Clients may leave the area but they remain loyal and continue to buy. Receipts, Dean tells us, are written by hand. Demographic study shows the average customer is between 25 and 55. The Acanthus Group attracts clientele from a huge orbit in the province of Ontario. Port Hope is located east of Toronto on the lake shore but people travel from as far west as Windsor across the river from Detroit, and north as far as Collingwood on Lake Huron.
Acanthus does little print advertising and no television or radio promotion.
However, they keep excellent preferred customer lists and twice annually invite a total of 3,500 people to attend catered open house events. The Christmas two-day promotion is very lucrative. They do two fifths of their business during this time. The second event takes place in May, just before or right after the Victoria Day long weekend and, of course, This Other Eden is the featured locale. There are nine full time and one part time employee at Acanthus.