Words to live by
COUNT DANI REISS OF CANADA GOOSE INC. AS A BELIEVER IN HOMEGROWN QUALITY As a brand, ‘Made in Canada’ continues to show its value
Dani Reiss, president and chief executive officer of Canada Goose Inc. in Toronto, has always been vocal about his Canadian roots. And he intends to keep his business in Canada despite the fact it has seen 4,000% growth over the past 10 years.
Now in its third generation of family ownership, the firm produces high-end winter apparel in 15 to 20 manufacturing facilities across the country. The largest two in Toronto and Winnipeg are owned by the company.
“We decided to stay ‘ made in Canada’ for a lot of reasons,” he says. “First our product is quintessentially Canadian. It’s like the Swiss watch — you can’t make it in China.”
It was also a highly strategic move given that many industry players have moved production offshore. “We believed if we could stick it out here, being made in Canada would become important again. At one time we didn’t necessarily have enough work to fill the factory. But we achieved a competitive advantage by being one of the only ones left. Now we’re a leader in the Canadian apparel manufacturing industry and have the largest infrastructure for these kinds of garments.”
Mr. Reiss believes that a Canadian brand has strong marketability globally. “Fortunately we’ve been able to demonstrate the value in our product to people around the world. They’re comfortable paying a price that’s commensurate with where it’s made.”
Canada enjoys “a pretty good reputation” as a place to start and grow a business, says Dan Kelly, president and
People are paying a lot more attention to Canada
CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) in Toronto. “Sometimes there are challenges as you go up the food chain to a larger business, but all in all a lot of people around the world are paying a lot more attention to Canada as a good place for business development.”
Across Canada, resourcerich provinces such as Saskatchewan, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador and to a lesser extent B.C. are experiencing accelerated growth, he adds. Canada is especially well-regarded in certain sectors, including resources, agribusiness, nanotechnology and genomics. And while largescale manufacturing has declined, there have been robust levels of confidence among small niche manufacturers.
The really significant market trend in Canada is the growth in self-employment, Mr. Kelly says. “Twenty years ago, starting your own business wasn’t something Canadians aspired to in large numbers. Recent polls, however, show that young Canadians view self-employment and entrepreneurship very positively and prefer to work on their own. And there are so many more supports out there, including online tools and resources.”
Canada is also a successful business base for new immigrants who are locked out of labour markets. “Many don’t come with the purpose of starting a business but end up turning to entrepreneurship because of the linguistic barriers — and have been incredibly successful. It’s also nice to see the recent government focus on programs for immigrant startups,” Mr. Kelly says.
Cristina Lewarne is to be one of those.
The founder and owner of the three Crocodile Baby stores in the Vancouver area came to Canada with her family from Brazil. Her poor English skills stood in the way of finding employment, despite extensive financial experience and a graduate degree.
After a few false starts, she opened her first shop in 2001 and made Profit Magazine’s 100 Top Entrepreneurs in Canada list in 2008. She says despite the initial challenges, Canada offered opportunities to grow her business. “There was so much less opportunity in Brazil.”
According to Daniel Muzyka, CEO of the Conference Board of Canada in Ottawa, while Canada has its challenges, “in this day and age not every economy has the good news points we have.”
For anyone coming here, a big draw is knowing businesses get treatment in terms of laws, rules, and regulations that are equitably applied. “That’s something where Canada tends to be fairly strong,” he says.
When the Irish-owned Leading Edge Group decided to expand internationally, the provider of continuous improvement program training (e.g. Six Sigma, Lean) chose Canada, says John Whelton, vice-president North American operations and business development. “The size of the country and the open economy made us view Canada as a strong potential market.”
Canada is seen as an ideal conduit to accessing markets in the United States and Mexico because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, he says. “Canada just made better sense for us both culturally and from a business perspective. Having seen what
Not every economy has the good news points we have
happened in Ireland and parts of Europe, we appreciated its frugal and sensible approach to how the economy should operate. Even though the cost of doing business is probably higher, it gives us more confidence that the market is a good one to set up a business in.”
Canada also offers a strong education system that allows businesses to attract employees from other countries, Muzyka notes.
“Our economy does pretty well in generating well educated, articulate skilled individuals. And many of our university research facilities have vaulted into the ranks of the top 50 in the world. We have more in that top 50 than Europe.”
He says anyone setting up business operations here is not looking for low-cost labour; they are looking for something of much greater value.
“We’re not a low-cost producer. But we are a high-value one in terms of technologies and skilled people, and a very competitive research and development stream. Many ideas generated in Canada have been commercialized in other countries. Unfortunately we’re not so good at keeping commercialization here.”
He adds that anyone looking for solidity tends to view Canada’s strong financial system and economy favourably, along with its sophisticated grasp of the global supply chain and affinity for multiculturalism.
“We are pretty well connected in terms of transportation, communications and financial transactions, we’re able to operate among different cultures easily and we have an international reputation for being honest brokers.”
These are all good reasons why people such as Reiss plan to stay put in Canada, even though he receives no shortage of offers to take his manufacturing offshore. The answer, however, is always no. “But we’re very polite about it. We are Canadian, after all.”