History In 1960 the Wilson Brothers, Bob and John, started Wilson Brothers Limited. This Canadian company manufactures a
Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2022 11:43 am
History
In 1960 the Wilson Brothers, Bob and John, started WilsonBrothers Limited. This Canadian company manufactures anddistributes various lines of prepared food products for theCanadian market from a number of plants, with the head officelocated in Brandon, Manitoba. Bob was just 23 years old at the timeand John was 21. In the first year of operations the sales volumefor Wilson Brothers Limited was $300,000. By 2000 Wilson BrothersLimited had 6 operating plants in Canada. They had also expanded tothe western US market and had a number of plants in Europe. WilsonExport Division was responsible for exporting product to Japan andChina. In 2000 the total sales volume of the Company was over 6billion dollars. The company was a Canadian business success story,both at home and abroad. In addition to the spectacular volumeincreases, the company was very well managed financially. It had noreason to go public to raise capital as it financed all of itsexpansion through earnings.
There were a number of reasons for the Company’s exponentialgrowth. First and foremost, the brothers valued hard work. Theyeach worked ten to twelve hours per day, even in the latter stagesof their careers. Consequently, their senior and middle managementgroup worked similar hours. Secondly, each brother was a skilledsalesman in the traditional sense. Their handshake was their bond.Thirdly, they had tremendous ‘cultural sensitivity’. Whenever theyexpanded to foreign markets they recruited a local executive to beCEO at that location so that the local culture was respected andintegrated to business practices (fostered). They assigned aCanadian executive to be VP Finance so that financial reporting wasconsistent across all Company operations.
The brothers were proud of the exponential growth of the Companyand were particularly proud of their Canadian roots. This pride andwork ethic permeated through the organization from top managementto the line employees in the plants. The success of this Canadianorganization attracted executive and management talent from acrossCanada.Setting them apart from their competitors was the speed with whichstrategic decisions were made and the flexibility by which thesestrategies could be implemented. Strategic decisions were made onlyby the brothers. From the Vice Presidential level down, alloperational choices made were in support of the implementation ofthe plans developed by the brothers. Employees from coast-to-coastwere extremely proud that the Company could go from conception of anew product idea to launch of the product in the marketplace in amatter of weeks. Similar decisions made by their competitors couldtake months or even years.
The brothers controlled as many elements of the food supplybusiness as they could. For example: they ensured that the plantsalways had an adequate supply of ingredients on hand forproduction. They also formed their own trucking firm, AbleDistribution Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wilson BrothersLimited. In this way they were able to guarantee on-time deliveriesto customers. More than 70% of the demand for the trucking firmcame directly from food business deliveries, independently operatedout of Truro, Nova Scotia.
Threats to the Business
Today the Wilson brothers know that regardless of the successtheir company has enjoyed over the years and their attempts tocontrol aspects of the business, it faces significant threats toprofits on a daily basis.
General Canadian Economic Conditions
Over the last decade the Canadian economy has seen a majordeterioration in its manufacturing base which in turn has increasedunemployment and depressed real wages. So, even though inflationhasn’t been a huge factor in the equation, it has risen at a levelgreater than general wage increases. One could argue that thisshould have little impact on the food business as ‘food is food andeveryone has to eat’, but consumers have become increasingly moreprice and health conscious. In terms of the percentage of overallfamily budget devoted to food acquisition, the average familyspends less now than it did five years ago. The trend to shoppingat big box wholesale or discount stores such as Costco and Walmart,or the popularity of generic brands at Sobeys or Food Basics,impact the profitability of brand name products competing for thesame market.
Competition
Significant competition exists in Canada from major companieswith similar product lines. In the juice business for exampleWilson Bros would compete with Coca-Cola through its Minute MaidDivision. There are a number of other American firms that havepenetrated the Canadian market attempting to decrease WilsonBrothers Limited market share. Some of the US competition isdependent on the value of the Canadian dollar. Competition has alsostiffened overseas, particularly in Europe. Early on Wilson Broswas often first to market with their products in many Europeancountries, but as the market matured, local companies saw thesuccess of prepared foods, gauged the opportunity and began tocompete directly with Wilson products.
Pricing
The Canadian market for food producers is split into twoavenues: retail sales, selling the product through major grocerychain stores such as Sobeys; and food service sales, such asMcDonald’s or Swiss Chalet. On the retail side, major grocerychains have developed their own “housebrands” to compete on priceagainst Wilson Brothers products in many of their food lines. Onthe food service side, Wilson Brothers is only able to maintain thebusiness primarily on “best price” so that over time, regardless ofvolume increases, profit margins tend to decrease.
