As the extent of the COVID-19 catastrophe became clear last spring, Toronto entrepreneur Marcus Fraser thought first of his family, then he thought of his friends, worried what this would mean for all of them.
“My third thought was, ‘Oh crap, I’m out of business,'” he said.
Fraser makes high-end clothing. He imports material from China and sells to retailers across North America.
In that instant, he knew retail sales were about to be decimated, international shipping would grind to a halt. But then, he imagined a path forward.
“I know how to do stuff; I know how to import things,” he said. “I know how to make things. And guess what, we need things.”
Fraser initially thought ‘oh crap, I’m out of business,’ then realized that his expertise in imports and garments could be of use. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
So, Fraser started hustling. Within days, he was scrambling to get a whole new line of products made and ready for what he assumed would be a wave of demand. He says there’s notthat muchdifference between hooded sweatshirts and surgical gowns.
“We just picked up and started making materials,” he said. “Gown contracts started to come in. Mask contracts started to come in and we just forged ahead.”
Today, his company has sold more than 300,000 gowns for use in hospitals across Ontario. He’s sold another 100,000 masks. He’s expanded too — landing a contract to put a series of vending machines in Toronto transit hubs to supply masks, PPE and what the machine bills as other “stay safe essentials.”
“This is probably the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever been part of,” said Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association.
“I call it the largest peace-time mobilization of Canada’s industrial capacity.”
I just went to pick up mask prototypes from @WoodbridgeGroup in Vaughan. <br><br>They’re working around the clock to get PPEs in production for front line staff.<br><br>I’m driving them to <a href=”https://twitter.com/McMasterU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@McMasterU</a> in Hamilton who stepped up to evaluate them ASAP.<br><br>This is us. No wasted hours. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/StepUp?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#StepUp</a> <a href=”https://t.co/rVJMslUUAK”>pic.twitter.com/rVJMslUUAK</a>
He put out a call to his members in March. Plants had been shut down to prevent the spread of the virus. Volpe asked who would be willing to retool their assembly lines to make medical equipment. He called on people in his industry to “do our part and step up“.
He was overwhelmed by the response. Dozens of companies answered the call, which he says they should be immensely proud of.
Volpe says the great retooling of industrial capacity is a shining example of just how creative and how flexible Canadian companies really are.
“Canadians understand now better than they used to that there’s dignity in making things,” he said.
WATCH | How automakers retooled to respond to pandemic needs:
Flavio Volpe, of the Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association says dozens of companies retooled their entire production lines to build life saving equipment. He calls it the biggest peacetime industrial mobilization in Canadian history. 0:59
Flexibility on display
Economists agree. The health of any economy can be measured in terms of productivity gains, in entrepreneurship and technological innovation. In report after report, Canada has lagged behind.
Bloomberg ranked Canada 22nd on its innovation index. Productivity rankings of G7 countries places Canada below the G7 average.
So, experts like Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the conference board of Canada, see the pivots companies made last spring as a hopeful example of what’s possible.
Workers at Mitchell Plastics, an auto parts company with a factory in Kitchener, Ont., have retooled their production line to make face shields for health care workers. The company can make about 18,000 a day. (Nick Purdon/CBC)
“For a lot of Canadians, myself included, I never would have thought we could see such a transition in manufacturing,” he said. Volpe says he always knew these companies could be responsive — and it was never just about keeping the businesses afloat.
“I think at their core, they want it to show everybody how committed they were to their workforce and the families that work for them and to their own families,” he said.
That’s not to say it’s all been smooth. Distillers, who had pivoted their operations to produce hand sanitizer and donated tens of thousands of litres, were disappointed when the federal government later signed agreements to buy it from larger suppliers — and not them.
Like other distillers, Tyler Dyck, president Craft Distiller’s Guild of B.C., pivoted from whiskey making to hand sanitizer in March, and donated thousands of litres. Then, the federal government signed agreements to buy sanitizer from larger suppliers. (Curtis Allen/CBC)
Fraser says he’s never worked this hard. He’s entered into a sector he once knew nothing about, selling an entirely new product line to an entirely new clientele. And after all that new business, he says he’s still just filling a giant COVID-sized hole in his books.
“As much as I’ll take the business,” he said, “all it’s doing is replacing business that isn’t there.”
And now, as the crisis drags into its tenth month, Fraser’s filled some of the bigger contracts. Work is starting to slow down again. That existential dread that comes with running a company is creeping back into his thoughts.
“Will we make it?” he asked. “I don’t know.”
But he does know he bought himself time, and maybe helped some people along the way. He used to joke that no one was curing cancer in the fashion industry. Nowadays, he’s not so sure.
“I don’t know if it saved somebody, but it certainly helped somebody.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
