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In today’s episode, Rajan travels to Canada to meet Canadian Beer Baroness and Dragons Den personality, Manjit Minhas, owner of one of the largest breweries in North America.

Being a successful woman in business can often mean juggling a personal life, challenging limiting stereotypes and navigating the male-dominated corridors of power. But add South Asian to the mix and that’s another ball!

This episode is a download on how to dream big, reach your goals, give back and remember the sacrifices one has to make along the journey.

“You dream a lot bigger when you’re naive.”

What sacrifices have you made in order to achieve a goal?  Share your comments below.

If you like what we do, want to share a story, or support our work, please visit www.globalindianseries.com.

About Manjit Minhas:
Manjit Minhas is 41 years old and was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. This Petroleum Engineering student turned beer baroness is a Dragon on the hit TV show Dragons’ Den on CBC in its 15th season (for which she has been on for 6 seasons/years). Manjit leads a privately owned empire that had revenues in excess of $220 million last year.

Manjit is the co-founder and co-owner of the Minhas Brewery, Distillery and Winery. She started her companies at the ripe age of 19 in Alberta, when she launched her spirits in 1999 and her beers in 2002 in Alberta with her business partner and brother, Ravinder Minhas. Together with $10,000 they gave the big boys a run for their money, thereby becoming the first successful company to enter the Canadian beer industry in many decades. Currently, she has over 90 brands of beers, spirits, liqueurs and wines. Her products are sold in 5 provinces (Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia), as well as 47 states throughout the USA and 16 other countries.

Over the last few years, wherever Manjit and Ravinder have entered the marketplace, and especially in Canada, they have single headedly caused a huge stir in the marketplace. To date, her companies have sold over 7 billion pints of beer! Many beer drinkers in Canada and USA have welcomed her style of beer as a tasty alternative to the higher priced mediocre beers that dominate the marketplace.

Manjit takes Social Responsibility very seriously. Manjit Minhas is the 1st brewer in Canada to voluntarily put a Management Warning on all her beer cans. The Management Warning on the cans reads ” MANAGEMENT WARNING: Please do not drink and drive – ever. Expectant mothers should avoid drinking alcoholic products. Enjoy this product responsibly – Respect yourself and others”. She recently put this on all her products because she believes as a responsible brewer and citizen of this country, it is important she does her part to educate Canadians.

Manjit has also created a special 48 can pack of beers for COSTCO which has the least amount of packaging materials compared to any other product in Canada or USA. It uses no plastic hi-cone rings and needs least amount of box material. This product alone will save millions of pounds of packaging materials ending up in the already over-filled landfills. Similarly, Manjit has sold millions of cases of other brands of her beers such as Boxer Lager with minimum packaging materials using sound engineering principles in protecting the environment.

Manjit believes that effective use of science and engineering can do a lot of good in people’s lives. She has used her engineering background in producing beer using least amount of cleaning and water treatment chemicals, gas, electricity and water. Canadian and American consumers suffering from the Celiac disease have also been beneficiary of her innovative method of making best tasting Gluten Free beer from Sorghum and sold at half the price of the competition.

Manjit and her brother purchased the 2nd oldest brewery in the United States in Monroe, Wisconsin in 2006 and renamed it “Minhas Craft Brewery”. Being in their mid 20s, the purchase of this Brewery officially made them the Youngest Brewery Owners in The World. Their brewery is now the 9th largest in North America. From this brewery, world quality beers are shipped across the USA, to Canada and overseas to 16 different countries such as Japan, UK, Brazil and Korea. The Minhas Distillery distills and bottles premium spirits and liqueurs such as Artingstall’s Brilliant London Gin.

Manjit opened a new brewery in Calgary in June 2012 – the Minhas Micro Brewery and quickly added a distillery also. This facility makes unique and specialty beers, spirits and wines such as White Wolf, Boxer Lager and Pilsner, Rovers Irish Cream, Blackstone Vodka and Punjabi Club Whisky.

Manjit also co-owns Spotlight TV and Film Production that writes, directs and produces numerous documentaries, feature films, lifestyle programs, tv and digital commercials and corporate videos based in Calgary, Vancouver and Los Angeles.

In Early 2015, CBC approached Manjit to star on Dragons’ Den; Manjit has experienced the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and is keen on helping others who work hard to create successful businesses and follow their passions and dreams. Being a venture capitalist Dragon allows her to share her knowledge, experience and expertise about being an entrepreneur with millions of Canadians each week. Manjit has invested in 31 businesses the last 6 seasons/years.

In 2020 Manjit’s companies had revenues in excess of $220 million.

