My name is Stéphanie Laurin, and I am the president of the Association des salles de réception et érablières du Québec, the ASEQC. I own a sugar shack that welcomes nearly 80,000 people in the spring, over some eight weeks. Our establishment also hosts between 200 and 300 marriage celebrations every year.
Last spring, when COVID-19 arrived, our facility had invested nearly $300,000 to kick off the sugar shack season. Without warning, just before the start of the season, we had to shut down operations. I have personally contributed to the fight against COVID-19. We have manufactured several hundred thousand protective masks. We acquired about 60 sewing machines last spring, and we have transformed our sugar shack into a mask manufacturing facility.
Unfortunately, none of that was sufficient. Last July, we had no income, as all the events and banquets were postponed until 2021. It was a blank calendar and a 95% drop in our sales that made me decide to contact my competitors, owners of reception halls and sugar shacks of Quebec. I then realized how disastrous the situation was for our industry, which consists of sites for large gatherings. So I decided to create the association I now preside over, the ASEQC. This is a registered non-profit organization that represents our establishments in dealings with various government bodies.
After that, we worked on saving Quebec's sugar shacks because there are very few of them. Prior to COVID-19, there were about 240 sugar shacks, and we have already lost about 100 of them so far. There are now fewer than 140 establishments representing sugar shacks and maple internationally.
Faced with this problem and knowing that the 2021 season may also be in jeopardy, we decided to create a project called “Home Sweet Home”.
“home sweet home”.
This is a system of boxed lunches Quebeckers can order to have the sugar shack experience at home. I am seeing little thumbs up on the screen. We went to great lengths to launch this project. With no cash flow and no means, we have created a platform that brings together nearly 75 sugar shacks in a single transactional marketplace. We officially launched on February 22, and so far, 1.5 million people have visited our website. Soon, we will have generated $7 million in income for the participating establishments over slightly more than two weeks.
We are really experiencing incredible success. We have managed to remain resilient. We are part of an industry that decided to roll up its sleeves. Unfortunately, I can tell you today that I am unsure this will be enough, as we are seeing that our calendar for the next 12 months is still empty. Summer marriages and banquets have been postponed until 2022. We have managed to survive without income over the past 12 months, but that could prove much more difficult over the next 12 months.
This is my testimony to you today.