March 25, 2015 (CALGARY) - Manjit Minhas, co-founder and co-owner of Calgary's Minhas Micro Brewery, is thrilled to announce she will be joining the panel of the hit CBC television series DRAGONS' DEN. Fellow Calgarian Michele Romanow, co-founder of Buytopia.ca and recent star of CBC's NEXT GENDEN is also joining the show.
When Manjit Minhas was a 19 year-old university student, she and her brother Ravinder scraped together $10,000 to launch their first spirit brand in Alberta and then in 2002 their first beer brand, Mountain Crest Classic Lager. While Manjit is educated as a petroleum engineer, the Minhases followed their business dreams and, in 2006, purchased the second-oldest brewery in the United States and renamed it Minhas Craft Brewery. At the time, this acquisition made the Minhas siblings the youngest brewery owners in the world.
Their facility in Monroe, Wisconsin is now the 10th-largest brewery in North America, producing more than 90 beers,spirits, liqueurs and wines which ship across Canada and the U.S., as well as overseas to 16 different countries. Today Manjit and Ravinder have shipped over one billion cans of beer and run a group of companies that generate more than $155 million in revenue annually.
Minhas has become a specialist in brand development, marketing, sales management and retail negotiations. She has also been recognized with several business awards, including being named PROFIT magazine's Top Growth Entrepreneur, one of Canada's Women Executive Network's Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs in Canada, one of Chatelaine's 2011 Women of The Year and being awarded the Sikh Centennial Foundation Award in 2014.
The current season of DRAGONS' DEN airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC Television. Production for DRAGONS' DEN's landmark tenth season will begin at the CBC Broadcasting Centre in Toronto on April 13th.
Find the show online:
cbc.ca/dragonsden
facebook.com/dragonsden
@cbcdragon, #cbcdragonsden
For more information about DRAGONS' DEN, including series synopses, press releases, hi-res images, video clips and bios, please visit the CBC Media Centre at cbc.ca/mediacentre. Follow CBC's publicity team on Twitter @CBC_Publicity.
Want to learn more about Manjit and Ravinder Minhas journey?
Watch the feature length documentary 'Minhas Family Brew' now streaming at http://cbc.ca/revenuegroup/minhas-brewery.html
Manjit Minhas is a highly-successful Calgary entrepreneur. Manjit and her brother, Ravinder Minhas, are Co-Founders and Co-Owners of the Minhas Craft Brewery, among other interests.
In addition to being Co-Founder and Co-Owner of the Minhas Craft Brewery and Minhas Micro Distillery in Wisconsin and the Minhas Micro Brewery in Alberta, Manjit is CEO of Shergill Homes, an Executive Producer at Spotlight Productions and an owner of Pizza Brew restaurant.
Manjit was only 26 years old in 2006 when she bought the Joseph Huber Brewery in Wisconsin, making her and her brother Ravinder the youngest brewery owners in the world. We'll save you the math, that means Manjit is now 34 years old.
Manjit and her husband Harvey have two young daughters.
We have no idea. Not even Google can solve that mystery.
Manjit was born and raised in Calgary and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. She lives in north Calgary with her husband and two daughters – justaround the corner from both her brother and her parents' houses!
Manjit Minhas attended the Engineering Faculty at The University of Calgary from 1998-2000 and The University Of Regina's Petroleum Engineering Faculty from 2000-2003.
The Minhas group of companies are all privately-held and unlisted however the total revenue of all companies exceeds $155 million annually. Manjit and Ravinder are proud to have self-financed all of their endeavors without outside investors and no debt.
Shorter than her brother, but tall enough to reach for the stars.
Seriously, Google. Must you be so nosy? While Manjit is a heavyweight in the boardroom, she floats like a butterfly thanks to a healthy vegetarian diet and extensive workouts chasing after her kids.
The Minhases are proud Sikhs, proud Calgarians and proud Albertans. They are an all-Canadian family that loves being in the business of making damn good beer.
Manjit is honoured to be asked to speak at many various business forums,industry conferences, chambers of commerce, middle school assemblies and family dinners.
While she unfortunately cannot attend every event she is invited to, you can find out about booking Manjit Minhas by contacting The Lavin Agency.
You bet! Follow Manjit @manjitminhas