to ice cream cone. Popular start-up ice cream maker ... your business because start-ups are so expensive ... With produc
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GROWING NEWS
CULTIVATING MORE WAYS TO PROFIT IN AGRICULTURE AND FOOD
2016
Investing in productivity and jobs Cornell Creme: from dairy farm to ice cream cone
Garson’s perogy king Perfect Pierogies’ sales set to sizzle
Old fashioned hard work–and recipes–are leading a small town perogy company into the big leagues of food retailing. “All of our recipes were derived from old ones that were handed down from generation to generation,” said James Aitkenhead, owner of Perfect Pierogies in Garson. “We’ve always strived for quality and consistency, which allows us to produce a high quality product and have it ready for mass consumption.”
Lisa Dyck has ramped up production at Cornell Creme. Popular start-up ice cream maker expands production Early on in her company’s life, Cornell Creme founder Lisa Dyck was given some good advice: don’t grow too fast. Her handcrafted artisan, premium ice creams had quickly found an eager audience. Restaurants and retailers were literally lining up to sell the delicious flavours all made in small batches from milk from her family’s Cornell Dairy farm located near Anola. “Managing our growth was one of our biggest challenges,” Dyck recently told a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce meeting. “We wanted to develop a strong brand with our ice cream and that meant we couldn’t sacrifice our quality.” The story of Cornell Creme is becoming well known now. Lisa and her husband William Dyck are second generation dairy farmers. They milk 120 cows producing nearly 98,000 litres of milk a month. Lisa enjoyed making ice cream that was free from additives and preservatives at home for her two kids. Family and friends urged her to make more, so she did and founded her company in 2013.
Starting with artisanal flavours including Natural Vanilla Bean, Velvety Chocolate Truffle, Lemon Meringue and Malty Ale Pail, Dyck began by making small batches at the University of Manitoba. They moved some of their production to Notre Dame Creamery in Notre Dame de Lourdes. Cornell Creme is now expanding its footprint and production capacity at Notre Dame where they’ll be producing ice cream two days a week. “We quickly realized that we needed to apply for funding,” said Dyck. “You have to do a lot of work, but it’s definitely worth it: it’s a chunk of money that you can throw towards your business because start-ups are so expensive, especially in food production.” The program calls for the investment to be cost shared, so Dyck had to come up with her own capital first. Working with an additional $100,000 from Growing Forward 2, Dyck purchased and installed a continuous freezing ice cream machine along with a walk-in freezer. She also bought new machinery to mix ingredients to produce Cornell’s mouth watering flavours. The new equipment means the company’s capacity will shift from 200 to nearly 800 litres an hour. And the plant meets all Canadian Food Inspection Agency standards, which means Cornell Creme can sell to larger customers both inside and outside the province.
Substantial lift to businesses “This project is an excellent example of how existing Manitoba companies can work together to increase production,” said Jeff Fidyk, business development specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. “By working together, both processors are able to maximize potential production without the need to invest in a brand new facility.” Many of the projects funded through the Growing Value program have led to greater automation in food processing, which leads to more efficiency and productivity. That, in turn, has Dyck forecasting substantial lifts to her business. “A lot of the projects that we have supported have been capital projects (new equipment and facility upgrades),” Fidyk said. “We didn’t really foresee that the capital side would have the substantial uptake that it did. It says there’s a definite need and opportunity for investment in Manitoba.” For Cornell Creme, the funding means that many stores and restaurants that have been on the company’s waiting list can now become customers. That’s important not just for Cornell, but for the province’s dairy industry as a whole. And it also means more people will be enjoying her amazing ice cream. n
With products already on sale in more than 20 retail outlets in Manitoba, including at major retailers such as Canada Safeway, Sobeys and Co-op, Aitkenhead saw that increasing demand and larger orders meant they were reaching productive capacity. The problem would grow worse in December and January when high seasonal demand called for the company to stockpile inventory.
We saw that in order for us to reach out to bigger customers, we needed pallets on hand ready for shipment. “We saw that in order for us to reach out to bigger customers, we needed pallets on hand ready for shipment,” he said. His production line can produce anywhere from 3,500 to 5,000 perogies an hour, but that exceeded his freezing capacity, so he applied for funding under the Growing Value program to build a bigger freezer. With a $21,000 investment, he added a blast freezer, which boosted freezing capacity from 400 dozen per day to up to 1,000 dozen per day. The company anticipates significant production efficiencies as a result, which will help it lower its production costs at the same time. “This allows us to run the perogy machine longer. It also enabled us to talk with bigger customers with some assurance that we have enough stock on hand,” said Aitkenhead. It will also expand employment at his company. Founded in 2006 with five people working two days a week, the company now has 16 people working full time and Aitkenhead expects the growth should continue. n
