THIS HYDRAULIC FRACTURING PUMP FLEET PROVES ITS WORTH Catalyst Energy Services LEADING THE WAY Archrock OFTEN COPIED, NEVER DUPLICATED Labrie Environmental Group BUSINESSINFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM AU G U ST 2 023EDITOR’S CORNER “We’ve definitely seen changes to development schedules in the industry, and we learned a lot about what safety protocols were effective and why.” 3 In 2020 and 2021, those first two years of the COVID pandemic, the biotech and pharma industries saw their highest level of demand yet. I don’t think many would disagree; it was a mad scramble to adjust to the needs of a changed world. At the time, many predicted the lasting effects it would have on the industry and related markets. Looking back now, did it play out as expected? We’ve definitely seen changes to development schedules in the industry, and we learned a lot about what safety protocols were effective and why. It has also driven innovation in vaccine development in particular, accelerating many other projects not directly related, but benefiting from the industry’s new experience with mRNA technology. The giants in the industry have certainly benefited from this, but how have the smaller companies in the industry fared? In this issue, Allison Dempsey takes a closer look at just how these sectors have adjusted. Take a look at her findings in Side Effects – Biotech and Pharma in a Post-COVID World. Tim Hocken Editor Suite 300, 7071 Bayers Rd. | Halifax, NS | B3L 2C2 | Canada P: 1-647-479-2163 | E: EDITOR Tim Hocken DEPUTY EDITOR Jaime McKee COPY EDITORS Thora Smith | Allister Havercroft CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Nate Hendley | William Young | Margaret Eaton Claire Suttles | Jessica Ferlaino | Pauline Müller Robert Hoshowsky | Allison Dempsey DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS James Corbett OPERATIONS MANAGER Severina Gachparova SENIOR CONTENT DEVELOPERS Scott Forbes | Aaron Ferguson CONTENT DEVELOPERS Jack Murtha | Dean Lucas | Taylor Dunne Wendy Hood-Morris | Jamal Francis-Anderson SALES TEAM Pamela Taylor | Morgan Culpepper | Dean Lucas GRAPHIC DESIGN TEAM LEAD Laura Pratt GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Ashley Dowling | Ebic Tristary | Yoana Ilcheva OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Julia MacQueen IT ADMINISTRATOR Rebecca Sanford CONTROLLER Jen Hamilton PUBLISHER Jeff HockenINSIDE AUGUST POWERING THE FUTURENATURAL GAS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONSTRUCTION SERVICES 4 Biotech and Pharma in a Post-COVID World While COVID changed the world, it also changed the very industries working to treat it. Whatever our new normal will be as the pandemic transitions to an endemic, COVID’s long-term effect on biotech and biopharma’s medication development schedules, patient testing, and disease prevention, will continue. PACKAGINGSERVICES 5 BUSINESS IN FOCUS FARM PROGRESS SHOW – 70TH ANNIVERSARY 29 – 31 August, Decatur, IL For 70 years, the Farm Progress Show has connected farmers from across the globe with agriculture’s leading companies. With hundreds of exhibitors, there’s no better place to engage with the latest farm products and the specialists who developed, tested, and designed them. Whether you are looking to innovate with the latest ag-technology, learn from industry experts, or share your farming legacy with your family, the Farm Progress Show has it all. For more information FRANCHISE EXPO SOUTH 8 – 9 September, Fort Lauderdale, FL Meet face-to-face with more than 200 of the hottest franchise brands at every investment level and industry. Connect with experienced finan- cial advisors, business mentors, and industry experts in the franchising community. Gain knowledge and skills through over 25 educational seminars and workshops, and build relationships with industry leaders and like-minded entrepreneurs. Franchise Expo South has everything you need to launch your franchise in one place. For more information ASCM 2023 - THE ASSOCIATION FOR SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT 11 – 13 September, Louisville, KY The ASCM CONNECT Annual Conference is one of the largest shows for supply chain professionals. The premier supply chain educational event brings together the best content, networking, and presenters—experts from around the world will explore sustainability; planning; procure- ment; talent and leadership; diversity, equity and inclusion; and so much more. Exhibitors will have the opportunity to connect with supply chain professionals from all over the world at the Annual Conference, the flagship event from the leader in