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/1508543
SOURCES: TMX GROUP, ROBERT HALF, STATISTICS CANADA, PEW RESEARCH CENTER, FUTURE SKILLS CENTRE, THE GLOBE & MAIL, NEW WEST RECORD, GEEKWIRE, UBC, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LAW AND PSYCHIATRY, IPSOS, CITY OF VICTORIA, GHOSTLY VANCOUVER, VANCOUVER ISLAND FREE DAILY, HELLOSAFE, BC HYDRO G O F I G U R E OF BCERS BELIEVE IN GHOSTS HAVE STAYED IN A REPORTEDLY HAUNTED HOTEL WOULD ACTIVELY CHOOSE A HAUNTED HOTEL IF THEY HAD THE CHANCE Number of haunted destinations listed on a walking map offered on the City of Victoria website: 10 NUMBER OF HAUNTED DESTINATIONS INCLUDED ACROSS GHOSTLY VANCOUVER'S THREE WALKING TOURS: 26 B.C. residents budgeted a combined $224 million for Halloween spending in 2022 HALLOWEEN SPENDING WAS UP 28.4% FROM 2021, NATIONALLY Last year, B.C. farms produced 6,727 tonnes of pumpkins across 755 acres TOTAL VALUE: $4,174,000 A 2021 BC Hydro survey on "mega displays" found that about 1/4 of B.C. households now decorate their homes as much or more for Halloween as they do for Christmas 7% of BCers have seen a UFO 17% support the creation of a task force to protect against alien invasion TOP: CHRISTOPHER AMAT AND DEVON ROGERS OCTOBER 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 13 39% 14% 17% Full Plate Kelowna-based Nugu's sustainable homeware is breaking barriers for craftwork in India and Canada by Rushmila Rahman S M A L L B U S I N E S S L ike many immigrants, husband and wife Sumanth Sampath and Sonali Sharma were looking for better opportunities when they moved from India to Canada. More specifically, they wanted to make Nugu, their sustain- able homeware brand, well, sustainable. Originally launched in a remote South Indian village in 2017, Nugu collaborates with local communities to build mi- crofactories specializing in ceramic dinnerware and handmade tiles. "When Sumanth and I met, because of his career as a potter, we had a lot of opportuni- ties to visit large ceramic factories and craft communities," says Shar- ma, who spent over 10 years working in India's education sector prior to launching Nugu. "It was a very insightful and devastating experience." Sharma contends that the big factories that typically supply products to premium homeware brands around the world generate enormous waste and damage craft com- munities by trying to mass produce at a cheap cost. As a result, Indigenous craftspeople in places like Nugu (which is a forest range in Karnataka) are forced out of their communi- ties and exploited. "There's no value for the craft and crafts- people," says Sharma, "and that is why craftspeople are poor globally." By building a microfac- tory near a forest, Nugu had to adopt sustainable prac- tices: it produces zero waste, employs local crafts- people and is supporting the construction of an agroforest to sequester carbon. The Indian hos- pitality industry jumped in: Nugu (the brand) became a go-to for big names like JW Mar- riott, Radisson and Westin, and Sharma even won The Times of India's Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2020. And then the pandemic hit. "We were shut down for almost a year," says Sharma, because Nugu was primarily serving players in hospitality. Luckily, Sampath and Sharma soon discovered Van- couver-based Spring Activator's Startup Visa program, which helps impact businesses move to Canada. They bootstrapped Nugu with $200,000, incorpo- rated it in Kelowna and started partnering with companies like Indigo and U.S.-based Made Trade. Spring also helped Nugu step into retail with Kelowna- based furniture brand Tree- house Interiors: "This was their third order with us in the past four months," says Sharma. Within six months of launching an e-commerce store here, Nugu made $65,000 in revenue. Sampath and Sharma also started applying for grants and releasing new homeware products. "We recently did a pop-up in [Orchard Park mall]," Sharma reports, "and the most surprising feedback we got from visitors was that our prod- ucts are so reasonably priced." As pandemic restrictions eased, Nugu's business with hospitality brands in India picked up. But as a sustainable microfactory, it aims to cap production at 30,000 pieces a month. "We want to raise funds and build another microfactory here," says Sharma. In fact, the founders are already in talks with Indigenous leaders in B.C. "It's actually possible to have a ceramic factory where you're producing no waste." £ DISHING IT OUT When the pandemic stacked every odd against them, co-founders Sumanth Sampath and Sonali Sharma moved their sustainable homeware brand from India to Canada to survive