“He would be proud,” said company president Craig Schwindt, who took over the business from his father in 1995 after he passed away suddenly.

“I think he’d be amazed not only how the company has changed, but how agriculture in general has changed.”

Floradale Feed Mill Limited invite their suppliers, friends and family to their 50th anniversary celebration at their mill located on Floradale Road on June 2. [submitted

The first mill was built in 1860 by Thomas Quickfall and served the community as a flour mill. After changing hands several times over the decades, it was purchased by Bowman in 1938 to operate as a custom grain chopping mill to supply local farmers with feed for their livestock.

Schwindt’s father was raised near Floradale, and around 1953 he got a job with Eli Martin at Martin Feed Mill, which sold product to the grist mill in Floradale. It was through that relationship that Schwindt got to know Bowman, and when Bowman decided to sell the mill a few years later, Schwindt was given the opportunity to run his own business.

In 1974, just 12 years later, the plant had outgrown its location in the village and moved from the original wooden structure to its current location, away from the core of the village; it’s undergone several expansions since.

“We grew really quickly,” said Schwindt. “I know the decision was made that if we were going to stay in the business and continue to grow, we needed a new modern facility and we had to have land to expand.”

The company continued to grow in the years that followed. In 1998 they built an additional 240 tons of storage, and two years later a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and 2,000sq.-ft. office was added. In 2011 a new corn storage silo was built with the capacity to hold 210,000 bushels of corn – the equivalent of nearly 27 million apples.

Employing only about six or seven staff in 1962, the company has since grown to about 95 full-time employees, processing some 180,000 metric tonnes of grain per year while making feed from scratch for farmers across southwestern Ontario.
Using computers and following strict industry standards, they combine ingredients such as corn, soybean meal, and various vitamins and minerals to not only formulate standard feed blends for dairy cattle, pigs, and poultry, but they also take pride in their ability to manufacture a range of custom blends based on the specific requirements of each customer.

When Schwindt’s father first bought the property in 1962 there was no delivery service available, but by 1968 the fleet of delivery vehicles had grown to five single-axle trucks, and in 2012 the fleet now sits at 96, delivering grain as far south as Windsor and Sarnia, and forming the backbone of the company.

Schwindt said that one of the biggest changes the company has seen over the decades is the technological advancements made in agriculture. The first computer in their office was installed in 1978, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, said Schwindt, adding his father would be astounded by the use of technology in the industry.

“The computerization of everything from the office, to production, to Blackberrys – the world has changed.”

With new technology comes new industry standards, and Floradale Feed Mill Ltd. prides itself in being an industry leader in that regard. Since 2001 they have been Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certified, meaning they have taken the steps to ensure that wherever problems such as feed contamination can arise, they have mitigated those risk factors.

“We view it as a ticket to play in this league, if you want to call it that,” said Schwindt.

While change has occurred in almost every facet of their business, from processing and trucking to their widespread use of technology, the company still strives to keep moving forward and ensure that their products are of the highest quality, the same as when they first opened their doors 50 years ago.

The 50th anniversary of Floradale Feed Mill is on June 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at their plant just south of Floradale, 2131 Floradale Rd. Visitors can enjoy family activities, historical displays, door prizes and a barbecue lunch that starts at 11 a.m.

For more information visit www.ffmltd.com.

For as far as the eye can see, hostas and a host of varieties of groundcover such as pachysandra (also known as Japanese Spurge) and periwinkle dominate the landscape, and a tranquil creek runs right through the middle of it. It’s a little slice of paradise – but there’s hardly a blade of grass to be seen.

Ross Little holds up a tray of pachysandra at his home on McAllister Drive in Bloomingdale. The retired auto mechanic has spent the past 35 years turning his passion for plants, namely hostas, into a side business. [JAMES JACKSON / THE OBSERVER

“Grass it pretty bad stuff when it comes right down to it.”

Over the past 35 years the couple has turned their passion for plants into a second career as they have been selling hostas and pachysandra out of pots on their driveway to neighbours, friends and family members.
“It just sort of started as a hobby when we moved out here,” said Kathy. “He likes plants. His two brothers also are gardeners and his mother was, so it’s natural for them.”

Their business all got started with one simple question more than three decades ago: “I wonder if I could sell something that I like to do so much for a hobby?” Ross asked his wife.