supply chain education. For more information NATURAL PRODUCTS EXPO EAST 20 – 23 September, Philadelphia, PA With a focus on innovation and what’s new in natural and organic, Natural Products Expo East is the event to attend if you wish to discover emerging brands, products, ideas, and markets. Enjoy educational content, networking opportunities, exciting exhibits, the Harvest Festival on Sept. 20, and the newly co-located Innovation Experience on Sept. 22, featuring innovative exhibits, experiential education, networking, and discussion. For more information MARKETING ANALYTICS & DATA SCIENCE (MADS) 26 – 28 September, Washington, DC Join the premier event for marketing insights, analytics, and data science professionals. If you’re responsible for the data-driven insights critical to improving marketing ROI, there’s no better place to find new tools, ideas, and thought leadership. At the Marketing Analytics & Data Science (MADS) conference, you’ll uncover inspiration to think more strategically, better understand customer sentiment, and advance marketing effec- tiveness for your organization. For more information INDUSTRY EVENTS 6 Are you planning an event relating to North America’s growing Business Industry? To get your event listed in Business in Focus, please contact us at least six to eight weeks before the event takes place at or call 1-647-479-2163INDUSTRY NEWS CANADA 365 UNVEILED From malls and museums to mountains and lakes, Canada is known worldwide for its tourism industry. Recently, the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, unveiled the new Federal Tourism Growth Strategy: Canada 365: Welcoming the World. Every Day. He made the announcement in scenic Niagara Falls alongside other ministers and officials including Beth Potter (President and CEO, Tourism Industry Association of Canada), Marsha Walden (President and CEO, Destination Canada), and Keith Henry (President and CEO, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada). The result of almost a year of consultations, including input from about 400 tourism stakeholders, the strategy follows the 2019 plan, Creating Middle Class Jobs: A Federal Tourism Growth Strategy. The strategy identified Canada’s tourism sector was not reaching its potential. VESSELS TRANSPORTING CARS ABLAZE A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles recently burned off the Dutch coast, taking the life of a crew member and injuring others. The vessel was en route from Germany to Egypt. The intensity of the fire aboard the 655-foot Fremantle Highway forced some of the crew to jump overboard to safety. Attempts to contain the fire were difficult. While the cause of the blaze still needs to be determined, it is known that about 25 of the 2,857 cars aboard the ship were electric vehicles (EVs). According to reports, the International Maritime Organisation, which serves to regulate safety standards at sea, will be eval- uating new measures for transporting EVs by ship early next year. The research is the result of the increasing number of fires aboard vessels transporting EVs, which can happen when chemicals in batteries overheat, causing ‘thermal runaway.’ In February 2022, the Felicity Ace, a cargo ship transporting about 4,000 brand-new luxury vehicles from makers like Audi and Lamborghini, caught fire and sank in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores. It is known that some of the cars were EVs, which are powered by lithium ion batteries, notoriously hard to extinguish. Using 2019—and lessons learned for the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic—as a foundation, the strategy outlines five Guiding Principles: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion; Reconciliation in Action; Sustainable and Regenerative Approaches; a Focus on Rural Canada, and Canada Has What the World Wants. These were built on five strategic priori- ties: Invest in Tourism Assets; Embrace Recreation and the Great Outdoors; Partner to Grow Indigenous Tourism; Attract More International Events; and Improve Coordination with a Federal Ministerial Council. More information on Canada 365 is available 7INDUSTRY NEWS TALK TO THE HAND Move over fingerprints, and make way for the palm. Grocery chain Whole Foods recently announced it is intro- ducing a unique, palm-scanning payment system to one of its locations in Seattle. According to Amazon (who purchased the upscale grocers in 2017), the new Amazon One palm scanning technology will be rolled out to over 500 Whole Foods locations across the United States. At present, Amazon One is used for not only payment but also identification and loyalty