50 BCBusiness September 2014
Say this for Kalpna Solanki: the
owner of Marvin's Marvelous
has dealt with every change-
up and bean ball and keeps on
swinging. In addition to theft
and a change of products, her
company, FX Foods, was the vic-
tim of a disputed call that could
have thrown them right out of
the game.
Pick up a package of Marvin's Marvel-
ous Naturals Pumpkin Seed Cranberry
Granola and read the label: "Marvelous
as a breakfast cereal with vanilla yogurt
and fresh fruit." Seems simple enough.
But the wording is specific, and with
good reason. An earlier version of the
slogan cost FX Foods approximately
$20,000 and a lot of work.
"It used to read: 'Marvelous with
vanilla yogurt and fresh fruit,'" says FX
Foods owner Solanki. Then in 2012 the
company was audited by the Canada
Revenue Agency. "They said, 'You don't
have the word 'breakfast' on this label,'"
Solanki says. "I said, 'Well, it's granola.
That's breakfast cereal.'"
The
CRA disagreed. If it doesn't say
"breakfast," Solanki was told, it's a
snack. And snacks, unlike breakfast, are
GST (and at the time HST) eligible. Solanki
was assessed back taxes of about $5,000
(her distributor Left Coast Naturals was
hit harder, close to $70,000). Recalling
and repackaging all her granola lines
cost an estimated $10,000 to $15,000.
operations, the right people. It
would be a lot easier."
Platt is also casting a wary eye
at Canada Post. With 90 per cent
of her business outside Canada,
she relies on them for pickup and
delivery. "We're not sure if that is
going to change," she says. "Using
couriers makes brokerage and cus-
toms issues more complicated."
Pamela Baxter lives on the
North Shore, where she runs Cas-
cadia Gluten-Free, making granola
and cookies. Her location issues
do not involve employees—she's
the entire company—but finding
proper facilities. Unlike Solanki's
Marvin's Marvelous line, Baxter
uses nuts. And unlike Solanki,
her operation is too small to per-
mit a commercial kitchen—she
must use a shared facility. "I need
a production kitchen that allows
nuts, but not gluten," she says; it's
essential she can assure custom-
ers that no cross-contamination
is possible. When she runs out of
product she must wait her turn at
the kitchen. "I'm out of cookies at
the moment," Baxter says. "I have
to wait for my slot."
As for Platt, she still feels the
pluses outweigh the minuses in
the Cowichan Valley. "If I had
stayed in Vancouver it would be
a little easier," she says, "but I'd
have a completely different kind of
company. I wanted to hire stay-at-
home moms and that's what I've
been able to do. I've been able to
forge my own path—my locale has
made the business what it is."
Ump!
★
A DIFFERENT VIEW
Christina Platt prefers
her new locale.
He
Y
