On International Women's Day, the federal government made a point to recognize the work of female entrepreneurs across the country, specifically in Cambridge.
The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) has announced a $525,000 investment into a Cambridge business that specializes in natural dental products.
Marcia Hillard-Baird and her team have been creating natural oral hygiene products for over 15 years, starting the business in her basement in 2009.
The company has grown significantly over the past decade moving out of the basement and into a 20,000 sq ft facility on Vondrau Drive.
“The support of FedDev Ontario was critical to this multi-year project and with improvements on our first line, we have already realized an 80 percent increase in shift outputs supporting contracts across Canada and the United States," said Hilliard-Baird.
"Our lab expansion will enable us to competitively produce our oral care products to support more contracts and create 10 new jobs for the region."
Spa-Dent has become a leader in natural oral care, selling its products around the world at stores such as: Fortinos, Well.ca, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Kroger, Amazon and Costco.
This is the second investment from FedDev Ontario for Hilliard-Baird and her team as they previously received over $100,000 through the Women Entrepreneur Fund to help bring their business to the next level and expand production.
"Supporting women like Marcia and her amazing team is just one example of how our government remains committed to helping women entrepreneurs achieve their goals and build a growing and inclusive economy," said FedDev Ontario minister Filomena Tassi.
"This week in particular, we've been focusing on women-led businesses and it's absolutely brilliant to see the potential that women have and our government making the investments so that those possibilities become a reality."
In 2023, Spa Dent Inc. was named one of 100 “Game Changers: Leading Companies. Powered by Women,” by Natural Products Canada (NPC), a national organization committed to identifying and supporting high-potential early-stage bio-based innovation.
The natural dental company makes everything from toothpaste to LED teeth whiteners. With the new investment, Hillard-Baird says they will be able to ramp up production to start shipping more products to the United States and continue to meet demand for their Canadian market.
"I'm honored to be standing here today on International Women's Day with this announcement supported by all of you. It was a year ago today that we were named one of the top 100 Female companies in the natural and bio-based space by Natural Products Canada and I can't wait to see what the future brings," added Hillard-Baird.