Consumer Preference
In the early years the Wilson Brothers products were extremelypopular, solely based on the convenience of prepared food. Recentlyhowever, consumers are being more discerning about purchasingconvenience foods, paying close attention to such health concernsas transfats, unsaturated fats, salt, and sugars. Wilson Brothersdesserts in particular have suffered. In Quebec the market hasalways been softer than other markets in Canada, and continues todeteriorate because of the preference for ‘home cooking’.
Transportation
Able Distribution Limited, (the wholly owned subsidiary ofWilson Brothers Limited) transports raw product to its plants formanufacture and inventory to its customers to market. However, theglobal cost increases in petroleum products have been significantand with the need to keep product prices low, transportation costis a major area of concern for the Company.
Recruitment
Wilson Brothers has been an attractive company for Canadianexecutives, managers and plant personnel to seek employment becauseof its Canadian roots, culture and success. However, they have hadsignificant issues recruiting in the Vancouver market in recentyears since the cost of living in that market far exceeds realincome.
Unionization
Most of Wilson Brothers Canadian operations are non-union andfor competitive reasons the brothers tend to prefer it that way.They have always felt that any issues with an employee could andshould be dealt with directly, on a one-to-one basis. The brothersbelieve they need to operate with flexibility in order to makequick strategic decisions; to develop a new product idea; and takeit to launch as quickly as they do. Labour agreements can add alevel of structure and time consuming protocol that creates a lessflexible operational environment.
The Current Situation
You are brought in to the organization as Director of HumanResources for the Canadian operations. The Company hasmanager-level HR representation in each plant in Canada, but no onecoordinates the overall effort. Your job, as described, is todevelop and implement HR policies so that the company can applythem consistently throughout the Canadian organization.Subsequently, you will introduce policy to internationaloperations, ensuring that where currently the company has non-unionstatus, it is maintained. In that capacity, you report to RonAbrams, Vice President of Operations, Canada. You work from thecorporate offices in Brandon.
You discover a number of HR issues that need to be addressed.Executives and managers are hired at starting salaries that wereset primarily by their ability to negotiate their own salary ratherthan on any specific salary range criteria. No policies regardingEmployment Equity or Pay Equity exist. The company has no jobdescription, nor any job evaluation processes in place. Performanceappraisals are nonexistent below senior management, and even atthat level, appraisals are informal and totally based on anManagement By Objectives style of management. Bottom line resultsare paramount regardless of the behaviours exhibited by theexecutives and managers to get those results.
There are no bonuses in the organization except for the salesand marketing staff and they are paid solely on sales targetachievement and market share improvement. Succession management hasnot been considered. Historically, if a brother determined avacancy he would offer that position, based only on an employee’sability to implement a strategic objective. Often that judgment wasbased on a fleeting impression. Even the brothers themselves haveno plan with respect to who will replace them should theyretire.
Along with the pride of working for the company there is also apervasive fear. At the head office and plants in Brandon forexample, employees are very afraid of losing their jobs as WilsonBrothers Limited is the one major employer in the area. Since thereare no consistent policies on any employee relations issues; anyemployee at any level could be terminated at any time if he/shefell out of favour with the owners.
The brothers attend two noteworthy team meetings. The team thatincludes the CEO’s from all of the European and Asian subsidiariesmeets once every three months at the corporate office in Brandon.The purpose of this team meeting is to discuss and improve profitresults. The brothers also meet once a month with the seniorexecutive team in Canada including the VP Sales-Retail, the VPSales-Food Service, the Executive VP Marketing, the VP Engineering,the VP Finance and the VP Operations. No other formal team meetingsare held in the company. There are groups that meet on an ad-hocbasis to manage new product implementation; these employees comefrom Sales, Marketing, Finance and Operations.
As the newly appointed Director of Human Resources for WilsonBrothers Limited, you recognize that there is substantial workahead. You know that while changes are required, you are very awarethat the company has been a huge success. How will you help movethe company forward? Bob, John and the other members of theexecutive team will have projects and assignments for you to do inthe near term. You will gain knowledge and experience as you offeryour leadership in the field of Human Resources Management. Goodluck and have fun!!
