Homes made its foray into recreational products with the construction of the two main buildings at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, BC, as well as into the real estate, land acquisition, and development market.

As Graham explains, “We go out and we acquire land in all of our divisions and we take it through the entitlement process, we get all of the approvals in place, and we oversee all of the construction and onsite servicing to the point where we can turn over service lots to our homebuilding division. We certainly scrutinize the market to see what the land opportunities are for the future and that’s what we’ve been able to do in those four markets.”

Strong foundations
To ensure long-term, sustainable growth, Cardel Homes established itself in the market with a solid product and outstanding service while structuring the company like its homes—on a solid foundation and with the right team guiding it forward.

“The best thing about the way we’ve established ourselves is we do have a corporate office, our C-Suite, that provides oversight on all of operations, but each of our divisions has a division leader who’s accountable for running the operations and running the land,” says Graham.

He adds, “We’re there to support them, but we provide them with some autonomy. We empower them to make decisions. The corporate office is our investment arm, so they treat us as their advisor and they actually operate as if it was their business. When it’s a hands-on ownership mentality like that it’s pretty easy to see how they drive the business to success.”

With its level of talent, skills, resources, and support, Cardel Homes has discovered a successful formula that it has been able to replicate over the decades. While the core philosophy and approach has remained the same, the company goes a step further with its trade partners to identify and utilize the latest tools, materials, and innovative approaches.

“We still build houses the same way we did 50 years ago: we excavate, dig a hole, pour foundation, frame it up with wood frame, put a roof on it, put windows in it, and develop the interiors,” says Graham. “We work with our trade partners on innovation into their supplies (HVAC, air conditioning, tankless water heaters), we talk about concrete and how concrete is evolving and the technology therein, so we’re constantly looking for innovation in the way we do things.”

He adds, “We’re always looking for constant improvement and looking for new innovative ideas that we can incorporate into our business philosophy that we believe customers will embrace and want to have as part of their house. We can build the house; they have to make it a home.”

Ultimately, for Graham and the rest of the Cardel Homes team, “Our goal is to shape communities and build houses that our clients can embrace and turn into homes. We’re looking to make sure we can continue to deliver safe, secure, comfortable places where people feel they belong. Whenever we are away, we always look forward to getting home, so our job is to provide the structure that people feel they can come home to.”

Building for the future
This year, Cardel Homes is taking a moment to celebrate the milestone 50 years it has been in operation, while remaining deeply committed to ensuring that the company thrives for another 50 or more by overcoming the current challenges of the day.

“Both in Canada and the U.S. over the next ten years, government has to understand that they have to work in partnership with the development and home building community to meet those [housing] targets that they said are required. Otherwise, it’s economics 101; we’re going to have a shortage in residential housing, prices are going to escalate again, and we’re going to be back into this inflationary problem that we’ve had over the last couple of years,” Graham cautions.

Acknowledging that the character and function of communities must be preserved, more must be done to encourage development and reduce the red tape to ensure there are sufficient levels of housing to meet population demands. This will also require a concerted effort by government, education, and industry to strengthen the talent pipeline to ensure homes can be built.

The good news, however, is that Cardel Homes is well positioned to take advantage of the market. With good land positions in the various markets it serves, a strong knowledge of the building industry, the right team of professionals on its side, and a commitment to continuous improvement, with the support of its partners the company will continue to deliver its quality homes to customers.

“That gives us longevity, that gives us visioning that we can share with our partners and our trades; when you work for Cardel, as long as we continue to do good work together, you have a future here,” says Graham of the opportunities to grow in the industry.

When it comes to the future, he says, “We’re looking at it not only from the eyes of the company but from the eyes of our customers, our trade partners. One of the things we pride ourselves on is our quick reflexes. We make quick decisions, we have solid management, we’ve got great dedication to our industry, so I think that bodes well for our team, our customers, and our industry as a whole.”

The post Built for Real Life<p class="company">Cardel Homes</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Formerly known as Sunwell, Deepchill® was established in Canada in 1978, inventing the slurry technology and still the market leader today, offering superior slurry ice production, storage, and distribution systems.

With unique solutions that have revolutionized a variety of industries—including food processing, transportation, and HVAC—the company has been introducing innovative technologies to the world for more than 45 years.

Used in a variety of applications, Deepchill® offers an all-natural and risk-free flexible cooling and preservation medium with a technology that delivers quick, uniform, and long-lasting ‘superchill’ to a variety of industries. Depending on requirements, it can be applied in a variety of forms, from a liquid paste to a dry crystal form.

The one and only
In short, there’s no other ice technology like Deepchill®. Composed of small pearl-like microcrystals produced in fresh or salt water and dispensed as a liquid slurry or crystal form to superchill and hold valued products at peak freshness, no other slurry ice technology has Deepchill®’s effectiveness, adaptability, or simplicity of use.

