Montreal Lake Business Ventures acquires share of Manitobah Mukluks
- Robert Merasty | October 05, 2018
A partnership between Manitobah Mukluks and Montreal Lake Business Ventures was recently announced in Prince Albert. On September 28th, Chief Frank Roberts of The Montreal Lake Cree Nation, Nolan Henderson President of The Montreal Lake Business Ventures Limited Partnership (MLBVLP) and CEO of Manitobah Mukluks Sean McCormick were extremely happy to form a partnership.
MLBVLP acquired a partial ownership of Manitobah Mukluks and are now shareholders in the popular Indigenous company.
Sean McCormick, a Métis from Manitoba, is the original owner of Manitobah Mukluks and started the company in 1997 when he was only 23 years old. Fast forward 21 years later, McCormick’s company sky rocketed internationally where he markets to over sixty countries.
“Most of our sales are in Canada but we sell lots in the US, Germany, France, Korea and Brazil. Name a country,” he said. “That’s spreading indigenous know-how across the world and sharing what is made in Canada.”
Manitobah Mukluks employs over 300 people and averages between $25 and $50 million in annual revenue.
The infamous company has one production facility in Winnipeg and two in Vietnam, the sales and marketing office in Ottawa and a retail store in Edmonton.
“We’re growing very quickly and becoming the favorite Canadian winter boot, which is very appropriate given the mukluk and Indigenous knowledge have been with Canadians for thousands of years,” said McCormick.
Robert Fincati, CEO of Montreal Lake Business Ventures, said it is through good governance and a structured investment process that makes investments into companies like Manitobah Mukluks.
“This meets our mandate of eventually creating wealth sovereignty for our shareholder, the Montreal lake Cree Nation,” he said.
Fincati and McCormick met three years ago and found they shared a common vision. Since then they’ve been talking about partnering so they could benefit from the very successful and fast-growing sales of the mukluks. Their negotiations took about three years before becoming partners. A third partner, Josh Fine, is the Chief Brand Officer and vice president of Manitobah Mukluks. McCormick partnered with Fine several years ago to build a global brand of Mukluks. Now there’s a worldwide market of the Canadian made winter boot.
At the event, there were smiles of jubilation as Manitobah Mukluks will create employment and training opportunities in the future.