member- ship. Shoppers link their palm to a credit or debit card kept on record, enrol in the program, and place their palm on a scanner to pay for products. “This means Whole Foods Market customers who choose to use Amazon One will no longer need their wallet or even a phone to pay—they can simply hover their palm over an Amazon One device,” stated Amazon in a media release. “For Prime members who link their Amazon One profile with their Amazon account, savings will automatically be applied. It’s that simple.” Amazon introduced the technology in its Go cashier-less stores in late 2020. Unlike a password or credit card, the Amazon One palm sig- nature “can’t be replicated to impersonate a customer,” states the company. Instead of identifying customers through raw palm images, the scanner examines the palm and underlying vein structure “to create a unique numerical, vector represen- tation—called a ‘palm signature’—for identity matching. Despite being billed by Amazon as fast, convenient, and a secure method of paying, the unique biometric technology has some security industry experts buzzing. Some question how the palm, credit card/debit card, and other informa- tion will be used and stored. As for convenience, some have stated the Amazon One palm signature is no better than waving a credit card over a scanner. 8INDUSTRY NEWS HOLY GUACAMOLE! Of all high-tech sectors, perhaps the one best known for creating cute names for machines is robotics. Hollywood brought us WALL-E and Johnny 5, and now a fast-food chain is bringing us a guacamole-making robot. Meet Autocado. Being trialed by the popular Chipotle Mexican Grill chain, ‘Autocado’ is a revolutionary new avocado-processing machine. The key ingredient in guacamole, cutting, coring and peeling avocados is time-consuming. To make prep faster and easier, the collaborative Autocado ‘co-bot’ works alongside humans in the kitchen. The machine does most of the work, with actual people hand-mashing the signature Mexican dish. Up to 25 pounds of avocados can be loaded into the machine at a time. The avocados are then processed before going into a bowl. For Chipotle, the move comes when human labour is in short supply. Recent estimates state that there are 1.2 million job openings in America’s restaurant and accommodations sector. The company states that the Autocado is not there to replace people, but to work with humans to speed up produc- tion. Chipotle states that it takes 50 minutes on average for its kitchen staff to turn avocados into guacamole. The Autocado cuts that time almost in half. According to Chipotle, the company buys over 100 million pounds—about 4.5 million cases—of avocados annually. In recent years, other fast-food restaurants have turned to auto- mation. White Castle recently started using Flippy, a burger- cooking robot, at 100 of its locations across the United States. RETAIL THEFT ‘OUT OF CONTROL’ Still recovering from the aftershocks of COVID-19 and dealing with inflation and skyrocketing costs, businesses are fighting back against another problem: ORC, Organized Retail Crime. More than someone walking out of a store with a candy bar, with ORC professional thieves swarm stores en masse, walking out with everything from baby formula to flat-screen televisions. The situation is so far out of hand that some large businesses have taken drastic measures. In some instances pricy, high-theft items like razor blades are kept locked behind Plexiglass. In downtown Chicago, pharmacy chain Walgreens created an ‘anti-theft’ store where a mere two aisles are open to customers for shopping. All other items must be ordered through a kiosk and picked up at a counter. In more extreme instances, Walgreens has shuttered 17 San Francisco locations, citing ‘out of control’ shoplifting. Instead of closing, some merchants are making significant investments in security and anti-theft devices and technolo- gy. To deter theft, some San Francisco Safeway Stores installed plastic security gates at self-checkout kiosks. Shoppers must scan their receipts before they are allowed to leave. And in New York City, some grocery stores and pharmacies are chaining freezers and using antitheft plastic devices for con- tainers of ice cream. Far from being solely an American issue, ORC is growing in Canada. An issue for years at government-run liquor stores, the problem has crept over to other businesses. In 2015, the Ontario Government started allowing beer sales in select grocery stores, followed by wine a year later. In recent months, some grocers have stopped selling alcohol, citing razor-thin 2.2 percent margins and rampant theft. 9Next >