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Here we are, at the beginning of a new year. The gyms are full and everyone’s on a healthy eating kick after eating like garbage over the holidays.
People are committing to other healthy habits too, like saving money, spending more time with friends and family and spending less time binging Netflixs, whatever it takes to get their lives together for 2018.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick businesses are making their own resolutions. We asked folks from companies big and small across the province about what they hope to accomplish in the coming year and what opportunities they think 2018 will hold:
Sylvia McVey, president of Barbours:
What new opportunities do you think 2018 will hold?
We are excited for what 2018 will bring. We will continue with our current focus on export markets, both in the U.S. and beyond. Our success in nut butters has shown us that we can compete, and we hope to capitalize on that success in our other product categories.
What hopes do you have for the upcoming year?
Of course, we hope for continued growth, but just as importantly, we are working to improve policies across the board with an eye to foster a more engaged, and engaging, workplace. We want to establish ourselves as a workplace of choice for the region.
Andrea Feunekes, CEO of Remsoft
What new opportunities do you think 2017 will hold?
Even though the New Year is just beginning, Remsoft has had our minds on 2018 for a while. This year we’re launching a new forestry solution called Remsoft Operations, which is cloud-based operational planning for our client’s finance, wood flow, harvest production and delivery, essentially bringing all of their planning into one place. It’s exciting because this allows us to move closer to our vision for a comprehensive, end to end planning solution: from strategic to tactical to on the ground. It’s also our first cloud-native solution.
What hopes do you have for the upcoming year?
Remsoft has always been known for being innovative, and as we building more and more of our solutions in the cloud and growing Remsoft across the globe, we’ll need to keep growing our team in 2018. We have a wicked, awesome team with a powerful culture and our goal is to continue growing that with smart, creative, and fun people that are great to work with.
Blair and Rosalyn Hyslop, owners of Mrs. Dunster’s
What new opportunities do you think 2018 will hold?
We are excited to be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Mrs Dunster’s and we have a few surprises in store for the new year that will be exciting for customers and employees.
Early in 2018, we will be finalizing the acquisition of McBuns Bakery in Moncton, this is our fourth acquisition in as many years. Our plan is to leverage the strengths of each of those businesses; Mrs. Dunster’s, Snair’s Golden Grain Bakery, Kredl’s Corner Market and Mrs. Dunster’s to bring exceptional, locally made, fresh food to more customers. In 2018, we see an opportunity to continue our growth in a way that has a positive impact on our business, our people and the communities that we do business in. We see opportunity in our customers desire to buy local and support local businesses. Our new retail items are doing well, and we have a growing foodservice business with an increasing number of restaurants looking to buy local as well. With growth comes opportunity for our employees, we are excited to leverage our size, collective experience and market position to offer employees new training and leadership opportunities.
What hopes do you have for the upcoming year?
In 2018, it’s our hope to source more of our ingredients from local farmers and local food companies. We believe our best products are made and delivered fresh with local ingredients and we want to offer more of those products to our customers. We also hope for more community engagement from other small and mid-sized business and employees. One of our beliefs is that everyone has their own superpowers and we’ve seen firsthand that when we use our superpowers for good, we can have a meaningful impact in our community. In our case, we hope to use our “Superpowers” to reduce the cycle of child poverty in our communities, improve literacy outcomes for children and increase the amount of food grown and produced locally. We have a charity called Good Fit Book which brings kids to the Library where older kids help them find their “Good Fit” book and they get the first library card. We really hope to expand the reach of Good Fit Book in 2018.
Yves Boudreau, CEO of Alongside
What new opportunities do you think 2018 will hold?
In 2018, we will see the culmination of the hard work our team has put in come to fruition. As some may have noticed, we’ve been pretty quiet in 2017 and have been mostly heads-down working on the next iteration of our product offering. So, I’m excited to see it all come together and see how the market reacts. I also believe that 2018 will be the year where Alongside becomes a known entity within our industry and in other major markets, in short, I think 2018 will be our best year yet.
What hopes do you have for the upcoming year?
In terms of what hopes I have for 2018 – they are fairly simple. I hope we can continue to expand on the strong momentum we’ve built in the second half of this past year, and that we continue to have a lot of fun doing so.
Keith Brideau, president and CEO of Historica
What new opportunities do you think 2018 will hold?
2018 will be our best year yet. Not only will we continue revitalizing Uptown Saint John by converting two incredibly beautiful buildings on King Street into 25 of the highest quality rental apartments in New Brunswick, we will also be closing the biggest deal in the history of our company. To ensure this happens, we will be identifying and developing new relationships with key strategic partners who share our vision and who want to capitalize on the growth and potential of our business. Without a doubt, we have come a long way over the last 10 years, and I believe we can triple the size of our company over the next five years, if we work with the right partners.
In addition to the above, we will also be pursuing a few other opportunities. Some of which include re-positioning existing buildings to increase their value, while others involve building new buildings from the ground up so we can capitalize on additional opportunities we see in the marketplace. It is also important that we continue maximizing the value of our existing portfolio so we are well positioned for growth over the long term.
What hopes do you have for the upcoming year?
We hope to see Uptown Saint John continue to grow and prosper, and we believe it will. Something truly magical happened in 2017 – Uptown Saint John became the place to be. The walkability, nightlife, restaurants and entertainment are second to none in Atlantic Canada and we’re finally just beginning to hit our stride We hope to see more businesses, baby boomers and young professionals calling Uptown Saint John home. We also look forward to continuing to play a leadership role in this regard, and can’t wait to see what lies ahead.
Renee Warren, founder and CEO of The Family Academy
What new opportunities do you think 2018 will hold?
2018 will be the breakout year for The Family Academy, not only with its platform but with its game-changing events.
We are planning on launching a membership site, exclusive events geared towards entrepreneur families to teach them how to become better connected with themselves, their partner and their kids, and other content-rich opportunities for founder families. There are also some exciting product ideas in the works that will help high performing parents to be more present with their kids and partner (and colleagues) and interactive games for the entire family.
What hopes do you have for the upcoming year?
Scaling beyond a 1-1 coaching program and mastermind, we hope to reach over 500 entrepreneur families by end of 2018 through our programs and in person events. Overall we are thrilled to be where we are at and look forward to the progress and families we will help engage and inspire in the coming months.
Sean Fahey, founder of VidCruiter
What new opportunities do you think 2018 will hold?
VidCruiter has seen significant growth in 2017, and we expect it will continue to climb in 2018. More companies seeing the value in video interviewing and how we connect with these businesses has evolved as a result. Instead of hearing about us via word of mouth, clients are finding us online and talking about our products. We’re also hiring more people at our headquarters in Moncton and our other international offices. VidCruiter is growing fast, and we see no reason for that to stop in 2018.
What hopes do you have for the upcoming year?
Many companies and agencies — including the Government of Canada, Western University, General Motors, and much more — already see the value of video interviewing in today’s technological age by choosing VidCruiter for hiring and recruiting software. My hope for 2018 is for more companies to realize this and upgrade their hiring process to get rid of outdated practices and get more qualified candidates. My personal goal is to hire more people so I can have a little more free time haha.
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