New Vinyl Pressing Plant Open For Business...In PEI

By FYI Staff

Last year, Charlottetown entrepreneur Ghislaine Cormier and partner Gideon Banahene won $10,000 at the annual Dragon’s Contest in PEI’s capital city, and it helped fund Atlantic Canada’s first vinyl record plant that is now open for business.

Kaneshii Vinyl Press in PEI teamed up with Toronto’s Viryl Technologies to open a wholly automated vinyl pressing plant that runs on cloud-based software that can press 180 records an hour. The plant is set up to stamp 7, 10- and 12-inch discs in a variety of colours. Already, the company has received orders from the US, New Zealand, Australia, Finland and, of course, Canada.

Jeff Brownlee at PLANT has the story, and Desiree Anstey at Journal Pioneer has the backstory.

According to the latest figures supplied by Nielsen Music Canada, new vinyl sales this year are up 26 percent to 747,500 copies, as compared to a 27 percent decline in CDs (albeit still selling an impressive six million copies) and a 20 percent decline in digital albums (to 4.5 million). The estimated retail value for new vinyl sales so far this year stands at $23 million.