Import company expands.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: North Bay

In reintroducing itself to the Northern Ontario market, Vested Interest Trading has expanded and moved into new digs in downtown North Bay.

Owned by Jennifer McNutt Bywater and husband Brent Bywater, the import company has come a long way from hawking their Far East wares as street peddlers at the heritage festival to moving into a new 10,000-square-foot warehouse and studio on McIntyre Street West.

In mid-September, having just hired four new people, their staff of 16 were moving the last remnants of about 4,000 items from their former cramped retail outlet in Callander, up Highway 11 into their newly renovated space - a former paint factory known as the Cochrane Dunlop building.

Though their 4,000-square-foot Callander shop had become a destination stop for visitors from Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, Muskoka and Toronto, Jennifer says they desperately needed the additional space and wanted more local exposure.

In Callander, their overflow merchandise was packed to the brim into two storage sheds and two large tents.

"We've only been open. a month (in the new location), but we've definitely tapped into a customer base we didn't have before."

Long-time customers familiar with their lavish trade booths stocked with pottery, jewelry, fashions and other home-decor gift items are now being introduced to their full product line, including exotic teak root furniture.

The business is a symbol of their love of travel and the close, personal bonds they have cultivated in the Far East for the past 11 years.

All the items are handcrafted by artisan villagers living on the Indonesian islands of Bali, Java and Lombok, as well as Burma, Thailand and Nepal.

At the beginning of the year, usually during the slack retail months from January to March, the Bywaters make an annual sojourn to these countries where, they have these goods made to order by Hindu artisans who have specialized in wood carvings, ironwork and silversmithing for generations as part of their religious upbringing.

It is the Bywater's policy to buy directly from family-run cottage industries rather than large manufacturers.

"We know the money goes directly into their pockets as a fair trade operation. They get a good wage, and we know the working conditions."

And since there is no middle man, nor are there brokers involved, their retail prices on these goods are more reasonably priced than one will find at import stores in Toronto.

In Bali, they have developed a trusted relationship...