{"id":45454,"date":"2017-06-23T14:24:06","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T18:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=45454"},"modified":"2017-06-23T14:24:06","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T18:24:06","slug":"sweet-dreams-pay-off-for-brock-alumna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/06\/sweet-dreams-pay-off-for-brock-alumna\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet dreams pay off for Brock alumna"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no need for Tayler Book (BA \u201914) to sugarcoat her Brock experience.<\/p>\n

When the 25-year-old St. Catharines native reflects on her time at the University, she fondly recalls the influence it has had on her career as a successful entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

Although business wasn\u2019t the focus of Book\u2019s studies, the co-owner of the wildly popular Beechwood Doughnuts in downtown St. Catharines learned a lot during her Social Justice and Equity classes that she now applies to everyday life.<\/p>\n

Book, along with her partner in life and business Shane Belanger, considers it crucial to leverage her shop\u2019s success in order to give back to the community.<\/p>\n

Beechwood donates $1 from every cinnamon sugar doughnut sold to YWCA Niagara Region, an organization that provides shelter, food and other supports to people living in poverty.<\/p>\n

\"Tayler

Tayler Book (BA \u201914), co-owner of Beechwood Doughnuts in St. Catharines, spends her days creating sweet treats at her downtown shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

In an effort to further spread kindness in the community, the business also has a Pay It Forward program that allows customers to pre-purchase coffee and doughnuts for others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support the community and I make sure we promote a positive work environment,\u201d Book said while discussing her business philosophy.<\/p>\n

The vegan doughnut shop opened its doors in January 2015, less than a year after Book crossed the stage at Spring Convocation.<\/p>\n

That first day came with an ambitious goal \u2014 to sell 250 of the sweet treats and ultimately build a larger clientele base down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sold out within an hour,\u201d Book said with a laugh. It was an opening that exceeded everyone\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n

She credited her time at Brock and involvement with campus clubs for helping to give Beechwood its initial success.<\/p>\n

As a member of Brock Dance, and a participant in several other extracurricular University activities, Book was able to build a network and make connections with hundreds of people, many of whom have shown the doughnut shop their support.<\/span><\/p>\n

Book and Belanger, who began the business with a single employee, had dreamed of someday selling as many doughnuts as a Tim Hortons franchise, with many of the popular coffee shops each averaging 600 doughnuts a day.<\/p>\n

With Beechwood\u2019s brand showing no signs of slowing, the shop now employees 15 people and sells between 1,500 and 3,000 doughnuts daily.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not uncommon to find a lineup spilling into the sidewalk of James Street as people wait for sweet satisfaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more space for our customers,\u201d Book said, adding the business has simply outgrown the shop where the doughnut dream began.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be relocating within the same neighbourhood sometime in summer 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she can\u2019t definitively say what it is that draws people to the specialty doughnuts, Book believes that quality and variety play a large part.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe offer generous portion sizes and our team is constantly creating different flavours,\u201d she said. \u201cThat keeps people coming back.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no need for Tayler Book (BA \u201914) to sugarcoat her Brock experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":45456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,3319,1,4,38,4523],"tags":[4764,4803,5481,818,5480],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}