NEWS RELEASE

From dirt to distinction

- Little potatoes make the cut among Alberta’s best run businesses -

Edmonton, AB – Since she harvested her first one-acre crop by hand in 1996, The Little Potato Company’s founder and CEO Angela Santiago has expanded the company into $15 million in sales across Canada. The Little Potato Company’s success and reputation has now positioned it as one of Alberta’s best run companies, winning and being shortlisted for three prestigious Alberta business awards.

The Little Potato Company (LPC) is a finalist for the 2007 Alberta Business Awards of Distinction in the area of Innovation in Agriculture. The product itself is innovative: LPC has turned the ‘spud’ into a unique product, creating a niche market out of small potatoes (long considered sub-grade by conventional potato growers) and providing retailers double-digit growth versus a slow decline in sales of regular potatoes. LPC has the proprietary rights to its seven distinct varieties of creamer potatoes, and has invested thousands into the development of production plants and specialized equipment to wash, scrub, sort and package the millions of pounds of tiny potatoes that hit Canadian dinner plates every year.

In addition, LPC is a finalist for Alberta Venture magazine’s Alberta’s Best Workplace for New Canadians category for 2007. The company has a long list of programs geared to employee satisfaction and retention, but with a twist. As 72 per cent of its employees are visible minorities from 29 countries spanning five continents, many of these programs are designed to help make employees feel at home, not just on the job but with their new lives in Canada. Initiatives include ESL (English as a Second Language) training at noon hour, using a third party service to link new Canadians into local cultural organizations, and regular follow-up check points with each new employee to ensure they feel comfortable with their new job and surroundings.

The company has also been awarded Leader in Safety for the Fruit and Vegetable Packaging and Processing Industry by the Workers Compensation Board. This is the top honour for the company with the lowest accident incident rate in a particular industry in Alberta.

LPC’s recipe for success in innovation, workplace satisfaction, and safety is its people, says CEO Angela Santiago. “Because we are growing, we need dedicated people who believe in the vision of the company, and that includes everyone from top management to plant workers,” Santiago explains. “We spend as much time here as we do with our families, so we should do everything we can to make this a healthy, happy place to work,” she adds.