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Sunny Day Products 25 year
SUNNYFOR
25YEARS YEARS25
Sunny Day Products started as a way to share a culture while preserving relationships and has blossomed into a thriving family business with products available across Canada and Mexico.
The owners Dick and Mary Anne Plett moved to Bolivia in 1978 when they felt called to make a difference as volunteers working with the Mennonite Central Committee. Here they gave themselves to working on social development projects while building lifelong relationships within the local communities. After seven years in Bolivia they moved to Mexico where they continued their role with MCC for five more years. During their time in Latin America their family grew, having four boys who saw Mexico as home and Spanish as their first language. After twelve years as volunteers, it was time to go “home”. “We wanted our kids to know where home is,” said Dick as getting the boys acquainted with their Canadian roots was part of the reason for coming back to Winkler.
The family came to Winkler, their new home, with minimal financial resources. While their living expenses were paid for while volunteering, that was it, making for a difficult transition home. Beyond the financial challenges, the boys had left the only culture they had ever known and needed to adapt to life in North America. Needing a way to provide for his family, Dick leaned on the relationships he had built over the last twelve years. “Coming back to Canada I had a great interest in trading,” said Dick, “whether it be back and forth with Mexico or something else.” Along with strong, established relationships, he also knew the language and the culture of Latin America. The Manitoba Government even heard of his desire to trade with Spanish speaking nations and the sector of International Business and Development reached out to him. “They kept me informed of the current international business climate and countries needs along with their interest in trading and doing business” said Dick of his unexpected new resource.
His initial trading company was called Canmexus, a small company that traded with Canada, Mexico and the United States, which is where the name came from. As much as it was a means of making a living, it was just as much a way for them to stay connected to the outside world and the places they called home for so many years. “It was a way of keeping relationships alive,” said Dick.
This trading
experience would prove to be a great asset when an opportunity came up to revamp a dormant family business of roasting sunflower seeds. While they were not given much from the bank, they were able to use the old roasting equipment after some repairs and a paint job.
Beyond roasting seeds and varieties of nuts, they had a vision of giving the community a taste of their previous home, selling authentic Mexican food products. “We wanted to focus on offering healthy snacks and nutritious food,” said Dick. “If we can contribute to the community and provide something to the customer that has value, then that’s worth getting up for in the morning.”
Mary Anne explained that the name Sunny Day came from the idea that no matter the challenges they faced, they never needed to have a cloudy day. Every day could be sunny with the right perspective. This is the attitude they have chosen while navigating the business through the last twenty-five years. They found a suitable building for their store when a shop down Manitoba Road in Winkler was made available. While it wasn’t much, there was room enough to set up their roasting equipment, have warehouse
space, and a small storefront.
Their first priority was always providing exceptional customer service. “We learned in Latin America that if you want to do business with someone, you first go out for a meal together and spend the first hour talking about everything but business,” said Dick, explaining the value of personal connection and building relationships. “We try to incorporate this into the business we do here.” The first years running the store were very challenging, as they had spent the previous twelve years far removed from business and had to develop a feel for the Winkler business climate.
“We had enough confidence in ourselves that we could do it,” said Mary Anne.
The community support was immediate. H.F. Wiebe was the mayor of Winkler at that time and personally came to visit them. Along with welcoming them back, he also gave them a small financial gift from the community to help them get started. “It wasn’t much, but the mere gesture of him coming here, acknowledging we’re new to the community and wanting to help us went a long way in making us feel supported” said Dick. “From the community leaders to the Chamber of Commerce, they have supported us wherever they can, and we feel very fortunate.”
Since then, Sunny Day has needed to expand twice, first to make
room for their Mexican food line in 2005 which includes made in-house tortillas, burritos, flautas, tamales, and varieties of imported salsas and hot sauces. Their more recent expansion which started in 2019 may have also been the key to surviving the challenges of Covid 19. “If we only had our small store space during Covid, we may not have made it,” said Dick, as the maximum occupancy would have been set to a trivial five shoppers at a time. The six thousand square foot expansion has been a great addition for their warehouse space along with being able to triple the size of their storefront.
Through it all, their reliable staff have been the backbone of Sunny Day and the reason they are still in business. “This has always been a group effort” said Dick, “If it wasn’t for our staff, customers and the support of our community, we wouldn’t be here today.” With the ability to hand off more and more responsibility to staff and their son Ben, who is the current general manager, Dick and Mary Anne have been given the freedom to once again be involved in missions work on a part-time basis with their long-time friends in Latin America.
