Nipissing First Nation to grow greens for new Twiggs Distribution Centre
By Kelly Anne Smith
NORTH BAY— Cement was being poured at the new Twiggs Distribution site soon after receiving $347,238 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund for expanding and providing permanent jobs.
The aroma of organic, freshly roasted coffee at Twiggs Coffee Roasters entices at four locations in North Bay, Sturgeon Falls and Sudbury. Twiggs may soon be available as far south as Barrie, too.
Laura Twigg is the owner of the Twiggs Coffee Roasters on Fraser Street in North Bay. She says the company is really excited about being awarded the funding to help grow and create jobs and make it easier to supply stores as they develop.
“All that funding is going strictly to the development of our distribution company. As we keep growing our stores and keep opening up new locations, we need a bigger facility to be able to streamline our production. The funding will go towards the building. The building is on Highway 17 west under construction right now.”
Laura predicts more jobs will be available with the expansion.
“In two ways that’s going to happen for us. Number one, the growth of the distribution company is going to create at least three full-time positions. On top of that, us opening up new locations and franchises is also going to create jobs in different communities in the north and all over Ontario. For example, at this store, there are 30 staff.”
Laura is the daughter-in-law to Jennifer Twigg who first started Twiggs Coffee Roasters at the North Bay Fraser Street location in 1995.
“It’s a family business,” says Laura.
Now Jennifer’s two sons are involved as is other daughter-in-law, Meagan Twigg. Meagan owns the Twiggs Coffee Roasters McKeown location. The six family members own the company with all involved in the distribution and franchising.
Jennifer Twigg is a citizen of Nipissing First Nation (NFN) and notes that her community has been fully supportive and always encourages new business. Now, NFN will start up a fresh initiative supporting Twiggs further.
“They are starting a green house, which as part of their initiatives, will supply Twiggs with fresh greens for all our stores. They (NFN) have been a great help with ideas.”
With the company expanding to other communities, Twiggs is creating a new charitable body. Twiggs has previously donated two cents from every take-out cup of coffee to OneKidsPlace.
“We are starting a family foundation. The two cents for every cup now will go into the foundation so we can contribute to other entities as well. Moving into Sudbury and going further south, OneKidsPlace doesn’t go that far. So, now we will be supporting NEO Kids in Sudbury, etc.”
Jennifer says providing a satisfying cup of coffee with organic, fair trade, roasted coffee beans was harder to do in the beginning.
“When I first started the business in 1995, there was no organic beans in the Eastern part of Canada. They were only shipped to Vancouver so I actually trucked them from the port in Vancouver to North Bay, which was a very expensive process, but I did that just for the organic beans. And then they started delivering to the New York port and now Montreal has organic.”
With a twinkle in her eye, Jennifer Twigg says Twiggs Coffee Roasters will be available down south “soon!”