‘Spaces to relax and chill out’

Expect celebrity treatment if you attend Cottage Country’s Lake and Cabin Show in Winnipeg this weekend.

Andrew Walker, managing director, pointed to the rouge rug covering the aisles in Red River Exhibition Park shortly after the three-day event started on Friday afternoon.

“We rolled the red carpet out, literally, for our guests,” he said.

Around 100 exhibitors have set up displays at the 17th annual event, which runs through Sunday afternoon. The show gives visitors an opportunity to learn about companies that can help them build, decorate and renovate a cottage retreat.

All but a handful of the businesses are based in Manitoba, said Walker, who has run the show since 2018.

“As the show organizer, that’s why you do it — you do it to help great businesses match with customers that are looking for good quality local companies to help them out,” he said.

Steve Peters and Linda Drummond hope being at the show will give their brand-new business a boost. The Altona couple started Cedar Spirit Saunas earlier this year. The company builds luxury saunas using western red cedar wood.

(newslettePrompt)

Peters, a carpenter, and Drummond, a physiotherapist with a passion for health and wellness, started the business after building a sauna in their backyard.

“It was such a blessing in our life that we wanted to share it with other people,” Drummond said.

“We saw the benefit that it had for us (and) we wanted to not keep it to ourselves. (We) feel that the world needs this — spaces to slow down and spaces to relax and chill out.”

The couple offer five models that range in price from $16,500 to $39,900, and they’re open to doing custom work. They’ve sold 10 saunas so far, and are looking forward to connecting with visitors and fellow exhibitors throughout the weekend.

“We want to build the best and make people happy,” Peters said.

For Jeff Southam, Friday marked his return to the Lake and Cabin Show after a four- or five-year absence.

When he first exhibited at the show with Sunshower Sprinklers, it was to tell visitors about the service the company has offered since Southam and his brothers founded it in 1994: installing irrigation and sprinkler systems on residential and commercial properties.

However, things changed for the company last summer during Manitoba’s worst wildfire season in 30 years. Customers started calling Southam and asking him to install sprinkler systems to protect their cottages.

“I’m passionate about it because I can show you the pictures from my dock where it’s like, oh man, if that wind changes directions, (the fire’s) on you in no time,” said Southam, who has a cottage on Pelican Pouch Lake, near Kenora, Ont.

Annual revenue at Sunshower Sprinklers is approximately $2.8 million, Southam said, and this year he expects 10 per cent of that business to come from people looking to protect their cottages and homes.

The company offers a range of options, he said.

“It’s a business opportunity, sadly, but it’s real and if it’s (wildfire threat) not in your neighbourhood this year, it might be in five years or 10 years.”

Jordan Toews, who owns and operates Toews Timberframes in Grunthal, has been appearing at the Lake and Cabin Show since 2018. It’s been a worthwhile investment for the 10-year-old company, which does 50 per cent of its business in cottage country.

“Absolutely, it’s had impact,” Toews said. “I would say it’s not always immediate, but it’s just consistently getting our name out there.”

He points to the cover of his company’s brochure, which features a photo of a stunning hillside cottage he and his 20 employees built. The owner hired the company after meeting Toews at the show.

“When someone pulls the trigger on the build, they’ve seen us every year (and) they come and then they call us,” Toews said.

According to Walker, timber frames are trending among cottage owners. Other trends include adding saunas and satellite internet.

“Post-COVID, it became more broadly acceptable to work from home,” he said. “Reliable satellite internet now has allowed people to actually work from the cottage.”

In addition to owning and operating Cottage Country’s Lake and Cabin Show, Walker runs cottagetips.com, which publishes an annual magazine aimed at cottage owners.

The entrepreneur divides his time between Ottawa and his cottage on the Winnipeg River.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca