Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 20/02) - The Northwest Territories is a great place to do business, and two young entrepreneurs are taking advantage.

Jordan Harker and Mark Avery are young Yellowknife entrepreneurs. They started up Northshore Coffee and Water Ltd. with the help of a territorial government loan. - Thorunn Howatt/NNSL photo

With the help of a government loan, Mark Avery, 24, and Jordan Harker, 26, turned an idea into a business. The pair have been grinding fresh coffee and purifying water for about a month now at their operation called Northshore Coffee and Water Ltd.

The loan is from the Business Credit Corporation (BCC), a territorial crown corporation that gives financing to business enterprises in the Northwest Territories. The BCC has a mandate to help where financing wouldn't be available from alternative financial institutions.

"We thought it would be cool if we could roast our own beans up here and actually package them for office coffee," said Harker, who was distributing coffee for Yellowknife coffee shop Javaroma when the idea struck him. He has his eye on the nearby diamond mines. He hopes to convince them of the quality of fresh-roast coffee.

The water delivery portion of the business was a good fit because "we were going around delivering coffee anyway," said Harker.

When Harker and Avery were looking for information about getting into business they visited the Canada Business Service Centre. Its office is located in the Scotia Centre.

"They did some looking around for us, see what would be good for us," said Harker. The centre does everything from help with a business plan to provide office facilities.

Harker also recommended the Akaitcho Business Development Centre. That organization is part of Community Futures, another territorial entity with an office in Ndilo. "They were great down there, searching things out for us."

The Northshore team leased a Javaroma-owned coffee roaster for 10 years. Green coffee beans are poured into the roaster and are brown when they are done. The coffee is then ground and sealed in packages.

"On the other side of the room we have our purification equipment, which is basically a big water tank and a filler sink and the actual reverse osmosis machine," said Harker, adding that it is a small but expensive piece of equipment.

"Right now we're still trying to get everything down here. It's happening slowly but that's good right now because it's all we can handle," said Harker.

BCC term loans are available for up to $2 million with repayment expected in five years. The office is operated through the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.