A father from Lanaudière came up with the idea of building a decorative wood-burning stove for children to calm his sons after the separation from his ex-partner in 2022. A year later, his creation can now be found in every corner of Quebec.
“I tried to reassure my four-year-old son by explaining to him that we were moving to a beautiful house surrounded by trees, and his first reaction was to ask me if there would be a wood stove,” explains Mathieu Cloutier, founder by Ora.
“It left me a little unbalanced because we didn’t have a cabin or a wood stove at home. But then I understood that the mention of the trees had reminded him of the happy times we had spent as a family in a Sépaq chalet,” he adds.
Two weeks later, with skillful hands, he built an artificial wood stove for a child, which he installed in the new bedroom of his two little boys.
Photo provided by Bien-Être Ora Inc.
“It was a very frightening context, but the home made it possible to create a connecting and calming place for them,” he explains.
Ora is born
After receiving many positive comments from those around him, the young entrepreneur finally decided to commercialize his idea.
Officially on sale since last October, the small Ora fireplaces, which produce crackling sounds, have already been installed in almost 500 families, as well as in the Sainte-Justine hospital and certain daycare centers.
Photo provided by Bien-Être Ora Inc.
“Ora’s mission is to bring well-being into homes, to spend less time in front of screens and to create a connecting place,” says Mathieu Cloutier.
The device is also connected to an application with lots of audio content, such as stories.
“It is literally a need that came from the mouth of a child and was not met by the market. And at the same time it allows us to bring our Nordic traditions back into our homes, and that’s wonderful,” he adds.
Vision of greatness
Although his company is only a month old, the founder says he is already receiving inquiries from as far away as Australia for small homes for children.
“We really have a vision of greatness, so that our traditions can continue in the homes of Quebec, but also to export them around the world,” he says. At the moment it is difficult because we are not yet ready for it, but our goal is to be sending orders to other countries by this time next year,” concludes Mathieu Cloutier.
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