Local woman breaks glass ceiling

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Mountainview Colony is implementing some broadminded changes, determined to promote one of their products more aggressively in the Canadian markets, and in doing so the farmers recently made a couple of radical moves in hiring their first and only employee – a woman.
The 103-member strong colony has been actively producing their non-GMO cold pressed, non-refined canola oil since 2010. Having managed to get the oil on the shelves in Safeway and Co-op, the 2,000-acre operation just outside Strathmore had no experience or time to spend on promoting their goods.
After meeting mother-of-three Dianne Hunter, who was working for Maryn International at the time and using the oil for its lubrication properties, the colony made a unanimous decision.
“Our weak point was our marketing, like every colony, and we had to do something,” said Walter Hofer, secretary for the Mountainview Colony.
“Every other operation when you can’t get it off the ground, you try different avenues. It’s not something Hutterites do, go out there and market and do sales calls.”
Hunter came on board only a few months ago, and already has her sights set on getting the product into big box stores such as Costco and Buy-Low. While the colony has embraced her and her family, the job itself is accompanied with its own set of challenges. Although Mountainview Canola uses no preservatives or chemicals in their processing, Hunter said much of the marketing focuses around the re-education of canola oil’s misconceptions and defying social pressures about the health benefits of the cold-pressed, non-refined oil.
“From April to now it’s been leaps and bounds, and they’ve been so great, they’ve helped the whole way, they’ve been open-minded, and in every stage they’ve welcomed that fact that they have help,” Hunter said.
“The learning curve has definitely been with finding out the demographic and who you are in competition with. Mainly it’s not fighting with farmers or farmer’s markets, but fighting the original belief that canola is bad. In Europe they run out of their oil every year. Oil right now is in demand and for us to be struggling to get this product going, I’m very surprised by it.”
With a degree in women’s studies, Hunter trail-blazed her way into numerous male-dominated positions. Having received an opportunity with Strathmore company SND Industrial, she became the first female machinist within the establishment. Hunter added that the job provided her with a foot in the door to understanding extreme pressures, heat, and tolerances and why certain lubricants work and other don’t. When she stumbled across the Mountainview canola, she quickly recognized the properties it contained for lubrication, and developed a biodegradable saw guide oil for a company named Maryn International.
“I’ve seen other places where woman have worked in production environments and even when we go back as far as World War 1, a lot of the war effort manufacturing was done by women, and it’s just that now our roles are reversed but I was open to giving her a try anyway,” said Dave Mackie, shop manager at SND Industrial. “She’s the type of person that likes to think of new ideas. Sometimes you just have buckle down and do the job instead of sitting there and thinking of new ways to do it, but in other ways if you never think about how to do something you never come up with a better way to do things. She is very creative and think outside the box type of person.”
Despite focusing on marketing and sales, Hunter said they will also be starting development and break into the lubrication market. It took some convincing, but the colony is now using their own product on many of their machines. Mountainview Colony Oil is currently being used by Stella’s Perogies, China Rose restaurant, and the British Chippy. It is also being carried in Safeway and can be locally found in the Co-op.