Biz Profiles


Business built by Sticks + Stones
Trevor Nichols - May 26, 2017 - Biz Profiles

As a child, Carla Bond-Fisher would map out her bedroom on pieces of graph paper. By Grade 4, she had already researched and selected the program she intended to study when she finished high school. For whatever reason, she says, she always felt like design was her calling, so the fact that she ended up […]

Not a dreamer
Trevor Nichols - May 11, 2017 - Biz Profiles

The last thing Stuart Lang wants is to be thought of as a dreamer. “People that have dreams, and often don’t take action towards realizing those dreams, are perceived as dreamers,” he said recently, over a plate of chicken tenders at Central Kitchen + Bar. “It’s good to dream, but you have to have an […]

‘I want to own everybody’
Trevor Nichols - May 05, 2017 - Biz Profiles

For a guy who bought his business because he was “just looking for something to do,” Justin Fortier has some pretty big plans for Kelowna’s Fleek Factory. Trained as a film student, Fortier says he bought the business that would eventually become Fleek Factory in 2015 because he “needed a real job.” At the time, […]

Stay at ‘Hotel UBCO’?
Trevor Nichols - May 01, 2017 - Biz Profiles

This summer, as soon as students pack up and leave the University of British Columbia in the Okanagan for the summer, the university will take their unused dorm rooms and “furiously transform” there for their new summer purpose. Starting in May, about 700 of the university’s 1,400 dorm rooms are converted into a kind of “Hotel […]

Most challenging business ever?
Trevor Nichols - Apr 28, 2017 - Biz Profiles

When you start to learn about the bonkers business environment language schools have to operate in, it can make you wonder why anyone would run one. But that’s exactly what Coco Chong He and Dale Lockhart have been doing in Kelowna for well over a decade. The pair run the Language school International Gateway Kelowna, which […]

‘Ballsy’ move for Frock
Trevor Nichols - Apr 27, 2017 - Biz Profiles

If there’s one thing Chantal Couture has learned after 15 years as a business owner, it’s that timing rarely works to your advantage. So, when a large retail space opened up on Bernard Avenue earlier this year, she decided to snap it up as soon as she could and figure out the rest later. That’s […]

Socially conscious profit
Trevor Nichols - Apr 26, 2017 - Biz Profiles

Not long ago Pam Taylor, the owner of the Vernon store the Pink Spotted Goat, buzzed from display to display, rhapsodizing about the hand-crafted mugs and sustainably sourced personal care products on display. The shelves of the downtown store are stocked everything from surprisingly chic handbags made out of old wool sweaters to meticulously crafted necklaces […]

A new way to popcorn
Trevor Nichols - Apr 12, 2017 - Biz Profiles

As Weezer rocked a crowded South Okanagan Events Centre last Saturday the kiosk for the Kelowna-based app Popcorn Enabled stood virtually empty – and that made the app’s creators very happy. Because from their perspective, the absence of a line meant Popcorn Enabled was doing exactly what it was supposed to. The app is the […]

He’s never looked back
Trevor Nichols - Apr 04, 2017 - Biz Profiles

At one point in his life Luigi Coccaro didn’t think he would ever come back to the industry he was born into. Today, he works full-time at his family restaurant, runs his own cafe and is about to open another restaurant in one of the most exciting new buildings in the city. But when you’re […]

John Kot’s goofball marketing
Trevor Nichols - Apr 03, 2017 - Biz Profiles

If you’ve been to the movies in the Okanagan in the past year you’ve almost certainly seen a grinning John Kot cartoonishly heave a bag of popcorn into his gaping mouth. Kot is the owner of Kelowna Hyundai and stars in commercials for the dealership that air during pre-shows at local Landmark theatres. Those commercials, […]