To find out, he went to a local greenhouse and asked if they had any Pachysandra in stock, and when the owner said no, Ross said he’d like to sell him some. The greenhouse owner agreed to buy five flats the following spring.
“So I rushed home and planted some, and they grew roots, which was a surprise to me,” recalls Ross. The next year he returned to the greenhouse to make good on the deal and the owner paid him $60 – it was the only money Ross would make that first year.

Hostas are very popular for gardeners and homeowners, as they enjoy the wide range of colours and shapes that the different varieties have to offer.
The fact that they’re “virtually impossible” to kill is an attractive feature as well, Ross said.

The only thing they need is water, something that is available in spades in his backyard, which is bisected with a stream that provides all the water he can use, he said.

They call their business Hostas Anytime, and Ross has 146 different varieties of the plant on his property. Kathy said her husband knows where each one is and has a collection of maps and sketches outlining their exact location. They’ve mainly operated through word-of-mouth with neighbours and friends, but about three years ago Ross started putting out signs by Sawmill Road.

The couple grow their own plants on their property, and the work stretches out over all 12 months; whether its potting plants in the spring and fall, caring for them during the hot summer months, or tending to potted plants stored in the garage over the winter, it’s a full-time job for the retired auto body mechanic.

Though for him it isn’t so much a job as it is a hobby.

“When I get up in the morning I don’t have to think ‘oh, what am I going to do today?,’” he said. “I just pick up my shovel and I know what I’m doing.”

The unseasonably warm weather in March brought gardeners out earlier than normal, he said, but much like apple growers who saw heavy losses to their crop when the frost returned in April, Ross and Kathy said that they too saw some losses when the temperatures reached -8 degrees on some nights.

“Much like a farmer growing his crop, we’re at the mercy of the weather,” said Ross. “We’ve got a certain amount of time to get the crop in, hope for good weather, and then we’ve got a certain amount of time to harvest it and the weather has to be on your side.

“With hostas you have a little more control than a planted seed, but you’re at the mercy of the weather all the time.”

As part of their business, the couple also provides free guided tours of their yard to show potential customers just how their plants might look in two to three years, something that is difficult to do when buying a young plant in a pot on the driveway.

“We like to take them out here, show them around, and make new friends. If they buy a plant, that’s a bonus,” said Ross.

“I do it because I love it. The money is just extra.”

For more information about Hostas Anytime, call (519) 576-9407.

“We were operating out of leased space and what we had was more of a storefront with a maximum capacity of two agents. There was no privacy for the agent and their clients to meet and discuss confidential matters and I was really sort of hamstrung with respect to growing Re/Max in Elmira because we did not have space for them,” said Cameron.

For the last four years Cameron has been watching for the perfect opportunity to increase the company’s exposure and give the agents that work in the office a real professional location to work from.

The company has moved into the building that was long-time locale of Reichard’s  Dry Goods  – and most recently home to Inspiring Accents – renovating and redesigning the space to become more client friendly.

“When this location came available I thought it could turn into something good for me,” said Cameron. “I have a lot more space here than I need for my current five agents, but I expect within the next four or five years we will have 10 or 12 agents working here.”

Cameron said this type of real-estate office is something that Elmira needed and believes that Elmira is going to be the place to be in the next 10 years.

Re/Max Solid Gold in Elmira will be holding an open house of its new office on May 17. Front row, Ken Cameron, owner and broker, broker Bert Martin, sales rep. Alli Bauman. Back row, sales rep Paul Martin, sales rep, Bill Norris, assistant Marcia Thompson, receptionist Kelly Seabrok, broker Leon Martin and administrator Chris Cameron. [COLIN DEWAR / THE OBSERVER

“We do get good walk in traffic at this location, but that has always been the case here in Elmira,” said broker Bert Martin, who works in the office. “We are right at street level and have a good exposure for people and it allows them to see who we are and what we are doing.”

Cameron has been in the real estate business for 27 years and has owned Re/Max Solid Gold for 12 years. Over the years he has experienced many ups and downs in the housing market. Unlike the global market over the last few years the recent recession did not affect business for the realtor.

“The recession did not seem to affect the real estate market across the region,” he said. “We have come through it just fine. My theory on it is that our market has always increased steadily, year over year, at four or five per cent in home values.”

The reported end of housing bubble is not something Cameron believes to be true.

“There may be some larger centers in Canada that may experience some pain down the road but I went through a real estate recession in the early 2000s and, over the course of three or four years, properties might have lost 10 per cent of their value but once the market turned around they basically got it all back.”

