With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1254353
24 BCBUSINESS JUNE 2020 A A R O N C H I N AGE: 29 CEO, Organika Health Products LIFE STORY: As a kid, Aaron Chin would make money by selling hockey cards outside the 7-Eleven near his Richmond home. Although he always wanted to work for the family business, he's grateful that his father, Organika founder Thomas Chin, never forced him. The younger Chin joined the company in 2014, after earning a BA in political science at UBC and a master of international business management from France's Grenoble Graduate School of Business. Chin, who worked his way up through purchasing and sales before being named CEO last year–when his brother Jordan became president and COO–says Organika needed a shakeup. Five years ago, to appeal to younger consumers, it moved from supplements and vitamins to powders. The vertically integrated company, which makes its own products to control quality, launched Canada's first collagen and bone broth powders. Unlike most of its rivals, Richmond-based Organika has grown as a result, Chin says. "We've been able to pivot compared to other brands we used to compete with that rely on pills and vitamins." In an industry where decision makers are typically Caucasians in their 50s and 60s, Chin says being young is an advantage because he's quick to adapt and to recognize trends. Another plus: "You go into every meeting with the mindset that you have to prove yourself even more." BOTTOM LINE : Designated an essential business, Organika has seen a big sales boost from COVID-19. "It's rock- ing," Chin says. Besides retailing online, the 140-employee company sells at more than 5,000 stores across Canada, including Costco and Shoppers Drug Mart. In March, it entered the snack food category with another Canadian first: a low-carb, low-sugar, high-fat collagen cookie. Organika, which has posted 27-percent compound annual revenue growth for the past three years, is pushing to get on the shelves of a major Chinese grocery chain. It's also kicked off the registration process in Europe, where French supermarket giant Carrefour and other retailers have shown interest. –N.R. B E T H A N Y M c N E I L L AGE: 29 Founder + CEO, MB Pension and Benefits Group LIFE STORY: Bethany McNeill credits her athletic career for foster- ing the teamwork and leadership skills she's used to start and run her insur- ance brokerage firm, MB Pension and Benefits Group, which does business as Momentum Benefits. The North Vancouver native played basketball for Thompson Rivers University before transferring to St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, where she helped the women's rugby team to two national championships. She didn't know where her psychology degree would take her after graduat- ing in 2013, but her competitive fire and fearlessness primed her for starting a business. McNeill entered the insurance industry by happenstance–London Life Insurance Co. (now known as Canada Life Assurance Co.) was the first employer to contact her after she sent out job applications. She discovered a niche providing special- ized benefit plans for construction companies in B.C. and Alberta, so in 2016 she started her own brokerage company and worked through a cold- call list of potential clients. BOTTOM LINE : Momentum, which has grown to six team mem- bers and more than 100 clients, has an office in North Vancouver and one in Calgary. The brokerage is undergoing verification to become one of two in Canada to earn B Corporation certifi- cation for its social and environmental performance. "If we get it, we'll be the first owned and operated by an all-female team," McNeill says. –D.H. S A R A H H E N D E R S O N AGE: 29 Founder, Hudson and Oak LIFE STORY: On her family's farm in Abbotsford, Sarah Henderson grew up exploring the woods with her dogs and selling blueberries to farmers passing by on tractors. Henderson's father is Indigenous; generations of systemic oppression, along with alcoholism on his side of the family and a history of mental illness on her mother's, made for a home environ- ment that was challenging at times. "It's something I don't talk about too often, but it's important," she says. After earning a degree in marketing management from BCIT, Henderson moved to Alberta, where she worked as a government assis- tant by day and a server by night, saving up enough money to buy a condo back in her hometown. She began to express a love for home decor, which led to the launching of her first line of fibreglass planters on Etsy in 2018. BOTTOM LINE : Hudson and Oak's gross sales more than doubled in its second year of business. In 2019, the company's collaboration with designer Jillian Harris sold out twice, and its list of celebrity customers includes singer Michael Bublé and reality TV star Scott Disick. During the pandemic, Henderson's online sales have increased, and she's offering virtual plant styling sessions and focusing on outdoor plant design. "My background is important, espe- cially being First Nations," she says. "You don't have to live in the cycle of what your parents have done–the sky's the limit." –A.H. 3 0 U N D E R T H I R T Y Sarah Henderson Bethany McNeill Aaron Chin