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A New and Better Lifestyle
Dutch Family Discovers The Prairies
By Angela Lovell
Entrepreneur Hanna Sweep, 43 and her husband Anko and two children from the Netherlands are an example of resourceful immigrants who cam to Canada come in search of a new and better lifestyle.
Sweep gives two very good reasons behind the decision to come five years ago: blue skies and fresh air.
The family had lived close to the Belgian border, sandwiched between the heavily industrial Ruhr region of Germany and the bustling Dutch city of Rotterdam. Sweep says, The skies there were never clear. Manitoba, I would think, would be almost irresistible to anyone from Western Europe.
For Sweeps asthmatic daughter, Semke, the move meant being able to throw away her medication after just six months in Manitoba another very good reason for the familys move, but not the only one.
There are 60 million people in the Netherlands, which it is 18 times smaller than Manitoba. Its a crowded place to say the least. Living here is a much more relaxed. And there is more value for money and less competition.
After a visit to Alberta, Hanna decided that she didnt like the growing competitiveness of the oil-rich province. Fortunately, the couple spent the last week of their holiday with some of Ankos family already settled in Neepawa; despite ceaseless rain for much of the week, Sweep was impressed.
I found the people in Manitoba much friendlier and open, she recalls. And we thought it was a better place to bring up children. There is a lot more attention to children in the schools here.
Convinced of better opportunities for all of them, the family arrived in Manitoba five years ago, Anko having decided on a farm, which they purchased close to Rapid City.
We liked being close to Brandon, says Sweep. So we were not completely isolated from everything.
In the face of this catastrophe, plan B emerged, which meant a new career in Brandons booming real estate industry for the versatile Anko, while Sweep started her own home-based interior decorating business with no experience and lots of confidence.
In my family, retail and art were major things. Thats why its called All Things Beautiful. I like the esthetics of things, and that can be pretty much anything: an outfit, an interior, a commercial, it doesnt matter.
Starting out with $20,000 of the familys own money, which remained after they had sold off their farming assets, Sweep initially worked with a couple of friends, and the business quickly outgrew the home where she was also busy raising the couples two daughters, who are now age ten and three.
When one of the trio moved to Alberta, Sweep and the remaining friend purchased a building in Rapid City and changed the concept of the business. A store was added to complement the decorating service, offering unique European home décor products that Sweep could now include as part of the whole package.
Unfortunately, more mishaps befell Sweep, including a flood and furnace back-up in the store. It proved too much for her remaining friend, who went her own way, leaving Sweep with yet another dilemma. How was she going to keep the store open and decorate clients homes at the same time?
She finally decided that the store would become her full-time focus and that she would move it to Brandon, about forty minutes away.
I wanted a larger location to grow a bit, and since most of my customers already came from Brandon, it was an easy choice, she says.
The style of the store lent itself to a special location, it has to have character, she explains.
The beautifully renovated building gave her the perfect period setting to display an exclusive line of Italian lighting and other European product lines, such as fine French furniture, that will not be seen anywhere else west of Quebec.
She added some natural Canadian pine accents to the interior and hand-painted the cement floor with decorative figures to imbue the ambiance with something of her own personality.
That includes Sweep herself, who admits that part of the attraction of being a retailer is being able to indulge her own tastes in choosing product lines.
Coming from the Netherlands, coffee is very important she says. There were lower quality coffee makers [available here] but not really high end espresso makers.
To those products, most of which she brings in through established import companies, she has added home furnishing lines and bathroom and bedroom accents.
She also carries a line of sophisticated baby and childrens fashions and toys, like the Kaloo range from France, which helped her develop a unique and successful marketing strategy to bring more people into the store. Any child who bought an outfit from the store was given a free photo session at a local photographers studio. Modelling cards were then made for the child to give to family and friends, who could come into the store and vote for the child in a competition to see who would be the stores top models. The winners were featured in an advertising campaign, which included modelling clothes at a fashion show at Brandons Victoria Inn and appearing in a TV commercial and brochure for the store. During the four weeks that the competition ran, over 4,000 votes were cast.
Sweep is one of the many immigrants who have made Brandon their home during the past few years.
If you want something here, she says, you can get it done. Its the American dream, but in a smaller version, she says.
As an immigrant herself, Sweep sees the growing multi-cultural flavour of Brandon reflected in her own clientele, who come from South Africa, Britain, the Netherlands, and many other countries.
Sweep knows that Brandon, where the family now lives full-time, can offer all the advantages of Vancouver or Toronto, with one important addition.
A former physiotherapist, she has re-invented her career and created opportunities for herself that she knows would not have been possible in her native Netherlands. She says starting a retail business there would have been expensive and fraught with red tape.
I wouldnt have had this store in the Netherlands for sure, she says. People here wont right away question what you are doing if you want to do something, she says. Its more accepting. Thats the wonderful thing. Manitoba is very friendly still. People are very open to you. They let you be yourself. That acceptance has helped Hanna and her family clear the hurdles in their lives and make all things seem beautiful. MBM
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