Some Businesses Thriving Despite Hard Times
Posted April 24, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The executives at General Motors and Chrysler may be crying in their beer these days, but not everyone’s suffering in the current economic climate.
Take Mill Street Brewery, for example. Buoyed by the locavore movement, which encourages the consumption of local fare, the Toronto-based beer company is doing better than ever.
“We haven’t seen a downturn,” confirms company spokesperson Joel Maning. “Business is up and double digit growth year.”
It’s perhaps no surprise that the automakers aren’t faring well, given that fewer people are buying cars these days. But there are areas of growth, among them environmental initiatives and civil engineering, notes Patricia Mohr of Scotiabank Economics.
“Smartphones and technology will grow further, civil engineering because of all the infrastructure spending across Canada and the United States. And environmental services, green technology. I think we’ll continue to see good growth in these industries,” she predicts.
And as consumers try to get more bang for their buck, repair services also appear to be a booming industry. Ron Malekzadeh, who runs independent shoe repair shop Mr. Soles, says he’s got more worn and broken footwear than he knows what to do with.
“A lot of people are fixing old shoes,” he explains. “People (who) have expensive shoes, for sure they want to fix them and not buy $200 or $300 new shoes.”
Repair for a fraction of the price of buying new? Malekzadeh would no doubt toast to that.
