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/1494678
READ THIS As psychedelics start to revolutionize wellness, Amanda Siebert's latest book couldn't come at a better time. The Vancouver author penned Pysched: Seven Cutting- Edge Pyschedelics Changing the World to showcase how average people can benefit from the use of substances like psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine. Once feared or misunderstood, these items are now being recognized as powerful keys to healing and human improvement, offering solutions for mental health issues including PTSD and depression. Siebert, who previously wrote The Little Book of Cannabis: How Marijuana Can Improve Your Life, explores the history, culture and potential of seven different psychedelic substances that are changing how drugs are perceived today. Greystone Books, 216 pages, paperback, $21.95 £ shops were bare. "COVID en- couraged British Columbians to go fishing," says Owen Bird, the executive director of the Sport Fishing Institute of B.C. The number of freshwater fishing licences the provincial govern- ment sold in 2020 increased by 6 percent over 2019, according to the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. That's despite a 93-percent decrease in sales of U.S. and international angling licences. On the salt water side—which is managed by the federal government—licence sales declined slightly in 2020, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. But in 2021, the most current year available, the agency sold a record number. And all those anglers were buying fishing gear right when the shops were running short of inventory. A handful of companies dominate the fishing tackle market, and approximately 95 percent of manufacturing is done in Asia. By the summer of 2020, those overseas factories were struggling to restart while ships sat at anchor, unable to find containers to move goods to North America. Fishing tackle shops sold out. "There was a need for locally made and locally sourced product," Leung says. From lures, he diversified into making bait for prawn fishing as well as fishing weights and rods. Armed with catalogues, he started walking into stores, big and small. "Ev- ery single one welcomed me," Leung says. "I had the head of a Canadian Tire tell me, 'Bring in whatever you want.'" The supply chain issues created an opening, notes Don Mah, the Langley store manag- er for Steveston Marine. "When it's the only thing on the shelf, customers have no choice but to buy it," he says. "When they catch fish with it, they come back. Customers now come in looking for Westcoast Fishing Tackle." It helps that the lures are higher quality—Leung up- graded to stainless steel bodies and hooks rather than use the usual tin or brass. The lures cost twice as much as the com- petition's but Leung stands by the quality of his product. Mah's clients back Leung up. "I have customers coming into the store telling me they've caught 15 fish on the same Westcoast Fishing Tackle lure and it still looks mint," he says. As Leung's reputation grew, he realized his original goal: col- laborating with some of B.C.'s best known fishing guides and stores on custom lures. Leung credits a good portion of his success to that collaboration. "Retailers are a wealth of information," he says. "I was humble and sincere—they took me under their wing and I just listened. 'This is what we like. This is what customers like. This is what you can do better.'" Their feedback con- vinced him that just dropping off inventory is not a business strategy that leads to success anymore. "You need to work together with retailers to build brand awareness and drive cus- tomers to their store," he says. That cooperation added up to fast growth. From about $100,000 in sales in 2020, the business grew to more than $700,000 in 2022. Leung hired his first, and still only, employee to help with sales in 2021. WCFT is now in every Canadian Tire on the B.C. coast and most of the specialty retail shops, too. Cabela's, one of the largest angling retail stores in North America, is dedicating more than 20 percent of the lure walls in its Abbotsford and Nanaimo stores to Leung's products. "They bought every- thing," Leung says. To keep up with demand, in 2022 he moved most of the manufacturing to China, though he's keeping his Van- couver garage workshop for research and development and custom lure projects. Even with Vanwest Charters back on the road, WCFT will remain his focus. Like any good angler, Leung knows that reeling a fish into the boat is all about main- taining contact. Selling fishing gear is no different. £ ( the informer ) G O F I G U R E GO FIGURE: ISTOCK 16 BCBUSINESS.CA MARCH/APRIL 2023 15.3% 20.3% Wire Learning The BCNET Connect summit will bring IT experts to Vancouver this April 25-27 to discuss high-tech plans for boosting higher-ed research—so we've rounded up a few more ways education is changing in B.C. and beyond by Melissa Edwards Growth of the Canadian edtech market in 2021 Expected compound annual growth to 2026 VANCOUVER HAS THE 2ND LARGEST AR/VR BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM IN THE WORLD 38% are active in the education space In a 2022 Ipsos study of 29 countries, Canadians were the 3rd least likely to say they would be comfortable using VR/AR in their daily lives 20,000+ Number of photos used by the UBC Emerging Media Lab in collaboration with Vancouver- based VR studio Metanaut to build a virtual "field trip" of Stanley Park for geography students Surrey-based AI developer Virtro uses 68 different "virtual humans" to deliver contextual learning in media relations, de-escalation, job readiness for refugees and technical skills development