Fast-paced doesn’t even begin to describe the life of Colleen Dyck, owner of The Great GORP Project of Niverville and innovator of the popular GORP energy bar. In the past few years, her company has witnessed rapid change and growth. Their product line has expanded and the energy bars are finally pushing through complex trade barriers into the U.S. market.
In May, Dyck took a giant leap across the ocean to introduce her product line to an international market: China.
“I’m always reaching for the next thing,” says Dyck. “I have to be careful that I don’t spread myself too thin, but at the same time that’s just how my brain works.”
Dyck came across the Chinese opportunity organically. A Chinese-Canadian trade company with home bases in British Columbia and Beijing reached out to her after seeing GORP bars in a Vancouver retail outlet. The immediately saw that the product had incredible potential in southeast Asia.
“There’s an emerging middle class that is growing exponentially in China and these are the types of products that they’re looking for,” Dyck says, adding that the trade company was impressed with GORP’s philosophy and all-Canadian ingredients.
After introductions and numerous meetings to map out a strategy, the company welcomed Dyck on board as a Canadian partner, and together they worked out plans for GORP’s newest product line: Oh Canada Oatmeal Blend.
“It’s basically a breakfast cereal,” Dyck explains. “Essentially, it’s oats amped up with some flax and Manitoba berries. There’s nothing complicated about it, but [the Chinese] seem to really have an appetite for Canadian food. There’s a certain belief that the air and the water is clean here. They hold up Canada as a country whose food regulations are super stiff, and they know that they are getting really safe food [that] is produced in a clean environment.”
While Dyck worked out the details for the new product line, the trade company set the stage for GORP’s Asian debut. Their first stop was SIAL China, one of the world’s largest food trade shows, which hosts companies from around the globe.
After an exhausting flight and facing a 13-hour time difference, Dyck went right to work at the three-day trade show. Her job was mostly one of support while her partners performed the work of extolling the virtues of GORP in a variety of Chinese dialects.
“They hosted me beautifully,” says Dyck. “They set up the [trade show] booth and got everything translated into Chinese... I just showed up and helped them.”
One day of recovery was all she was allowed, and then the team jumped another flight to Beijing, taking the product to gyms, health food stores, and supermarkets across China’s capital city. Business meetings were held in the newly assigned GORP office to assess the success of their endeavour.
Dyck’s whirlwind tour wouldn’t have been complete without an excursion to the city’s greatest sites, the Great Wall and Forbidden City. Tasting the local dishes, too, was high on her bucket list.
“The food was what excited me,” Dyck muses. “I ate everything they served—all the intestines, the snails, the things with eyes that I didn’t know what they were. I ate a lot of things that I wasn’t really sure of. [My partners] were actually really impressed.”
Back at home, Dyck and the trade team are busy working through labelling regulations, import/export laws, and the copious red tape required to turn this dream into a reality. While the Chinese authorities have limited expectations of what goes on a food label, language translation isn’t among them. In fact, she’s been instructed to print the labels in English, giving the Chinese market further proof that the product is truly manufactured in Canada.
The ingredients, though, will require a few small tweaks. For example, the Chinese pallet is conditioned to tasting cinnamon in savoury dishes, as opposed to sweet, and the country also has a ban on hemp products.
Dyck is fully cognizant of the risks she faces with international trade, including the costs of storing large quantities of product awaiting shipment, investing in product that isn’t yet sold, and a reduced cash flow as receivables stretch out over much longer periods of time. One way to alleviate that, she says, is to break into the market with presales for a period of time.
“We’re still a small company,” she says. “It’s a stretch for us and it’s scary. It’s not a sure thing and there’s still a lot for us to lose if it doesn’t work.”
Production is one thing Dyck isn’t worried about. With the recent expansion of the facility on their existing site, she says she’s confident that, with enough staff, they’ll be able to quadruple their production levels within their current space.
Always one step ahead, Dyck is already working out the dynamics of her next potential Canadian product launch.
“I’m working on protein shakes,” she says. “I came up with a chai hot chocolate [shake mix]. I’m thinking that might be the next big thing. But, in the end, I’m a really crappy implementer. I’m way more of a visionary/creative person. So I just have to make sure that I bring in the right people with the strengths that I don’t have.”