The real game changer for Cameron and his employees has been the online real estate market as more people turn to listing on their computers instead of walking into real estate offices. Before people arrive at the offices they already know what is available and are capable of viewing a property through photos and videos on real estate websites.

“Five or 10 years ago we may have got five or 10 per cent of our leads through the internet where now it is probably close to 60 per cent come directly from the internet,” said Cameron.

The new office space is 2,200 sq. ft. and offers the current five sale representatives their own offices, meeting rooms. There are plans to develop a conference room in the lower level of the building.

“For the agents that work here it offers them maximum exposure in town on one of the main four corners of the downtown area,” said Cameron. “It also gives them a more professional appearance to the public and when people come through the front door I hope they like what they see. We have tried to make it consumer friendly.”

The office is holding an open house on May 17 to create more exposure in the community. The grand opening will be held from 2-8 p.m., with everyone invited to stop by.

Strategically located for companies whose activities extend beyond Elmira’s borders the park has a direct route accessing a highway for convenient and easy access to the rest of the region, which is valuable asset for many companies located in the park.

Last month, Tri-Mach Group Inc., a major multi-trade contractor and manufacturer of custom food processing equipment, announced it would be relocating its corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility to that location.
Tri-Mach is a full service, turnkey design and solution provider to the food and beverage industry. It provides millwright and electrical services, as well as a fully-equipped stainless steel fabrication and machine shop.

An artist’s rendition of the Tri-Mach Group Inc. new corporate offices located in Elmira. [submitted

“The company custom designs and builds food safe processing equipment to suit any application,” said Michael Hahn, president and CEO of Tri-Mach. “Our group is known for the revolutionary Ever-Kleen conveyor handling systems, a registered design which offers maximum protection in food safety.”

Moving from Kitchener to Elmira just made sense, said Hahn, as the new facility will accommodate the company’s current staff and anticipated future growth.

“We find in the Elmira area, being a farming community, that we get better recruitment for employees, especially people looking to get into the trades, which was a huge driver in our decision to move to the town,” said Hahn. “There are a lot of millwrights and electrical contractors in Elmira and that really helps us with our recruitment.”

“The location also suits our needs, as we needed to expand; we are looking to double in size over the next five years and we will need (people) to make that happen.”

Hahn joined Tri-Mach in January 2000 as part owner of the company. Instantly he began to shift and refocus the direction of Tri-Mach as a multi-trade services provider and was instrumental in bringing the Tri-Mach, Tri-Electric, Tri-Pack and Tri-Build families of brands together under one entity, Tri-Mach Group Inc. in 2006.

The business has more than 60 full-time employees, each trained to be hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) compliant and has completed a food safety and Goods Manufacturing Practices (GMP) training through the Guelph Food Technology Centre.

Over the years Tri-Mach has developed sanitary and food safe equipment as food safety guidelines are an integral part of the company’s policies and procedures that are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure compliance with the latest food safety directives.

The new facility will provide additional space and capacity improving the company’s production efficiency. Moving from a 15,000-square-foot building to a 27,000-sq.-ft. facility almost doubles the space available to the company.
Construction began Mar. 1 at 23 Donway Court, with the steel shell of the building already erected. Tri-Mach is expecting to move into the new facility by the beginning of August.

“We have had explosive growth over the last few years and with sales getting to the point they are now at we just had to make the move to bigger facility and Elmira seemed to be the perfect fit,” said Hahn.

Master Craft’s roots were formed in the 1920s under the name Kitchener Buttons, which would produce intricate wooden buttons for the fashion industry, particularly for suit jackets and overcoats. With the introduction of plastic, the company’s focus turned to producing wooden tuning and volume controls for the radio industry in the 1940s. By the 1960s focus again had changed as the business became the national producer of the famous Yo-Yo.

In the 1970s, Master Craft was incorporated to produce wooden knobs, amongst other wooden turnings, using the specialized technology that had been developed over the prior years. Today the company is a supplier of face-grain knobs and specialty products such as rosettes, key tags, and other forms of discs. They are also well known for their wooden cabinet and furniture knobs. Master Craft’s specialty is the production of face-grain turned wood products, offering more than 20 different styles of wooden knobs, from classic to contemporary, in a variety of woods.

