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Five local businesses each receive $10,000 in government funding

October 20, 2022   ·   0 Comments

Five small businesses in Orangeville are each receiving a non-repayable $10,000 grant through the My Main Street, Local Business Accelerator program.

The Village Refillery (5 Mill Street), Branching Out Support Services (5 First Street), Thistle & Rose Pub (171 Broadway), SONA Skin Studio (162 Broadway), and Craft Pizza Bar & Italian Kitchen (111 Broadway) recently landed the funding, which will help support economic growth and attract new customers to downtown Orangeville.

The Village Refillery is moving to a larger location, following a fire that at 22 Mill Street that has temporarily shut down the Old Mill Hub (28 Mill Street) where it was previously operaitng.

The $10,000 in funding will help increase inventory levels, broaden product lines and assist with renovation costs.

The Village Refillery is a store where customers can refill their clean reusable containers with products they use every day, such as dry goods and cleaning products, helping eliminate the amount of plastic ending up in landfills.

The grant money is helping the Village Refillery’s owner Bruna Rissi, transform her business into a fully functioning grocery store.

Branching Out Support Services is expanding its services, which supports adults with disabilities, by launching a new division – the CommonFare Kitchen  

The kitchen offers skills and food workshops, and produces and sells a granola product line.

Branching Out owner Kim Van Ryn received assistance from My Main Street to help quantify the value and potential of the business’s granola line, which is now the main component of this social enterprise’s business. The production and sale of the granola employs neurodiverse community members, and Van Ryn has ambitious plans for the future.

New to Orangeville, the Thistle & Rose Pub owners Bill and Deborah Perrie applied for the program to help renovate the pub’s front and back patios. The funding helped breathe new life into these areas, and the Perries created a welcoming outdoor dining space to complement the recently renovated interior. The patio renovations increase the pub’s seating capacity by 70 per cent, creating a healthy boost to sales during warmer days of the year.

The market research provided by the Local Business Accelerator program helped Sarah Wick, owner of medical esthetics spa SONA Skin Studio, further investigate the values, demographics and behaviours of her target market. The data available helped justify and support the purchase of a new piece of technology that will deliver maximum results to SONA’s target market.

The newly opened Craft Pizza Bar & Italian Kitchen has quickly become a popular addition to downtown Orangeville’s dining scene.

The timing of the Local Business Accelerator program was ideal to help owner Paul Fuda open the doors to his Italian fresh food, quick-serve restaurant. The market research assisted Fuda in understanding demographics and statistics of the downtown community that were tailored to the restaurant industry. Fuda used the funding to purchase and install a walk-in cooler and commercial kitchen wares. 

The My Main Street, Local Business Accelerator program is delivered by the Economic Developers Council of Ontario with an overall Government of Canada investment of $23.25 million, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), to support the recovery and strength of main streets and local businesses in southern Ontario.  

On behalf of these businesses, the Town of Orangeville would like to thank the Government of Canada, FedDev Ontario and the Economic Developers Council of Ontario for supporting our local businesses.

“The Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO) is delighted to be delivering the My Main Street Local Business Accelerator program to support local business and main streets across southern Ontario. Thanks to the support of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, local businesses will have access to resources to help create economic opportunities for these main street communities, which is an essential component to a successful local economy,” said Heather Lalonde, Chief CEO for the Economic Developers Council of Ontario

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