A new European grocery store, stocking products primarily imported from the Ukraine, is soon to open it's doors in Brandon. Your Home Store, located at 320-10th Street, will be owned and operated by husband and wife Dmytro & Liudmyla Artemchuk. They have spent several months planning and another few months getting their location ready to open to the public. Dmytro, who is originally from the Ukraine, tells bdnmb.ca that they the store will resemble that of a traditional European market carrying a wide array of dry and canned products, vinegars, pickles, spices, perogies, & cabbage rolls. Currently their shelves will stock several hundred different grocery items with more on the way. While most of the products will initially be of the Ukrainian variety, Dmytro said they will soon also be bringing in products from Poland, Germany and other Baltic countries. Among the items for sale include: *condiments *canned meat & fish *pickles & jams *juices & porridges *sweets/biscuits/cookies *European meats made w/o preservatives *coffees/teas *Ukrainian non-alcoholic beer *Ukrainian soft drinks/juices *spices While all items may not be in stock at the time of opening the couple said that new products will be arriving in the coming days and weeks. The store opens Saturday, December 2, 2017. Hours: Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

BRANDON MB, November 30, 2017—In early September, Westman Communications Group’s (Westman) $3 Million investment in network and infrastructure capabilities enabled the increasing of speeds for all their Internet packages, with some speeds being increased by up to 50% faster. Building on the September speed increases, and as part of an ongoing commitment to provide the fastest Residential Internet speeds in Manitoba is the launch of Westman’s Infinite Gigabit service. This service offers download speeds up to 950 Mbps and upload speeds up to 200 Mbps and will be available in all Fibre to the Home (FTTH) residential areas in Brandon. “Westman is pleased to now offer an Internet service for consumers who are uber-users needing significant bandwidth or support for a large quantity of wireless devices in the home at the same time,” said John Quail, Chief Marketing Officer at Westman Communications Group. “As activities such as online gaming and video streaming become increasingly popular, it is important to us that we have a range of package options that now go up to 1 Gigabit available to support it. This upgrade and launch of the Infinite Gigabit service demonstrates our commitment to exceed our customer’s expectations and to being the local provider of choice.” added Quail. Westman’s new Infinite Gigabit service will be available to residential customers living in designated FTTH areas within Brandon effective immediately for only $162.95 per month with free installation.

BRANDON MB, November 29, 2017—Westman Communications Group has been selected as one of Manitoba’s Top 30 Employers for 2018. The provincial award recognizes Manitoba employers that are leaders in their industries as an exceptional place to work. Westman was selected as a Top Employer based on a list of criteria, including physical workplace environment, atmosphere, benefits, vacation, community involvement, and their skills and training development. The selection process compares employer applicants to other organizations in their field to determine which offers the most advanced and progressive programs. “We are very proud to be recognized as one of Manitoba’s top 30 business employers,” stated Dave Baxter, President and Chief Executive Officer of Westman Communications Group. “With innovation being one of our key corporate values, we are always looking for new ways to implement forward-thinking initiatives in our workplace. This provincial award reflects our commitment to that value as well as our other corporate values of community, customer experience, integrity and teamwork.” Winners were announced in a special edition magazine published by The Winnipeg Free Press.