Face grain means the products come out of the face of the wood, with the grain in a plug to run the same way as a board would, which allow the plugs to be covered up easier. Stair and flooring companies use the product when they need to hide screw holes and want something to blend in easier.

Peter Hunter has owned Master Craft Wood Turning for 25 years and moved the business to Elmira in 2002. Over the years Hunter has seen many trends change and has had to re-invent his business to keep up with the times. [COLIN DEWAR / the observer

The company ships more than 50,000 plugs a month.

Master Craft is also a supplier of wooden screw plugs, wooden dowel rods, hardwood dowel rods, and custom wood turnings. They also offer specialty products, such as rosettes, key tags, table legs, chair legs, novelty items and grandfather clock parts.

“When Canadiana was in its height in the 1990s, there were a lot of chairs in the country-style that we were making lots of parts for but that trend has changed to square legs and backs. It is just a fashion change and now we do not do as many chair legs as we use to do,” said Hunter.

The company uses custom-built equipment that work 10 or 11 hours a day churning out screw knobs and floor plugs.

“The largest, most expensive machine in the shop makes the smallest part,” laughs Hunter.

The business still uses many of the original machines from the 1920s to fill smaller custom orders.

“The old machines are very labour intensive and very slow but the reason we keep them is for little jobs that may require only 40 plugs, it is easier to start this up the old machine than one of the larger machines that we have now. Plus the older machines can actually make larger parts than our CNC machines cannot. The old machines allow us to manufacture up to a three-inch disc.”

The business operates with five employees who keep a close eye on the machines in the shop. Each employee is responsible to fill orders for start to end.

“I find it works better to have one person complete a whole project because they know exactly what must be done and when it has to be finished,” said Hunter.

One of the main customers for the business is Home Hardware, for whom they fill dowel orders that are all UPC coded and painted for diameter recognition. Master Craft keeps ahead of the dowel orders by about six weeks, which allows them to ship the same day they receive an order.

All the dowels are manufactured from soft maple brought in from Quebec and New York.

“The nice thing is that is it white, it is straight and strong; some of our competition does not have those qualities to offer,” said Hunter.

The business works with all kinds of lumber, including cherry, oak, ash, walnut, and maple for turning jobs like legs or spindles and knobs.

This May 1 the company will be celebrating a couple of anniversaries. It will be 25 years since Hunter bought the company back in 1987 and 10 years of it operating in Elmira.

The company moved from Kitchener to Elmira when its lease was up in 2001 and Hunter decided the business needed more room and a more modern setting that would create a better flow for his workers. Elmira had the land to be developed and Hunter found the perfect spot in the South Field business park.

“We were the very first ones in the business park and have watched it grow over the years. Elmira is a great little community to do business in.”

Hunter, who worked as a mechanical engineer, always knew he would own his own business and was eventually offered Master Craft.

“The business was a profitable one and had a strong business plan with many clients and it seemed like the right fit at the time,” he explained. “It was easy to step in and carry on with business.”

The company had seen some low times in the early 2000s just after they moved into the new building.

“In 2001 we were very busy making knobs and turnings, and then just after 9/11 the bottom seemed to fall out of our market. Trends changed and when that happened we got lost on the downside, which led to some lean years. It wasn’t until 2008 that we really reinvented ourselves and got the doweling going for our business.”

During the recession of 2008 Master Craft started to pick up more and more business as their competitors closed up shop.

“We managed to pick up customers from businesses that closed and that helped us through the recession. It was their bad fortune that caused us our good fortune. We had to adapt and change with the trends and found our way.”

To that end the annual reThink Waterloo 2012 conference is being held on May 11 with the main focus this year on exploring a sustainable business action plan. The conference is set up to show local businesses how to succeed in the world of greener operations, climate change risk mitigation and business sustainability.

“People need to start looking at their businesses differently and need to ask themselves what do I need to change and what is the new norm in terms of a successful business,” said Antoni Paleshi, programming director of reThink Waterloo. “We are seeing people act more and more towards the green economy as they act more sustainable in their operations and this conference will help them discover new trends and ideas.”

The last conference held in 2009 focused on local businesses taking action towards a sustainable future and featured guest speaker Dr. David Suzuki, who addressed the fundamental crisis of how we see ourselves on this planet and what we can do as individuals to make changes.

This year’s keynote speaker, Andrew Heintzman, is the chair of the Premier’s Climate Change Advisory Panel for the province of Ontario. He is also president and co-founder of Investeco, a Canadian investment company that deals exclusively in the environmental sector. He’ll be speaking about how to create an economy based on green innovation.