“The thing is this industry didn’t really exist before us,” says Kyle Morrison, Director of Sales. “We invented slurry ice in the 1970s and invented a system to do it. Before, people did essentially what they do now, which is adding ice to water, and then boom, there’s ice-water slurry—which is not the same thing.”

The company has not only helped the fishing industry deliver fresher fish over the years, it’s helped processors keep those fish fresh via several cutting-edge developments.

“We’re one of the only companies that can create snow without the ambient temperature being below zero degrees Celsius,” Morrison says. “We’ve done some really interesting projects over the years, whether it’s the snow in the penguin exhibit in San Diego, or helping fishermen quickly and effortlessly chill their fish after being caught, or processors keeping those fish cold during processing, or transporters keeping those fish cold as they’re sent to the end user,” he explains.

“There’s a whole cold chain, and I would prefer to think of this not just as any single part of the chain but the whole cold chain.”

Pushing boundaries
The company’s continued innovation and willingness to push the boundaries of technology by providing fast, uniform, and long-lasting cooling are just a few of the reasons for Deepchill®’s success.

“If I had to describe this company in just a few words, I would boil it down to the fact that we get food colder faster so it stays fresher longer,” says Morrison. “That’s it.”

Getting food colder faster involves superchilling, or bringing the temperature of food below zero degrees Celsius, but above the point where it actually freezes. Only pure water freezes at zero, and once you start adding salt, for instance, that freezing point goes lower, which is why sea water doesn’t freeze at zero degrees Celsius and why salt is put on the roads in the winter to melt ice.

“You can actually do the same thing with food,” Morrison says. “You can bring that temperature below zero but keep it above the point where it freezes. And this really extends product freshness, shelf life, and quality.”

Whether it’s milk which has been left in a lunch bag all day, broccoli, bass, or salmon—when food gets relatively warmer, it goes bad much faster. “We’re wasting something like 35 percent of every kilogram or every pound of fish that we take out of the oceans,” Morrison shares. “Half of it is wasted due to bad temperature control, so if that food had been kept fresh from the time of harvest to the time of processing, to the time of shipping, and to the time when the end user gets it, we would be wasting a heck of a lot less,” he says.

“When we see what’s happening to our oceans and the food supplies we have, respecting that cold chain and doing more with less is really what we need to do as a species moving forward.”

So how does the industry continue to push boundaries for better quality, longer shelf life, operational efficiencies, and even better market reach?

Morrison has a few ideas including, first and foremost, greater market reach. Mussels, he says, are generally all transported by truck because of their weight. But there is a delivery range with shellfish like mussels, oysters, and clams; if you can Deepchill® them and keep them very cold before and during transport, there is a significant increase in that zone that you can ship to, because now that customer who’s 10 days away is reachable by the transportation company at an economical cost.

A few degrees
“Quality and shelf life go hand in hand,” says Morrison. “A few degrees’ difference in temperature makes a massive difference. The difference between two degrees and negative one degree is the difference between eight days or 18 days, so what we give people is double the freshness and double the shelf life in relative terms,” he says.

“The biggest challenge we run into is the mindset of people,” Morrison says. “People don’t understand what slurry is and they don’t understand Deepchill®. They understand chilled water, a chiller, coil and pumping tons of water over the chiller. Or putting ice on the fish. Or there are the people who put fishing water in, and then ice, and there’s the ‘slurry.’ Sometimes something can look like a duck and quack like a duck, but it’s not a duck.”

While every piece of ice ever used in your life has formed on a surface—water freezing on something—what Deepchill® does is completely different. The company’s unique process forms crystals in suspension in water, so water goes through the heat exchanger and is agitated, with ice not allowed to warm on the heat exchanger on the surface. As the water goes through, it’s chilled down below the point where it freezes, but can’t freeze on the surface of the heat exchanger.

This results in tiny ice crystals—0.1 to 0.2 millimetres in diameter—forming in the water. Under a microscope, they resemble crystals of snow.

It’s all in the particle
“The size and shape of the particle we produce gives our slurry different thermodynamic properties,” Morrison says. “It’s these properties that give us a high coefficient of performance, which is just a funny way of saying that’s how we’re able to suck the heat out of food really fast, because of the uniform and small size and shape of our particle.”

Morrison compares the process to people who are happy watching black and white TVs versus those with a new flat-screen TV connected to the internet. “The latter solution gives you so much more functionality; it’s so much newer and a much better mousetrap,” he says.

“It’s the same thing we’re dealing with here. We either get people who use chilled water and think it’s a good solution, or people who use ice because their great-great grandfather used ice and that’s what they’ve always done. That’s the biggest competitor to us right now: what they did previously is somewhat okay, so why should they change?”

