Coming up on their second successful year in business, iLevel Management – the sales & marketing agency that collaborates with manufacturers to bring their healthy living products to consumers – has appointed Carolyne Bourassa as their new Quebec & Ottawa Account Manager.

Carolyne has been in the natural products industry for over 18 years. She brings a wealth of knowledge from working both on the retail and wholesale sides of the business. She further has been consumer of natural & organic products since her teenage years.

“Natural foods and products and everything eco-friendly are some of my greatest passions in life. I am happy to be a huge consumer of such products in my personal life, and I truly enjoy to represent such quality healthy products and to be able to share my passion and knowledge with as many people as possible.”

Target Corp. released a statement yesterday saying that it will be closing down its Canadian operations. The discount retailer was unable to recover consumer confidence in the brand after being criticized often for having higher prices and a smaller assortment of product than U.S. Target stores. It also faced issues with low inventory and empty shelves at several stores.

Target entered Canada in 2013, while Walmart has been here since 1994 and had years to build a steady consumer fan base before facing the competition Target offered. Now that Target will be leaving, Walmart will have to pick up the slack left by the departing company as the remaining large discount retailer in the country.

Target currently operates 133 stores and employs 17,600 people under Target Canada. The discount retailer is voluntarily making $70 million in contributions to an Employee Trust that will provide a minimum of 16 weeks of wages and benefits for almost all Target Canada employees during the wind-down period.

What will happen to those stores and employees? While other U.S. retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom are making a move into Canada in the coming years, there is the possibility that they will take over at least some of those storefronts. Another possibility is Walmart Canada expanding further by taking over those vacated locations.

Meanwhile, Target stores in the U.S. are doing well, especially after their recent record-breaking holiday season. Target expects that the decision to close its Canadian branches will increase its earnings starting this fiscal year, as well as its cash flow in fiscal year 2016.

“Personally, this was a very difficult decision, but it was the right decision for our company,” said Target Corp. Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell in a statement. “With the full support of Target Corporation’s Board of Directors, we have determined that it is in the best interest of our business and our shareholders to exit the Canadian market and focus on driving growth and building further momentum in our U.S. business.”

U.S. grocery delivery service Instacart has announced it has just closed a $220 million round of Series C financing by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Adding this to new financing from Comcast Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group, Thrive Capital, Valiant Capital and previous investments from Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia, Instacart has received about $275 million to date.

The Instacart service features personal shoppers that hand pick and deliver groceries using their own transportation from local stores to American shoppers.

“We look for visionary entrepreneurs who are re-imagining big business opportunities. In Instacart, we found both,” said Mary Meeker, general partner at KPCB, in an Instacart press release. “Many Americans spend hours per week grocery shopping. Combining its elegant app with on-demand delivery, Instacart allows consumers to save time, and discover new products, while shopping from their favourite local stores.”

According to company CEO Apoorva Mehta, Instacart will be using the investments to support category expansion, continued geographic growth and technology enhancements.

Canada’s Finance Minister Joe Oliver says the country is still on track to balance its budget in 2015 – 2016 as reported, even after oil prices dropped recently.

“We are proud that the government is on track to achieve a balanced budget in 2015, with an expected surplus of $1.6 billion,” said Oliver, as reported by Reuters.

This projection was adjusted to include the drop in oil, which Oliver told reporters would positively and negatively affect the economy this year.

Linda Abbruscato has been promoted to Senior Merchandising Manager, Natural Foods at Fortinos.

Linda has been in the retail supermarket business for over 17 years. She started at Fortinos in 1997 as a Natural Foods clerk, and was later promoted to the Natural Foods Manager. In 2010, Linda joined the company’s head office team as its Natural Foods Specialist. Linda has also spent some time as a Senior Merchandising Manager, Natural Foods on a contract basis while covering maternity leaves.

In her new role, Linda will provide support to the Senior Director of Merchandising and Franchisees, where she will help develop, maintain and execute merchandising strategies and standards to increase sales, profit and market share.

Congratulations on your new role, Linda!

According to a recent report from market research company Packaged Facts, consumers are looking to frozen foods at a growing rate since new options have been introduced that are coined either natural or organic.

“Frozen foods of all kinds have been challenged in recent years as a result of the convergence of several trends, especially, but not exclusively, a growing demand for fresh products or at least fresher products in refrigerated rather than frozen form. Nevertheless, frozen food products still have much to offer,” says David Sprinkle, Packaged Facts research director, in a press release. “For instance, frozen products identified as natural or organic are having a more positive experience than frozen foods in general. These organic and natural frozen foods appeal to the consumer who is both cost conscious and health conscious.”

According to Packaged Facts, sales of the entire frozen food category will grow from $22 billion in 2014 to an estimated $23 billion in 2019. In addition, product variations will continue to grow, with more options added for flavour variety, health benefits and better pricing.

According to a recent study, the chemical called bisphenol S (BPS) that was used as a replacement for Bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles also causes various developmental issues in fish embryos.

Previously, Bisphenol A (BPA) was linked to serious health issues such as obesity, cancer, hyperactivity and childhood anxiety. Studies had found that the use of the chemical also had an effect on brain development in zebra fish. Subsequently, BPA was banned from baby bottles in 2012 by the U.S. Food and drug Administration. Recent studies found that both BPA and BPS chemicals have the same negative effect.

“I was actually very surprised at our results. This was a very, very, very low dose, so I didn’t think using a dose this low could have any effect,” Debra Kurrasch, the lead researcher, told Reuters.

Researchers from the University of Calgary said that further research is required to decide whether BPS affects human fetuses but recommended that pregnant women avoid using items with bisphenols.

In addition to a new year, January 1 brought new import tariffs to Canadians, which will affect thousands of imported products, which may lead to higher costs. This comes after 72 countries were removed from Canada’s “General Preferential Tariff” list.

While Canadians are likely to see increased prices, experts say consumers won’t even notice these additions. However, the government will, as it hopes to bring in an additional $300 million per year since cutting the tariff list down from its previous level of 176 countries.

Among those countries that lost preferential status are China, India and Brazil.

According to a spokesperson for Finance Minister Joe Oliver, cutting the list down was necessary to provide benefits to businesses, reports CTV. This was a move to create fairness for Canadian companies who were competing against products from other countries with privileged access to Canada’s market.

Popular shopping website Overstock.com, which sells reduced priced clothing, electronics and household items, is now selling produce fresh from the farm.

“We’re integrating small farms, community-supported agriculture and co-ops into our technology so as to allow consumers in their area to buy and arrange delivery through Overstock,” CEO Patrick M. Byrne said, as reported by NRF.

On Overstock.com, produce can be found in the Farmers Market section, which also features a biography of the farmer or supplier that provided each item. It also gives shoppers a glimpse of how each farmer produces each item. Shoppers can also use the website to download healthy recipes.

Suppliers are not charged up-front to join, according to Byrne, and instead follow a revenue-sharing model that allows them to keep most of their procedures the same.

Overstock’s Farmers Market is one of its many sustainable businesses that give back to the communities involved in production. Other sustainable businesses include Worldstock, where shoppers can find handmade fair trade products, Main Street Revolution, which has products from individuals and small businesses, and Pet Adoption, which allows animal shelters across the U.S. to connect with potential adopters.