The chair of the Premier’s Climate Change Advisory Panel of Ontario, Andrew Heintzman, is the keynote speaker at this year’s reThink Waterloo 2012 conference to be held on May 11. [submitted

Heintzman will be discussing the topic from a macro perspective, touching on where he sees the global economy going and then changing focus by looking at where Canada is heading economically and how that will affect the region.
“In Canada there is a struggle between natural resource developments versus a more innovation-oriented economy. I will be arguing for the merits of innovation, focusing on how local communities can take advantage of some of the innovations available to them,” said Heintzman.

The conference will also include two interactive panel discussions where leading experts and experienced local, national and global organizations will share their stories.

The first panel, moderated by Mike Morrice of Sustainable Waterloo Region, will discuss the implications of climate change on businesses through the perspective of an accountant, a lawyer and an insurer.

“There will be some upcoming implications when it comes to climate change and the panel is set to discuss the legal and insurance implications by giving a professional services perspective on what is going to happen as climate change becomes a more significant issue in the lives of businesses,” said Paleshi. “There are businesses like retailers who may not think that climate change will affect them but it will become significant for that group of people as well.”
The goal of the climate change panel is to have businesses look at their emissions and what steps they need to take to change those practice.

Later in the day a panel discussion about embedding sustainability into business practices will be held concentrating on dealing with the social, economic and environmental implications in a community and the challenges of directing an organization with profit, the planet and people all in mind.

“Climate change is not the only topic that relates to sustainability, there is a social impact as well and the long term viability of a company and all deal with the triple bottom line of social, environmental and economical issues,” said Paleshi. “The idea is to create a project or business that has success in all three areas and what that means.”

After the panel discussions delegates will have the opportunity to share their own stories, discuss solutions to help them overcome some of their business challenges and network with local business professionals.
The conference is expecting over 200 participants comprised of business leaders in the region interested in developing their businesses towards a more sustainable future.

The event will be held on May 11 at the Waterloo Inn starting at 8 a.m. Tickets for the event are $125 per person and all proceeds will be donated to the charity All Our Relations Hospice and Retreat Centre. For more information visit the website www.rethinkwaterloo.org.

The app is the brainstorm of John Francis, president of ACareerJob, who came up with the idea while standing in line at the grocery store.

“I had been on a train a few days before going to Toronto and I saw everyone with their Blackberrys and I know everyone is mobile and there has to be a way of interacting with them,” said Francis. “Then I found myself at the checkout at a grocery store and for some reason I noticed a singles wanted ad so I started thinking if I could take the idea of the singles ad, apply it to the mobile devices for jobs searchers and employers and make it so that the search is direct.”

There were two main issues Francis wanted to address with the app. He knew that companies used newspapers and online job boards to post jobs but that would generate a slew of résumés more than they could handle and very few proper matches.

“Companies would be getting close to 500 résumés but that is not saving time or money and can be a big issue for companies looking for the right person to employ,” he said.
For the applicants who send in a résumé, they don’t know if the company received or if they are still hiring, so Francis wanted to change that as well.

John Francis came up with the idea for the app while standing in line at a grocery store, sparked by singles’ ads. It took more than a year to develop the app which, was launched at the beginning of this month. [COLIN DEWAR / THE OBSERVER

“What the single ads do from my understanding is someone creates a profile saying what they are looking for and the responding person that matches all the criteria contacts them and I figured a company can do the same thing with potential hires. The problem right now with all the popular job sites is that they work off the résumé, so if an applicant was an architect 15 years ago and they put it on the résumé and an architectural company is looking to hire someone that résumé will be sent to them even though the applicant is no longer in that field.”

For employers, the app’s focused search ensures only qualified professionals whose credentials match the employer’s specified job criteria are connected. For professionals seeking new employment, the app helps them job-search while directing them to career opportunities that match their defined interests and skill sets.

Applicants make a profile with general information, the job they are looking for and include how long they have worked in a certain industry or field. They then upload a résumé but the program only uses the criteria in the profile to match jobs with people. If a match is made an employer can have access to the résumé to have further look at the candidate.

“Basically a person looking for work puts up a profile and is contacted by a company that is looking for the criteria that is in that profile,” said Francis.