Changing that mindset is the obstacle Deepchill® faces, even within its own industry. At a recent aquaculture show in New Orleans, Morrison was the only vendor talking about what happens when fish are harvested, how to maximize yields, and how to maximize return in the aquaculture operation.

“They were talking about how to keep the fish alive and how to filter the water and get out all the contaminants and make this a hospitable place for fish,” he says. “We don’t think about it, we just take it for granted. And I’ve met companies who don’t use any cooling whatsoever until after the fish are filleted and it goes into their freezer. And they wonder why they run into these quality issues, whether gaping in the meat or why their quality is not as good as this other person’s. And it all comes down to temperature control.”

Real slurry, real solution
The bulk of Deepchill®’s competition makes the fake slurry ice that Morrison refers to, using conventional technology to make ice crystals before grinding those ice crystals into a pulp and adding that to salt water for a slurry. “So what sets us apart is really 45 years of intellectual property, and understanding how slurry ice flows in different concentrations.”

Between 10 and 40 percent concentration, the company’s slurry ice looks and feels a lot like ‘thick’ water, but between 40 and 70 percent, the consistency becomes something like soft ice cream, which is a consistency most of Deepchill®’s competitors can’t get close to. “We, however, understand how slippery ice works; we understand how it interacts in its environment; we understand the ‘non-Newtonian’ nature of the fluid,” Morrison says.

Deepchill® is also able to do interesting things that other companies can’t do, he adds, like deliver a higher fraction slurry over a long distance, or use its technology in the baking industry or the ice pigging industry. “There are a lot of industries that are available to us that are not available to the competition,” Morrison says.

“At the end of the day, we really do help people get things cold faster, to keep them fresher longer.”

The post Waste Not! – Keeping Food Colder and Fresher for Longer<p class="company">Deepchill®</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

At Sonoco, sustainability is a team effort. As one of the world’s foremost packaging and container manufacturers, Sonoco’s commitment to sustainability is about much more than packaging.

Reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by at least 25 percent by 2030, lowering water consumption, incorporating solar power and purchasing renewable energy in its operations are key initiatives to Sonoco living up to its motto: Better Packaging. Better Life.

Born into responsibility
Sonoco has been serious about sustainability since the company’s early days.

In 1899, a small team of 12 worked in a rented warehouse in Hartsville, South Carolina on the then-named Southern Novelty Company’s first product—a cone-shaped paper yarn carrier used for winding and transporting yarn. Renamed the Sonoco Products Company in 1923, the respected business today has over 300 operations globally, an expanded product line, and about 22,000 employees. Today, the company serves some of the world’s best-known brands with consumer, industrial and diversified packaging.

Sonoco serves the needs of diverse markets including food and powdered beverages, beauty and personal care, health care, household, construction, electronics and appliances, and textiles. Almost 125 years later, Sonoco remains committed to planet- and people-first packaging.

“Over the last decade, everyone has become more concerned about sustainability, especially global warming, but you can look back 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years, and Sonoco was engaged in that space,” says Ed Harrington, Director, Global Environmental.

At Sonoco, no sustainability initiative is too small, and all are focused on the greater good of the planet. This includes ensuring water used in the manufacturing process is treated to meet local standards and using recycled paper and packaging. “I think the biggest change over the last decade has been an increased urgency and activity around reducing greenhouse gas emissions to help with climate change,” says Harrington.

Using 2020 as its baseline, Sonoco has many such commitments through 2030. These include reducing energy use by at least eight percent in its manufacturing plants, recycling or causing to recycle 85 percent equivalent by weight of the products the company puts into the marketplace, reducing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, conducting water risk studies and numerous others. (Learn more about Sonoco’s science-based sustainability targets at https://www.sonoco.com/na/sustainability.)

Responsibility goes global
Over the years, Sonoco has established itself as a leader in the global packaging industry. Building on its many strengths, Sonoco brought its environmental and sustainability teams together as one. With the current team’s 22 members, the company continues its focus on the environmental aspects of sustainability and is active in compliance, permitting and executing its global responsibilities.

“We believe in approaching sustainability ethically and holistically,” says Sonoco on its website. “That’s why we build sustainability into every area of our business and choose to explain our practices in terms of circularity.” Starting with leadership, the sustainability circle encompasses design, sourcing, production, supply chain and end-of-life.

Sonoco’s Director of Global Sustainability Services, Scott Byrne, explains that it is important to put the packaging industry in its proper context: “We don’t make packaging as a product. Packaging exists to serve a purpose for brand owners, for our customers. So the packaging that we make for the food and beverage industry exists to protect a food product, to keep it fresh, and extend the shelf life.”

