“Canada's small businesses are essential to our economic recovery and return,” says Lisa Lisson, President of FedEx Express Canada, in a media release announcing the grant recipients.
“Their compelling business stories remind us that championing small businesses is fundamental to the Canadian economy and critical to the economic long-term health of our country,” she says, adding that, “We are proud to do our part and provide some additional support to a few of the many deserving businesses across the country as part of our #SupportSmall program.”
The new funding initiative has no restrictions on how recipient small businesses can use the CAD $5,000 grants. And the 30 companies awarded the grants come from 5 provinces and several industries, including food and beverage, hospitality, entertainment, fitness, artisanal crafts, beauty and more.
4 of the 5 small beauty business that received grants are brands and 1 is a spa.
FedEx Express Canada awards grants to 5 beauty businesses during COVID-19 pandemic
The 5 beauty business just announced as #SupportSmall grantees are Essentials by Temi, Two Sisters Naturals, Soapstones Natural Skincare, Neveen Dominic Cosmetics, and the Sugar Society spa.
Temi Shobowale founded her luxury, small-batch skin care brand Essentials by Temi in late 2018. The brand’s product portfolio comprises both skin care—oils, mists, and a clay mask—and body care, both scrubs and body butters. Temi Essentials is based in Toronto, Ontario.
Crystal Mills and Jillian Anderson are the founders and owners of Two Sisters Naturals, a plant-based brand with products across skin care, hair care, body care, personal care, and even baby care, laundry, and more. The Two Sisters Naturals brand headquarters and retail store are in Midhurst, Ontario.
David McLean co-owns Soapstones Natural Skincare, a naturals brand with products across categories: baby care, men’s grooming, bath, body care, skin care, hair care, and foot care. The brand also makes a home cleaning spray and a Paw Protector balm for pets.
Neveen Dominic founded her eponymous beauty brand in 2014. The Neveen Dominic Cosmetics product portfolio comprises mostly color cosmetics and complexion products, such as mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow palettes, lipsticks, lip pencils, lip glosses, blush, bronzer, contouring palettes, etc. But there’s also a line of Neveen Dominic skin care products.
And Sugar Society is a spa in Pembroke, Ontario, owned by Stacey Michalopoulos. She founded in the business in 2017.
FedEx isn’t the only delivery service businesses supporting beauty brands during COVID-19
Just last month, Longitudes, the UPS content platform featured Evelyne Nyairo and her indie skin care brand Ellie Bianca on their blog.
It’s a post that shares the brand story, talks about the challenges of adapting to the realities of running a small business during the Coronavirus pandemic, and of course how partners like UPS have helped Nyairo navigate logistical challenges over the past several months.
“With a nod to my young daughter, Ellie, a budding champion for women’s rights, I founded Ellie Bianca in 2014, and we launched our first product in 2015,” Nyairo tells the readers of Longitudes. “We’re a proudly Canadian, all-natural, environmentally sustainable, socially conscious skincare line that recognizes beauty in all forms and supports the empowerment of women through business and education,” she says, emphasizing that “Three pillars serve as the foundation for the company: kind to your skin, kind to the earth, kind to women.”
Discussing some of the challenges she’s faced in 2020, Nyairo says in her post, “We’ve always had an online platform, but the pandemic pushed us to leverage the technology to reach new heights. We recognize that the consumer needs to feel like there is a real person behind that online storefront.”
“At the onset of the pandemic, we had some logistics issues, as many of our products originated outside Alberta and even outside Canada. However, our business relationships helped us maneuver through some of these challenges.”
“UPS has been extremely kind to us,” she says in the recent post on Longitudes. “They provided us a flexible payment method, which helped build trust. I can say we often feel overlooked by larger corporations, but UPS continues to support us and help us reach our audience.”