Manjit has won several business industry awards. A few of them are listed below:
• Canada’s Top 40 Under 40
• Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs in Canada
• “Top Growth Entrepreneur” award, PROFIT magazine in Toronto
• Ranked #6 in the “Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies” by Alberta Venture Magazine
• Alberta Chamber of Commerce Marketing Award
• Young Achiever Award from the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce
• Compelling Calgarian Award given by the Calgary Herald
• Alberta Centennial Medallion
• Canada’s Women Executive Network Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs
• Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40
• India Abroad’s “The Power List” Award
• Famous 5 Foundation Leader Award
• Global TV Woman of Vision Award
• Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist
• Chatelaine Magazine’s Top Entrepreneur Woman of The Year
• The Sikh Centennial Foundation Award
• Canadian Business Icon Award

Manjit currently serves as a Board of Director for ATB Financial, YYC Calgary Airport Authority, Spiritleaf Cannabis (ISH Holdings), Shop and Shout and Alberta Small Brewers Association. In the past she has served as board of director on TransCanada Trail, United Way, Shergill Homes and West Island College and was the United Way Campaign co-chair raising $60 Million plus for this charity that is close to her heart. Manjit donates time and money to philanthropic causes in Calgary that benefit women and children such as United Way and Ronald McDonald charities. Manjit has an extensive background and experience in government relations, shareholder relations, governance and executive performance and compensation.

Manjit is born and raised in Calgary and still calls it home with her husband and they have two young daughters.

Bio courtesy of www.manjitminhas.com

About the Global Indian Series:
My name is Rajan Nazran Chief explorer for the Global Indian Series, the official platform for people of Indian origin (PIO), because let’s face it, we are everywhere!

For almost 15 years we have travelled across the globe covering 58 countries to date whilst exploring the kaleidoscope of our remarkable 50 shades of brown community.

Voyaging to the edges of the Amazon, facing Ebola in West Africa, being held hostage in Eastern Europe, tapping rubber in Malaysia, drinking chai with Heads of State and sharing laughter with local fishermen – I have been there, looking for us!

Our purpose is simple, to build a living encyclopaedia of the human experience of the community and a safe mooring ground for open discussions, whether you are an NRI, Indian Diaspora, person of Indian origin (PIO) or a fan of South Asian anthropology, what we do is bring people and communities together.

We do this by plunging into the human experience of being a person of Indian origin (PIO), taking a second look at the countries we now call home and tackling the conversations we need to know more about.

Through our range of award-winning original content (print, podcasts, events and TV) and fascinating discussions, our impactful stories and platforms have spearheaded national and international conversations that have brought people together.

Our work is featured in global brands including The Indian Express through to the CNBC network.

How to get involved:

Interested in getting involved in building the world’s largest living encyclopedia on the community? Whether you want to become a patron, buy us a chai in a new location or have your story shown, simply get in touch via our website, we would love to hear from you. www.globalindianseries.com

Social media: You can reach Rajan via

Instagram: @rajannazran

Linkedin: RajanNazran

YouTube: Global Indian Series

Episode: 77

Presenter – Rajan Nazran

Producer –Global Indian Series/NazranRoth

Guest – Manjit Minhas

Art Design – Vanisha Patel

Special thank you to TAIZU for the music

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https://globalindianseries.com/ep-28-empowerment-and-entrepreneurship-made-in-singapore/

https://globalindianseries.com/official-podcast-chef-vikram-vij/

https://globalindianseries.com/in-deep-with-surinder-arora-ceo-of-arora-group-and-global-indian/

Are you a global Indian that needs to go global? You may be interested in our articles on citizenship by investment and global residency options, including golden visa planning through to the leading funds to consider. It’s a definitive guide for all global Indians to read on what you need to know and what you must avoid when looking to participate in investment migration and golden visa planning.

We produce content that inspires purpose, passion, and community. If you like what we do, please do share, like, subscribe and comment. It helps massively with online algorithms.

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Support change: A little favour to ask-We believe true freedom is to be able to act without fear or favour and that identity is not a “brand” to be abused, politicized, or reduced for personal gain. As Global Indians, the need to work together is greater now than ever before.  If we want to see real change, we need to create a better society for all, tackle injustice and plunge into the many aspects of what the human experience truly offers.The Global Indian Series has been built to be a platform of integrity, fairness and to remain fiercely independent of political influence. We are the first in the world to connect with every echelon of society with all human voices being treated equally.  We are the first to have travelled physically to locations far and wide, often putting our own lives on the line to bring forward stories that deserve to be told.  Whether it’s through our Podcast that delves into the human experience behind identity, our articles and features that cover key events we need to know, or live based events that tackle topical discussions, we have been there to support a better community and planet.Despite the high costs and time needed to maintain our work, we continue, because we know our work has helped more people understand what is happening within the communities across our planet, why it matters, and how, together, we can demand progress.  We challenge head-on, the silent divisions that have crept into our collective consciousness and how to tackle key issues that often go neglected in mainstream media.How you can help:Please share our work: By collaborating with others who share our values, our combined voices make change, with many more becoming inspired to take meaningful action.Subscribe to the platform:Many from across our community have decided to subscribe to our platform. It helps us grow which in turns attracts like-minded supporters. If you have not already, we would appreciate you subscribing to our newsletters and following our social media accounts. It is free and supports our journey.