In less than twenty months, bdnmb.ca has achieved what many businesses only dream of.  As of today, they have 10,000 Facebook followers and 150,000 unique visitors to the website on a monthly basis. “We never really dreamed of the potential and if the numbers weren’t there to prove it, we still might not believe it,” said Darryl Wolski, Owner/Partner of bdnmb.ca. The initial idea behind BDNMB.CA was drafted on a piece of scrap paper in September 2015 on a flight to Calgary from Heathrow. According to Wolski, the original plan was to have 10 to 12 local writers or contributors to submit weekly stories in their field of expertise. As well, the website would have movie listings, local news and sports, as well as a classified section. “It was after I had this rough plan put together when I approached Jody Sass to partner on the concept. He agreed and the rest, as they say, is history,” said Wolski. The first attempt at hiring a web developer to create a custom website didn’t pan out exactly as they had hoped, neither did the concept of having local writers who would contribute content on a regular basis. And to top it all off, neither of the new business owners had planned to write stories themselves, nor did they consider themselves to be writers. However, with a little bit of perseverance and the desire to make the website work, they challenged themselves to overcome these setbacks. “It was sort of by fluke that Jody stumbled upon a story that would actually put our website on the map. He featured Don Ditchfield’s new business in the city’s east end, Crow’s General Store, which until that point was a hidden gem. Not only did the story take our website to the next level, it opened the door for many other media outlets to follow our lead and highlight Don’s business including CTV News,” said Wolski. Since then they’ve been able to keep up with getting the latest news and information on the website to keep visitors coming back. In addition, the local business community has been very supportive and many business owners and managers recognize the value in supporting the popular site through their own advertising campaigns. The next big phase for BDNMB.CA was the launch of freshly designed website early this year, which the partners are extremely pleased with following their first debacle (in terms of design) when they originally went online with the website. BDNMB.CA has evolved even further with the launch of an IOS and Android App. Now, all breaking news and important stories will have a push notification sent right to their followers’ mobile devices. This will allow their followers to get the information first and be on top of all the latest happenings in and around Brandon. “BDNMB.CA will always remain a free, local information source. However, without local advertising and business support, this would not be possible. We truly appreciate all those who believed in us and in our website. We don’t think we would have been nearly as successful if it hadn’t been for businesses such as Direct Liquidation, Pita Pit, Smitty’s, The Dock, Domino’s, Double Decker Tavern, Wendy’s and Taco Time who have provided us with gift cards and prizes for our Facebook page. We are so grateful,” said Wolski. While Wolski and Sass work hard to make BDNMB.CA a successful business venture, they are also appreciative of others who have helped them along the way. Professional website developers, graphic designers, photographers such as Caley Brown and Jamie Willey, and local writers like Wanda Kurchaba who have all had a positive impact on bdnmb.ca. "We also need to recognize and thank our followers. It’s those people who see a bus crashing into a building and those who think to send in a tip about a unique story that are also invaluable to our grassroots news and information website. Thank you to one and all for spreading the news and being part of something that Jody and I feel proud of each and every day,” said Wolski.

With absolutely no offence to all the dentists in the world, for many people a trip to the dental office isn’t always a favourite on the list of things to do. However, with some fantastic new technology at Brightside Dental Care they are doing what they can to make their patients experience as comfortable and convenient as possible. Brightside Dental Care, owned by Dr. Larry Cogar and Dr. Scott Mather, opened in Brandon in 2011. For a number of years they’ve been using newer technology and equipment that allows them to offer an efficient, same day service for patients requiring crowns. Dr. Mather said that crowns and bridging are a proactive and preventative way to ensure that people are able to keep their teeth for a lifetime. He personally does 800-900 crowns every year using the new technology and explains how the traditional method isn’t always convenient for the patient. “The traditional model of doing a crown involves getting the patient in to prepare the tooth for the crown, the patient leaves with temporary crown while the moulds or impressions of their mouth are sent off to a lab. After a two to three week wait, the crown comes back from the lab, the patient comes back to the office and then things are swapped out and the permanent crown is cemented in. This means multiple visits and possibly more freezing, which is fairly inconvenient,” said Dr. Mather. Meanwhile, with the Cerec software program and the CAD-CAM technology used at Brightside Dental Care, the team can provide same day service for crown work with great results. “In under two hours we can prepare the tooth, scan the tooth with our digital scanning wand and then design the permanent crown using a computer program. The design is then sent off to our in-house CNC milling machine where solid blocks of porcelain get milled out to the exact specification of what was scanned and designed,” said Dr. Mather. “I can then cement the crown and in about two hours the patient leaves with a permanent crown. It’s convenient, but in addition the fit and finish is amazing. When you have a digital scan, the crown is perfect.” Brightside Dental Care is the only dental office in Brandon currently offering this service. Dr. Lauren Davies, Dr. Nathan Vercaigne and Dr. Quin Rusnak work alongside Dr. Mather, along with 10 other members of their professional team. Brightside Dental Care is located at 144-6th Street, with a satellite office in Shilo. They also have locations in Portage la Prairie and Gladstone.