Watch the video above: a green shift has helped to grow a Saskatoon business
SASKATOON – A Saskatoon company says a shift in how local residents now think has contributed to the growth of its business.
EnviroWay, which produces environmental friendly cleaning products, say they’ve noticed its local market share increase over the last eight years. Its managers say a move towards ‘green’ consciousness in Saskatchewan has played a role in local sales.
“Twenty years ago it was enough for someone to know the product was bio-degradable, but now people want to know; how is it bio-degradable?” said Raj Behari, who manages communications for EnviroWay. His father started the company in 1987.
“Before you had to present or promote environmental friendly products, today people ask you for them,” said Rick Strouts, EnviroWay’s sales and marketing director.
EnviroWay has grown around 15 per cent annually over the last few years, according to Behari. He grew up around the company; as a child he stacked pails in the shipping and receiving area at its headquarters in the Airport Business Area.
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“Back then I would say we were closer to thirty or forty people,” he said from the office.
“Now we’re over two-hundred.”
While the province has seen a trend towards environmental awareness, Kent Smith-Windsor, executive director of Saskatoon’s Chamber of Commerce, said EnviroWay’s success should be looked at individually, rather than assuming all ‘green’ companies have seen an uptick in sales.
“We often think of businesses as markets of one, from a chamber perspective,” said Smith Windsor.
“You can have two shoe stores sitting beside each other with completely different business models.”
He also added that the province’s economic upturn has given consumers more purchasing power, allowing them to buy ‘green,’ regardless of cost.
“People are having more choices based on another set of parameters other than price,” said Smith-Windsor.
“As you have more disposable income, you make choices in terms of all kinds of things you might do as a consumer.”
As EnviroWay continues to grow, its managers say they’ve expanded their focus on its line of water treatment products. They’ve already been active in India, where Behari says some communities are transformed once clean water starts running through neighbourhoods.
Behari’s father emigrated from India, before founding EnviroWay.
“He came here with eight dollars in his pocket and now we have a local company manufacturing,” he said.
“I just want people in Saskatchewan and the prairies to know that it all started here.”
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