AWL Électricité will present its wheelchair charging plate, the agile station, at the Paris Paralympic Games. For this young company, this is an unexpected opportunity to promote this new product, developed here and which is at the very beginning of its commercial life.
The agile station enables wireless charging of rolling vehicles.
In concrete terms, it is a plate, of a single size, which offers more autonomy to people with reduced mobility, because they only have to roll on the surface, rather than plugging in their wheelchairs, which sometimes requires assistance.
The Games, which begin on August 28, will bring together 4,400 athletes and many support staff. Two agile stations will be installed in the “Inclusive Mobility Park” in Paris, explains Francis Beauchamp-Verdon, co-founder of the Montreal SME. The place is intended for athletes who, on days when they are not competing, use electric wheelchairs, as well as for all participants in the sporting event. They will therefore be able to test the product.
Trade missions
How does a small company that has yet to officially launch its product end up at the Paris Paralympic Games?
The company worked hard on its visibility and contacts, and AWL Électricité was on every possible trade mission, explains Mr. Beauchamp-Verdon. “It was through these trips that we were in contact with Toyota and Japanese companies,” he says. The Inclusive Mobility Park at the Paralympic Games is sponsored by Toyota.
For those who are already wondering, there is no potential for overheating with the station, since the technology used is capacitive coupling. “We use a technology that does not generate any heat. The transfer of electricity itself does not generate heat,” explains Francis Beauchamp-Verdon, who says that it should not be compared to charging a cell phone.
The SME, founded in 2020, is waiting to obtain all the certifications essential to North American electronic products before launching its marketing process. It hopes to deliver the first plates to its customers before the end of the year. While individuals are good potential customers, AWL Électricité describes itself first and foremost as a B2B company, and is targeting institutions more.
The agile station will retail for around $950.
The latest vintage of the Négondos
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VINEYARD NÉGONDOS
The company was founded around thirty years ago and works in organic farming.
If you like Négondos natural wines, jump on the bottles you see in stores that still have them. The Mirabel vineyard is ceasing operations and is not harvesting its grapes this year. “We are retiring,” says co-owner Mario Plante, who has not put the business up for sale because “it’s not sellable.” “The production costs are higher than the revenue,” confides the winemaker. The Négondos vineyard is an important figure in Quebec viticulture. The company was founded about thirty years ago and works organically; the two owners, Mario Plante and Carole Desrochers, are outspoken and have been making their wine naturally since long before it was celebrated. If there is no more harvest, there is still wine to bottle in the fall, before the Négondos finally cease production, including their sparkling Julep, one of their most popular vintages.
$850,000 for The Goat
Robotique Nexus received a little over $850,000 to continue developing its weeding robot, La Chèvre. Québec issued a call for projects last year to support developing agritechnologies. The SME from Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville was chosen because it is developing this robot that can weed market gardening on its own, at any time of the day or night. In concrete terms, La Chèvre looks like a modern version of a Zamboni. It quietly moves through the rows and removes weeds. “The company wants to significantly improve the operating speed, weeding precision and reliability of the La Chèvre weeding robot in order to achieve the level of performance required for its commercialization,” states the press release announcing the award of the financial assistance.
Olive+Gourmando at Royalmount
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Olive+Gourmando café in Old Montreal, which will soon have a little sister, at the Royalmount
With less than three weeks to go until the grand opening, we know a good number of the tenants of Montreal’s chic Royalmount shopping centre. After Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, it’s the turn of the famous Old Montreal café Olive+Gourmando to announce that it’s embarking on the Royalmount adventure. Olive+Gourmando opened in 1998 and the café has only had one address, on Saint-Paul Street, since then.
$1065
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
That’s the cost of installing a patio in Montreal, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which conducted a comparative study of the cost and complexity for a restaurant to obtain its permit. The average cost is $2,765 in St. John’s and $116 in Calgary, but in this city, the process seems rather complex since owners will have to present eight documents before obtaining authorization to set up their tables outside. Winnipeg restaurateurs seem luckier since with just one document in hand, they will have their permit, free of charge, in 24 hours!