An email is sent to all applicants when a job with their criteria is posted and vice a versa for companies, this allows companies the opportunity to view five to 10 résumés, not 500 and give applicants the chance to review the company to see if it is a right fit for them as well.

“I find it frustrating that the overall system to date with online job searches is not user friendly for applicants,” said Francis. “When people post résumés to a websites that is a lot of personal information out there that should be treated with respect but with the current system it just becomes a pile of résumés where as our app contacts people when there is a strong match for employer and applicant.”

It can be very frustrating for job seekers who do not know where jobs are or if they resumes have even be read, says Francis, adding the app allows users to know that their résumé has been seen and that it is not one of 500 but one of five and which companies have looked at the résumé and how to contact them.

“If I have a company and receive an email from a potential hire who is interested in the company that shows me initiative,” he said. “Companies don’t want hundreds of people contacting them, but five or 10, that is not a problem.”
The app was released at the beginning of April and is iPhone, Blackberry and Android friendly.

“The online sites are primarily a web-based platform, where our vision was always to set up as an app for mobile devices and the web side is a secondary component. Our whole aim is to make it mobile.”
Feedback from users of the app have been positive, said Francis, adding it is the quickness of the app to upload a profile that most people prefer.

“The aim is to make it quick and easy for users to upload the information to a profile as it only takes two or three minutes to finish.”

The app is free to download and does not cost applicants anything to upload a profile. For employers there is a six-month free trial where they can upload as many job opportunities with no future fees attached to those postings. After the trial period one job posting will cost $280 but can be revised or amended at anytime.
For more information on the app visit www.ACareerJob.net.

A gasfitter and refrigerator mechanic, Tim Chappell, is very busy installing gas lines for barbecues all across the region in anticipation of summer. [Colin Dewar / The observer

Tim Chappell, owner of Elmira Home Comfort (EHC), has been working overtime installing gas lines for clients. Chappell is a gasfitter and refrigerator mechanic and provides installations for furnaces, air conditioners, water heaters, fireplaces, barbecue lines and gas piping. He also installs gas and propane stoves and dryers.

The business has been operating in Elmira since September 2010, and Chappell says he has been very fortunate so far with the support from the community for both the installation and sales side of his business. EHC’s showroom is located at 1 Union St. and offers over 3,000 feet of display space with the appliance sales in the store being steady all year round said Chappell.  The business offers a full line of appliances including refrigerators, stoves, freezers, dishwashers, washers and dryers both new and used with brand names such as Whirlpool, Inglis, General Electric, Danby and Frigidaire. The business also provides installation for HVAC equipment and acts as the depot for Sears catalogue pickups, which helps bring in new customers.

“It is an open concept like an indoor sidewalk mall and we find that the flow of traffic in the mall always lead to us,” said Chappell. “The community has been great and we have had a lot of support. We always thought that Elmira could use a store like this that sells the appliances and has the installation services we offer too. ”

A former truck driver, Chappell made the move to become a gasfitter when he decided he wanted a career and not a job. “I had a friend in the trade and he brought me along on a couple of his jobs and it seemed interesting to me so I decided to take the plunge. Every day is something different – it can be a broken furnace where I will either fix it or put a new one in or installing a gas line,” he said.

Chappell’s father-in-law, Dave Robb, runs Belmont Appliance and the two companies work hand in hand, with Belmont taking care of the service side while EHC does the installation side. “We have a very large Mennonite clientele, from my father-in-law being in the business for so long. Now that we have been open for just over a year we are starting to see some repeat customers – that is a good sign.” With 10 years of experience as a gasfitter, Chappell said there have been many changes over the years, especially with furnaces, as older ones are not energy efficient.

“Anything that goes up the chimney of a house is about 50 to 60 per cent efficient whereas the new models are roughly 96 per cent energy efficient,” said Chappell. “With the older models, 50 cents out of every dollar spent on gas goes out the chimney, but with the new furnaces it is just five cents that is lost. They have come a long way but nothing is made like it use to be; just like appliances, you won’t get 30 years out of a furnace anymore but you won’t get 30 years out of anything anymore either.”

Chappell said it’s all about new technology saving his customers money and that allows his customers to run their furnaces, air conditioners or other appliances at a minimal cost. This is a busy season for Chappell as he is installing numerous gas lines for barbecues across the region, including Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Elmira and the surrounding towns and villages. “When we have a good solid warm spell we will be getting a lot of calls for air conditioners and that looks like it may happen earlier this year with the warmer weather we have been experiencing,” he said. “Once people turn on their air conditioners and realize they are not working that is when we get busy.”