Some packaging, such as Sonoco’s ThermoSafe®, includes valuable cold chain solutions like solid shipping boxes, foam bricks and gel packs. Used by clients in health care, life sciences and other key sectors, ThermoSafe assures the safe and effective transportation of temperature-sensitive products such as pharmaceuticals and vaccines over long distances.

Packaging put into perspective
“The packaging industry enables what we take for granted in the modern world,” says Byrne. “I think that context is sometimes lost, and people look at packaging in a vacuum.”

A misconception he sometimes hears is that the packaging industry, packaging converters, brand owners, and the recycling industry and markets don’t talk to each other and that packaging is simply put on the market with little understanding of the impact on the recycling value chain. For companies like Sonoco this, Byrne says, couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Sonoco is an excellent example of where we are as a packaging converter and as a recycler,” he says. “We have five material recovery facilities in the Southeast that collect residential recycling, and we have paper mills. We get that product from recycling facilities and use the recycled content, so we very much understand the impact of the packaging we put on the market.”

Working hard throughout the value chain, Sonoco gauges the impact of making changes to its fiber-based packages, how that interacts with MRFs (materials recovery facilities) and the impact on its paper mills.

Another misconception—one which is almost universal—is that recyclability is the be-all and end-all of sustainability attributes for packaging. Byrne says there are many other attributes to consider, such as using renewable materials, the ability of packaging to protect product or extend shelf life, and the overall carbon footprint.

“We talk about global warming,” he says. “That’s one of the biggest challenges facing the world, and recyclability is part of that, but usually end-of-life is a much smaller piece of the package’s total carbon footprint compared to things like the type of materials used, the amount of materials, transportation, logistics and conversion. Sometimes I think people get a little bit too caught up in end-of-life.”

Sustaining a future
From all-paper blister packaging to pouches, wraps, paperboard packaging and other forms, Sonoco is committed to “Packaging With Tomorrow in Mind™.” Through lines such as EnviroSense® (a four-time award winner), EnviroFlex®, and EnviroCan™, Sonoco is changing the face of packaging and sustainability. These revolutionary products provide customers with environmentally friendly alternatives.

Some, like PaperBlister™, are plastic-free and fully recyclable options for traditional blister packaging. Others, such as EnviroCan, are paperboard containers made from recycled and recyclable materials. And EnviroFlex is a line of sustainable, flexible packaging solutions “focused on recyclability and the use of post-consumer recycled content.”

Other packaging, like Sonopost®, provides sustainable ways to protect white goods like dishwashers and refrigerators from damage while reducing EPS (expanded polystyrene) and plastic packaging. In late 2022, the company announced a new protective packaging facility in Bursa, Turkey, just a year after the first Sonopost operation was established in Sochaczew, Poland.

“Growing demand for our proprietary Sonopost technology created the need for a second production facility,” said Adam Wood, Vice President and General Manager of Global Paper Products in Europe in a media release. “Our protective packaging design team is working hard with our customers who are aligned with us in creating fully sustainable, paper-based packaging that protects and preserves both their product and our planet for generations to come.”

Sonoco continues to introduce new and exciting products that further its commitment to the future of the planet. From mono-material polyethylene to paper-based structures for flexible packaging and PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) clamshells with wash-off label adhesive, (making them easier to recycle), the company continuously reaffirms its status as a visionary in the industry. Along with reducing scrap at its production facilities, Sonoco is committed to clean, renewable sources of energy, including solar, and is working on significant power purchase agreements in the United States and Europe, which will likely include solar and wind.

For a better life
“At Sonoco, we believe in ‘Better Packaging. Better Life.’ and with that comes our prioritization of safety,” says Cassandra Snelling, Marketing Manager, Global Sustainability.

“There is a correlation between sustainability and safety. After we complete any updates at our facilities—whether that be LED lighting or solar panels installed—we do surveys. And surveys have found, in the case of LED lighting installations, employees report feeling safer and happier in their workplace. There’s a correlation between doing the right thing and employee satisfaction.”

Such an approach dovetails with Sonoco’s belief that “we have an inherent responsibility to help improve the quality of life in the communities in which we serve,” says Snelling. The Sonoco Foundation, Sonoco’s philanthropic arm founded nearly 40 years ago, donates millions each year to non-profit organizations across the globe. The company’s employees also contribute time, funds, and talents to a multitude of worthy causes, including volunteering, serving on boards, raising funds and participating in other civic-oriented projects.

“People build businesses by doing the right thing,” concludes Snelling. At Sonoco, that practice looks like helping customers meet their sustainability goals and volume needs—leading the way in innovation and planet-friendly packaging and implementing world-class safety companywide.

The post Wrapping Products in Sustainability<p class="company">Sonoco</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.