DRYDEN — AgriTech North is making its presence known nationally.
The Dryden-based agricultural business took home $100,000 in Aboriginal Peoples Television Network’s (APTN) Bears’ Lair this past week. Bears’ Lair is a television program where Indigenous Entrepreneurs across Canada pitch their innovative plans to grow their businesses to a panel of Indigenous experts and guest judges.
AgriTech North CEO Benjamin Feagin Jr. said that the Bears’ Lair competition wasn’t like other competitions as seen on television. Instead of competing with other businesses for the grand prize, Bears Lair fostered the show around a co-op system where business shared their ideas with the judges in a cooperative competition.
“It’s a new thing with Bears’ Lair. It’s nice to be in a business competition that’s not vying for a percentage of your company and providing award money instead. So, it really refreshing. It really reflects Indigenous principals.”
AgriTech North has gained a following since opening its doors this spring. The start-up cultivates fresh foods through in-door vertical farming all year round. The company’s mission is to provide food security for Indigenous communities where the price of fresh-farmed produce is nearly double the amount seen in commercial retail stores.
Through a subscription box model, clients get their products delivered right to their door. So far, the distribution network stretches from Winnipeg to Dryden to Sioux Lookout. New distribution lines are expanding pick-up locations to include in Kenora, Red Lake, Ear Falls, Fort Frances, Wabigoon First Nation, Eagle Lake First Nation and Lac Seul First Nation.
“Keep an eye out for availability in your area because we are looking at branching out to additional pickup locations and might be coming to a location near you very soon,” said Feagin.
The $100,000 prize money will go a long way toward expanding AgriTech’s production, as Feagin said that the money will be used to fund a sustainable solar system.
“It’s a solar tri-generation system. It’s electric heating and cooling. It’ll help reduce our cost by almost 20 per cent,” said Feagin.
Feagin acknowledges that the 20 per cent reduction will then significantly reduce the cost of the product, which migrates inflation cost onto the buyer but also helps AgriTech reach new markets.
In addition, with a new solar system in place, Feagin projects that it will have a $2.2 million impact on the business for the next 30 years.
When asked what Feagin has learned from his experience in the competition, he said, “we were there for about two weeks preparing our pitch. So, every day, all day we were just rehearsing and preparing for the next phase. We received a lot of feedback from the Bears and our mentors, and we were constantly improving to try and get to the next step.”
“I think our initial pitch was weak on our financial numbers because we were focusing more on our social good. The fact of the matter is if the business isn’t sustainable at its core, you are not going to be around to do very much good later. The Bears really helps us on what those core numbers are and whether or not the business model overall is feasible.” said Feagin.
Feagin’s experience on the show left him with a new idea on how to grow AgriTech into new markets. Off-screen, Feagin explains what the public saw on screen was a bite-sized version of the advice the Bears were providing.
“There is a substantial bit of information that the Bears went over with us behind the scenes in order to ensure that the decisions they made were sound and that we benefited as much as possible from the experience,” said Feagin.
At the moment, AgriTech’s production is between 200 and 250 kilograms of product per week. However, Feagin explains that they are in the process of ramping up their crop production to meet their target of 450 kilograms of produce every week.
