INSIDE THIS MONTH
PG
Two Carlyle businesses join forces on Main Street
Volume 3 - Issue 2 February 17th, 2017
Trans-Canada Hwy
Griswold, MB MacGregor, MB
Real food movement takes root locally
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There is a particular irony that when local eateries and bistros talk about migrating back to a method of food preparation as nature intended that the story can’t take place without visiting Eden. Only we’re not talking about the Garden of Eden in this instance, instead the efforts of Avion Harvest which is based in the community just a few minutes north of Neepawa. Avion Harvest opened
its doors earlier this year when Eden resident Tim Wiebe received a call from a colleague in the starch industry in Carberry, identifying that a former yellow pea producer was looking to get out of the production business and had some equipment for sale. After some preliminary negotiations on the purchase, Wiebe says that the seller unfortunately passed away before there could be any formal succession of the business – leaving Wiebe and his business partner
Lewis Pohl to start from scratch both in sourcing the raw ingredients as well as marketing their �inished product. Pohl, who came into the venture from the �inancial services realm, saw the potential for the business and came in as a partner, of�icially taking the title of marketing manager for the company. Both Wiebe and Pohl looked at the timing of coming into the industry during in 2016, recognized as the International Year of Pulses as advantageous and the
company was incorporated in March. “We’ve certainly had a great deal of help from the industry and related agencies,” says Pohl. “We have reached out to M.A.F.R.D. (now Growth, Enterprise and Trade), Entrepreneurship Manitoba and Marilyn Crewe at the Town of Neepawa and they have all offered lots of advice that has been helpful for us to get things rolling.” With a grass roots marketing strategy, Wiebe and Pohl hit the road with their product
in hand to market their wares to various grocery chains and restaurateurs. Now expanded from simply yellow peas to a line of seven products including lentils, �lax, pot barley, pinto beans and white beans, they have seen an encouraging response from retailers. In their �irst eight months of operation, they have their product in 27 stores across the Province including Co-op Marketplace, Save On Foods, and a few Bigway locations around the region. Continued on page 3