SME Universe | A lighting store without employees

Authentic: a shop that sells lights without employees!

Luminaire Authentik, designer, manufacturer and distributor of its own lighting fixtures, wanted to open new branches. At a time of labor shortage, further complicated by the lengthy training needed for its advisers, why not a self-service shop without staff? So was done.

The Cowansville company has just opened a boutique in Quebec City where customers can see their main models, try out the lampshades and compare colors in a large-format color chart. The independent premises are located inside the Céramique Décor store.

But you also have to enlighten the customer.

Advice and support are provided remotely by the lighting specialists who work at the head office and in the two other traditional branches.

At Authentik, this advice is all the more important since the lights are personalized and manufactured in its factory according to the customer’s wishes.

The idea may have been bold, but since she founded the company in 2015, its president Maude Rondeau has never backed down from an obstacle.

The spark plug

“I started the business in my garage,” says Maude Rondeau.

Until then, she had a career in sales representation in the fashion sector. Interested in design, she had spotted “a lack in the supply of lighting made in Quebec for an affordable price”.

His intention was to offer sober and elegant lighting, intended as much for architects and designers for commercial projects as for individuals for their homes.

“The only way I could achieve my goal of offering a not exorbitant price for a local product was to do everything myself. »

An obvious one, indeed.

“I left my old life to start this little project. »

This small project consisted, in all simplicity, of embarking on manufacturing production.

“Yeah, that’s something,” she admits in retrospect.

It doubled the difficulties by also launching into distribution.

“It’s really two companies in one. »

Add that Maude Rondeau designs her lights herself.

“It’s 100% in my head,” she says. The design is done on a piece of paper, and I have a team of designers who are more technical. »

15,000 luminaires per year

It acquired the vacant space of a former Loblaws in Cowansville to set up its factory, which now occupies 30,000 sq.ft.².

The lampshades are subcontracted by a metal spinning specialist – a specialty in itself.

The glass spheres are hand-blown – so to speak – by a local artisan.

The stems of the lamp bases are bent at Authentik. The metal parts are painted in one of the plant’s three electrostatic paint rooms.

In addition to the head office showroom, boutiques were opened in Montreal and Toronto. “We are also very present in projects for hotels, restaurants, condo towers,” she says. We are really equipped to make large volumes, as much as to serve a customer for a light fixture for his home. »

The company now manufactures 15,000 light fixtures a year.

In short, turnover has doubled on average every year.

A bright idea

The pandemic home renovation wave has obviously increased the demand for light fixtures.

To respond to this despite the containment measures, the company has set up an online consultation platform for its customers.

The 3D Designer allows them to combine the different elements on the screen to create their own personalized light fixture, which they color by drawing from a palette of around fifty tones.

“We first realized that people are more and more comfortable with these platforms, and then that it allowed us to broaden our horizons and seek out a very large clientele, without necessarily have a store or storefront,” says Maude Rondeau.

The company also realized that customers still wanted to see and handle the product in the real world.

“The idea came from there: to create satellite shops. »

Self-service branch

In the self-service store, the customer is currently viewing the company’s website and placing an order on a computer screen while talking on the phone with an advisor, but within a few days he will will be welcomed by a tablet application designed with the Montreal agency Witify, which will allow them to interact directly with a specialist.

“It is practically finished”, assures the entrepreneur.

The Quebec self-service branch is housed in a larger business, whose employees can discreetly monitor the premises. A shop in a completely independent and autonomous room, without any human presence, is not planned for the moment.

“For the future, we advocate having natural persons, but the lighting and expertise consulting component will always be done remotely,” says Maude Rondeau.

“It’s a pilot project. The idea would be to open little brothers and little sisters across Canada and the east coast of the United States in the next three years. »

A feat signed Caméline

It’s not a first name, but Oliméga, a Quebec producer of camelina oil, played on homophony to create its Signé Caméline brand. Its roasted camelina oil, derived from the oilseeds of this small cruciferous plant with yellow flowers, has just won a prestigious SIRHA Innovation Awards, at the no less emblematic food industry fair of the same name held in Lyon. A rare feat for a Quebec or even Canadian company. The Saint-Édouard-de-Napierville company has been able to sell its salad and the oil that accompanies it so well. Its roasted camelina oil is the culmination of 15 years of development. The company has been growing camelina since 2007, in collaboration with various Quebec producers, particularly in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. It transforms it in its Montérégie factory built in 2018. Oliméga has been managed since 2014 by Chantal Van Winden, 10^e child of 12 siblings, who left a career in the health field to join the family business.

Emballage CARTIER joins forces with Complete Packaging Systems

Emballage CARTIER has just teamed up with an Ontario company specializing in cargo securement products. The Saint-Césaire company has acquired Complete Packaging Systems, which has been dedicated since 2003 to optimizing and securing the transport of packages, mainly in the rail sector. Founded in 1980, CARTIER designs and manufactures optimized packaging, relying in particular on its laboratory, where it recreates the transport conditions for its products. This acquisition, its first, allows it to set foot in the United States, where Complete Packaging Systems was already active. Complete Packaging Systems becomes a division of Emballage CARTIER, but retains its brand image.

A little light for black entrepreneurs

If access to credit is already difficult for any entrepreneur, the obstacles multiply disproportionately in the way of entrepreneurs of color. To facilitate this journey, TD Bank Group is launching the Access to Credit Program for Black Entrepreneurs, which aims to provide them with equitable access to financing, support and financial education. With this program, TD offers an enhanced credit review process that includes an overall review of the credit application and, if necessary, a secondary review by a specialized committee. Applicants can engage directly with account managers and regional teams that focus exclusively on the black customer experience, the financial institution argues. “To access the program, the entrepreneur must send his request online by filling out the form on our site. He will then be called back by a specialist, ”says Caroline Phemius, director, public affairs, at TD. Including French-speaking specialists in Quebec. ” Yes of course ! »