‘Heavy heart’: Tiber River to cease operations

Winnipeg wellness product company Tiber River will officially end its operations.

In an email to customers, the business announced its closure “with a heavy heart.”

It will continue making products until its raw materials are used up. However, such items are only available online, the company noted — it closed its last Winnipeg shop, on Kenaston Boulevard, earlier this week.

Tiber River leadership did not immediately respond to questions Thursday.

On Monday, company president Michelle Lalonde said Tiber River’s team had been “working diligently” to secure investment capital for the future. “The (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the landscape for many businesses including Tiber River,” she wrote in an email.

The recent announcement follows a trail of negative news. Tiber River closed its final shop at 1650 Kenaston Blvd. this week; it shuttered its Academy Road location in 2022.

Last year, the company announced it would cut its ambassador program. Ambassadors were contractors who sold Tiber River skin care products for a 30 per cent commission.

At the time, Tiber River offered its ambassadors customer loyalty points in lieu of final earned commissions. The company has since seen four small-claims court lawsuits from former ambassadors. Most seek compensation for vacations they were promised — if they sold enough product, they received points to go on trips. Two of the lawsuits have since been dropped.

At the time, co-owners Lalonde and Adriana DeLuca pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a resulting 30 per cent sales drop, as the reason for axing the ambassador program.

The company also went under the microscope when a social media page, Not My Tiber, posted allegations of a hostile workplace. Tiber River said at the time it would consult a HR firm.

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In 2016, Tiber River was on an upward trajectory. It had moved into a manufacturing facility five times bigger than its old one and was named one of Canada’s 500 fastest-growing companies.

The vertically integrated business reported direct sales division growth of 178 per cent in 2015 and 410 per cent in 2014. It had ambassadors in every province and territory, except Quebec and the Northwest Territories, according to a 2016 Free Press article.

DeLuca founded Tiber River in 1999; Lalonde joined as co-owner in 2005. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to our dedicated team,” Tiber River’s closure announcement email reads.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

— Gabrielle Piché

Gabrielle Piché
Reporter

Gabby is a big fan of people, writing and learning. She graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in the spring of 2020.

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