SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Three francophone businesses wishing to broaden and expand their existing entrepreneurial operations have been chosen as finalists for the first edition of the Francophone Ignition Contest (which replaces the former Dragons’ Contest).
Either Blossom Foot Care of Summerside (Stéphanie St.-Onge-Cornish), Belgo Transport of North Wiltshire (Philippe Guidon and Natalie Coupet) or Elm Grove Centre of Alma (Josée Gallant-Gordon and Bobby Gordon) will soon take home the contest’s $25,000 grand prize.
The finalists will each have seven minutes to present their business expansion project during the grand finale of the contest March 16 at 5 p.m. at the Centre Belle-Alliance in Summerside.
Later in the evening, during the 2019 Entrepreneurs' Gala, the champion will receive a giant $25,000 cheque to invest in his or her business project.
An esthetician, St.-Onge-Cornish established Blossom Beauty Care in Summerside in 2011, and recently opened a new clinic on Rufus Street. She wants to furnish a second treatment room, install modern equipment and modernise her website.
Guidon and his wife, Coupet, first got involved in the trucking industry in their native Belgium in 2009. The couple recently ordered a new hydrogen-fueled truck and are looking to install aerodynamic equipment on their fleet to improve fuel efficiency. They are working with UPEI’s engineering department to find yet more innovative solutions to make their business even greener.
Gallant-Gordon and husband Bobby Gordon offer rearing, lodging and reproductive services for race horses on their ancestral farm in Alma. She wants to launch an equine therapy service through which horses become a therapeutic tool for people suffering with post-traumatic stress, trauma, depression and anxiety under the company name Elm Grove Centre.
The public is invited to attend the Ignition Contest event, which is combined with the 2019 Acadian Entrepreneurs’ Gala.
