Our people are our greatest asset is a nice saying but imagine if they were your only asset?
That was basically the situation Brad Johnson and Tamara Ensio Johnson faced when they started Mont Echo Naturels in 2007.
“In our business, we have to do everything from farming to processing, from packaging to marketing and from wholesaling to retailing,” said Tamara.
“That means having skills in growing, in the lab, at web design and marketing. If we’d had to go out and hire people with those skills, we’d have been sunk cost-wise before we ever got up and running.”
Read Also
Agri-business and farms front and centre for Alberta’s Open Farm Days
Open Farm Days continues to enjoy success in its 14th year running, as Alberta farms and agri-businesses were showcased to increase awareness on how food gets to the dinner plate.
The lab reference tells you this isn’t your typical farm business but every farm needs to focus on its people strengths.
Mont Echo grows sea buckthorn and processes the oil into skin care products. Sea buckthorn is called the super fruit because it contains an extraordinarily long list of bioactive compounds such as omega oils and antioxidants.
Sea buckthorn liqueurs, juice and health food products are popular in Europe.
It was Tamara’s dad, Mark, who first got interested in the plant, which produces tightly packed clusters of tart yellow-orange berries and nasty spikes.
Mark had tried sea buckthorn liqueur when visiting relatives in Finland and remembered the plant when he started a hobby farm on the family acreage near Sutton, Que.
A businessman, Mark Ensio wanted something that needed little tending and could survive the area’s harsh winters. After consulting Finnish experts, he imported four varietals, 150 plants in all, in 2003.
He also asked his son-in-law, a food biochemist, to research ways to process the berries.
“He got me interested enough to start looking at the biochemical and processing potential and that’s when light bulbs started going on in my head,” said Brad.
Extracting sea buckthorn’s nutrient-rich oil is difficult, especially if you want to avoid using chemical solvents. But Brad found another way, a process called super-critical fluid extraction, which uses only high pressure and carbon dioxide.
This was when the family started thinking about a sea buckthorn business and the talent base they had. Mark, the hobby farmer, had some growing experience, Brad had biochemistry, Tamara’s background was in marketing, graphic design, and websites, and her sister, Cari Ensio, an art conservation expert, knows both chemistry and design.
Experience in production, biochemistry and marketing makes sense but graphic design and art appreciation?
Did I mention a 50 millilitre bottle of their sea buckthorn facial moisturizer goes for $19? At that price, products do not sell themselves.
“There’s a huge, huge educational component to marketing these products,” said Tamara.
“What we’ve found is that you really have to focus on a benefit that speaks to the consumer. For example, sea buckthorn has a long history of successfully helping with skin disorders, such as eczema. There are many people who suffer from this and who aren’t keen on using a steroid cream.”
Other people will have other interests. For example, sea buckthorn skin cream is highly touted for its anti-aging properties.
For his part, Brad knows all the health benefits and can discuss them enthusiastically, though he wryly notes his “analytic process guy” approach and “boring people with bullet points” just doesn’t cut it.
But even Brad was skeptical when the Ensio sisters said an interpretive centre had to be the focal point of their boutique in nearby Knowlton.
Visitors first encounter a sea buckthorn tree and then displays on its history, how it’s grown, harvested and processed, the health benefits and the products made from it. Visit www.mont-echo.com.
“By the time you walk into the boutique, you have this connection with the ingredients of the plant and which product that ingredient is found in,” said Brad. “And the graphics play a big role in explaining that, almost on a subconscious level. We get a lot of wows when people come here.”
It’s early days for Mont Echo but it’s generating serious buzz and its sea buckthorn festival this fall drew hundreds of visitors from all over Quebec.
So what’s the take-away message from this story?
It depends on your farm but start by thinking about the talents and ambitions of the members of your family or team.
Do people get a chance to do their own thing or is everyone expected to follow the playbook developed by Dad or the leader?
And what would be the reaction if someone wanted to do something different, whether that’s developing a value-added product, trying an unusual crop or doing a makeover of the on-farm store?
If your response is an automatic no way, then any talk about people being the farm’s greatest asset is just that – talk.
Archived columns from this series can be found at www.fcc-fac.ca/learning.
Farm Credit Canada enables business management skill development through resources such as this column, and information and learning events available across Canada.
———
