SUMMERSIDE – March 19, 2017 – Ghislaine Cormier of Charlottetown was evidently ecstatic Saturday night when it was announced, before the 110 people at the Acadian Entrepreneurs’ Gala in Summerside, that she was the champion of the 2017 Dragons’ Contest and that she had therefore won $10,000 to help her equip her new record manufacturing business, Kaneshii Vinyl Press.

Cormier couldn’t stop smiling as Premier Wade MacLauchlan and contest coordinator Nicole Allain presented her with her huge cheque, as cameras flashed all around her and as the standing crowd kept on loudly applauding her win.

Through the contest, organized by RDÉE Prince Edward Island, she also won free memberships to two chambers of commerce, a free consultation on setting up or improving her website, college business courses and a $200 gift certificate at a university bookstore.

Earlier in the evening, Cormier and two other finalists – Sylvain and Madison Gagné from Gagné Blueberries and Jérémie Arsenault from Simple Feast Catering and Meal Club – had each presented their entrepreneurial project to a panel of three judges or « dragons » during a seven-minute pitch. The judges then asked five minutes’ worth of questions to each contestant.

The « dragons » were Jean-Guy Bigeau, president-executive director of RDÉE Canada, Alfred Arsenault, general manager of Evangeline-Central Credit Union representing PEI Credit Unions, and Daniel Bourgeois, executive director of La Belle-Alliance and the Institut de recherche Beaubassin.

WINNING BUSINESS

Kaneshii Vinyl Press (KVP) produces high-quality vinyl records and offers all related services to provide clients with a complete final product, including labels, packaging and downloading codes. KVP’s full service includes four steps: production of the master disc, pressing of the master onto vinyl, packaging and assembling.

KVP is one of only three record-pressing businesses in Canada and the only one east of Toronto. It offers services in both of Canada’s official languages, which is a distinctive advantage in markets such as Quebec, Atlantic Canada and other French-speaking communities throughout Canada.

The business collaborates with Viral Technologies, a Canadian company that has developed a new technology for producing vinyl records that drastically reduces production time, maintenance delays and production costs.

Vinyl records represent a quickly growing market; 24 per cent of music sales in the past year were in vinyl format, thereby surpassing digital sales.

Kaneshii will use its $10,000 to improve its facilities, purchase equipment and computers and set up a management system.

SPONSORS

Organisational and prize sponsors of the contest are RDÉE PEI, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Innovation PEI, PEI Credit Unions, The Co-operators, The Cassidy Group, HMS Office Supplies, LP Electronics, the Government Members’ Office, PEI Agents Realty, les Francofolies de Charlottetown, Mermaid Marine Products, the Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of PEI, the Greater Charlottetown Chamber of Commerce, the Collège de l’Île and the University of Prince Edward Island.

-30-

CUTLINE: Premier Wade MacLauchlan helps Nicole Allain, right, coordinator of the 2017 Dragons’ Contest, present the huge $10,000 cheque to champion Ghislaine Cormier of Charlottetown, who is setting up Kaneshii Vinyl Press.

 

For more information:
Nicole Allain
Coordinator
Dragons’ Contest
(902) 370-7333, Ext. 401
dragons@rdeeipe.org