Cornell Crème Limited

The Business

Lisa developed a local and natural product she could be proud of

Lisa Dyck, owner of Cornell Crème Limited, started her business at her kitchen table in July 2012. Lisa was inspired to make ice cream because she and her husband William own a 1,000 acre dairy farm in Anola, Manitoba and she wanted to make a product using the milk from their farm. By creating Cornell Crème, Lisa developed a local and natural product she could be proud of. This premium ice cream is produced at the Notre Dame Creamery facility in Notre Dame de Lourdes and is sold in retail, food services, restaurants and farmers markets throughout Manitoba. Lisa chose to develop her business in rural Manitoba for two reasons. First, it’s where home is and second; she believes Manitoba is a great place to have a business because of its central location, distribution channels and networks.

The Motive and Skills

“Food is very personal and everyone seems to love ice cream,”

Rural life has strongly influenced Lisa’s motivation to develop her business. She wants to have control of her product from putting the seed in the ground to the ice cream at the end. This kind of control allows Lisa and William, as dairy producers, to continue feeling confident they have a market to sell their milk to. Lisa also wants to support local businesses and processing facilities in Manitoba. “Food is very personal and everyone seems to love ice cream,” says Lisa. This creates an opportunity to bring awareness back to agriculture, to show people where their food is coming from. For Lisa being able to take time away from the dairy to pursue Cornell Crème was a huge benefit. Her food knowledge and marketing skills have also been important factors to her success.

Challenges and Support

she believes competition is good it “feeds what you need.”

The biggest challenges Lisa had to overcome were having a place to process her ice cream and finding local suppliers. There are few dairy processors in Manitoba. This is a problem for Lisa, she believes competition is good it “feeds what you need.” Lisa was fortunate to receive help from the University of Manitoba Dairy Science Plant and the Manitoba Food Processors Association. She also took an ice cream course at the University of Guelph and a refresher business course through MAFRD. Lisa concludes there needs to be more support for dairy processors in Manitoba, such as a dairy pilot processing plant, “that would give future Manitoba entrepreneurs good chance to be in the market”.

A Piece of Advice from Lisa

“Keep it simple, especially in food.” She goes on to explain that people may be tempted to put out multiple lines at once, but recommends they do one thing and do it really well.