This past winter was slow for the company as it was way above seasonal and the company depends on cold winters and hot summers “If mother nature does not agree with us it does not work out so well for us, but on the flip-side the warmer weather starting sooner will give us a better spring and summer this year.”

The two friends said they saw an opportunity in  being the first massage therapists in the area, as Breslau continues to grow and more businesses come into the neighbourhood. “Instead of living in Kitchener and working there, more and more people are opting to move to Breslau to raise their kids,” said Rahn, adding the proposed GO station will be giving the community a boost.  “Breslau is the new bedroom community. It is perfectly centered for people who work in Elmira, Guelph or Cambridge there are a lot of opportunities here and we are taking advantage of that.”

Darlene Rahn (left) and Shari Koudijs are the owners of Achieve Balance, a massage therapy clinic in Breslau. The two therapists specialize in a range of different massage techniques for their clients. [COLIN DEWAR / THE OBSERVER

The store offers two massage rooms, an ultra sound room and rehab area for cancer patients who do not have a large range of motion and the therapist teach them how to use weights, exercise mats and rollers to increase their range.
Koudijs started in the profession in 1999 while working with amputees and was impressed with the quick results she was seeing with the scar tissue, allowing her clients to put their prosthetics on much faster than if they just let it heal on their own.

“It was seeing those results that brought me to the profession, being able to help someone and make a difference was what I was seeking professionally.” For Rahn it was being a marathon runner that led her to massage therapy.

“I would go in to see the therapist, unable to bend over and touch my toes, and when I would come out I could touch my toes. I thought that this was satisfaction and being able to help somebody that quickly, it just drew me in,” she explained.
Both therapists tout the benefits of massage, saying it boosts the circulation and the immune system. They emphasize many relaxation techniques to their clients, most of whom work at desks and develop bad posture.
“We alleviate the effects of stress and train them on developing a better posture at work or home,” said Rahn. “The world piles on the stress and when you come here we take it all away.”
Only open for a month the business already has quite a diverse clientele, and the two women have received some very positive feedback from the community.

“It has been great, everyone who comes here has been really optimistic and they enjoy the fact that we are in the community and are able to just walk on over,” said Koudijs.
Both therapists are also working in other areas of the region they are currently only seeing clients by appointment only with online booking available at www.achievebalance.ca. The therapists can also be reached at (519) 213-0185

“We realize our customers lead very busy lives, so we wanted our customers to be able to conveniently access Home’s online tools from anywhere,” said Paul Straus, president and CEO of Home Hardware Stores Ltd.
Customers will find a world of possibilities in the app, which gives users the ability to find their closest store, search and navigate over 60,000 products, get local prices, view the current flyer, and create a shopping list – all on their mobile device. There is also a unit converter capable of converting length, mass, area, volume and temperature.

Home Hardware marketing manager Kathy Philippe (back, left), retail applications development manager Mat Nadrofsky (back, right), senior programmer Jason Down (front, left) and programmer Scott Boettger (front, right) are part of the programming team behind the new Home Hardware mobile apps that have launched this year. [JAMES JACKSON / The OBSERVER

“It didn’t take very long. We work with our in-house folks and worked directly with the companies. Apple is a little more stringent in their expectations, so that’s why their’s didn’t launch as quickly as the others.”
Social media is the newest buzz-word in terms of marketing, and digital consumers are showing that they are hungry for applications that allow them to interact with brands, while providing them with unique and useful content.
Apple has more than half a million apps in its app store and more than 25 billion downloads since it launched in July of 2008.

Google Android isn’t far behind, either, with some 450,000 apps available and more than one billion downloads per month from the Android Market, which also launched in 2008. Blackberry also boasts some six million downloads per day through its App World, and has accumulated about two billion downloads since it launched in 2009.

“More and more people are making decisions and doing look-ups from handhelds no matter where they are,” said Baillie. “So it made sense for us to have a format that can tweak the desktop version to a readable option online for the mobile.”

The company has also embraced social media as a way of reaching customers, with many of the company’s 1,000 independent dealer-owners operating their own Twitter and Facebook accounts to reach their customers.
“Just walk around a mall and every second person is texting or talking on a phone. And as we all get more involved in social media you’re checking out your Facebook page or your Twitter account.”