Company Details
Wilson Brothers Limited Executive Team-Canada
Bob Wilson: Co-Owner-CEOJohn Wilson: Co-Owner-PresidentMurray Brown: Executive MP MarketingRon Abrams: VP OperationsDave English: VP EngineeringJohn French: VP FinanceGayle Robillard: VP Sales RetailDiane Ouellette: VP Sales Food Service
You are aware from reading the Wilson Bros Case Scenario thatthe company has operations in the Province of Ontario. As a resultPay Equity has and will continue to be a major component of yourstrategy regarding Internal Equity going forward, in particular forthe employees in Ontario.
In 1960 the Wilson Brothers, Bob and John, started WilsonBrothers Limited. This Canadian company manufactures anddistributes various lines of prepared food products for theCanadian market from a number of plants, with the head officelocated in Brandon, Manitoba. Bob was just 23 years old at the timeand John was 21. In the first year of operations the sales volumefor Wilson Brothers Limited was $300,000. By 2000 Wilson BrothersLimited had 6 operating plants in Canada. They had also expanded tothe western US market and had a number of plants in Europe. WilsonExport Division was responsible for exporting product to Japan andChina. In 2000 the total sales volume of the Company was over 6billion dollars. The company was a Canadian business success story,both at home and abroad. In addition to the spectacular volumeincreases, the company was very well managed financially. It had noreason to go public to raise capital as it financed all of itsexpansion through earnings.
There were a number of reasons for the Company’s exponentialgrowth. First and foremost, the brothers valued hard work. Theyeach worked ten to twelve hours per day, even in the latter stagesof their careers. Consequently, their senior and middle managementgroup worked similar hours. Secondly, each brother was a skilledsalesman in the traditional sense. Their handshake was their bond.Thirdly, they had tremendous ‘cultural sensitivity’. Whenever theyexpanded to foreign markets they recruited a local executive to beCEO at that location so that the local culture was respected andintegrated to business practices (fostered). They assigned aCanadian executive to be VP Finance so that financial reporting wasconsistent across all Company operations.
The brothers were proud of the exponential growth of the Companyand were particularly proud of their Canadian roots. This pride andwork ethic permeated through the organization from top managementto the line employees in the plants. The success of this Canadianorganization attracted executive and management talent from acrossCanada.Setting them apart from their competitors was the speed with whichstrategic decisions were made and the flexibility by which thesestrategies could be implemented. Strategic decisions were made onlyby the brothers. From the Vice Presidential level down, alloperational choices made were in support of the implementation ofthe plans developed by the brothers. Employees from coast-to-coastwere extremely proud that the Company could go from conception of anew product idea to launch of the product in the marketplace in amatter of weeks. Similar decisions made by their competitors couldtake months or even years.
The brothers controlled as many elements of the food supplybusiness as they could. For example: they ensured that the plantsalways had an adequate supply of ingredients on hand forproduction. They also formed their own trucking firm, AbleDistribution Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wilson BrothersLimited. In this way they were able to guarantee on-time deliveriesto customers. More than 70% of the demand for the trucking firmcame directly from food business deliveries, independently operatedout of Truro, Nova Scotia.
Threats to the Business
Today the Wilson brothers know that regardless of the successtheir company has enjoyed over the years and their attempts tocontrol aspects of the business, it faces significant threats toprofits on a daily basis.
General Canadian Economic Conditions
Over the last decade the Canadian economy has seen a majordeterioration in its manufacturing base which in turn has increasedunemployment and depressed real wages. So, even though inflationhasn’t been a huge factor in the equation, it has risen at a levelgreater than general wage increases. One could argue that thisshould have little impact on the food business as ‘food is food andeveryone has to eat’, but consumers have become increasingly moreprice and health conscious. In terms of the percentage of overallfamily budget devoted to food acquisition, the average familyspends less now than it did five years ago. The trend to shoppingat big box wholesale or discount stores such as Costco and Walmart,or the popularity of generic brands at Sobeys or Food Basics,impact the profitability of brand name products competing for thesame market.
Competition
Significant competition exists in Canada from major companieswith similar product lines. In the juice business for exampleWilson Bros would compete with Coca-Cola through its Minute MaidDivision. There are a number of other American firms that havepenetrated the Canadian market attempting to decrease WilsonBrothers Limited market share. Some of the US competition isdependent on the value of the Canadian dollar. Competition has alsostiffened overseas, particularly in Europe. Early on Wilson Broswas often first to market with their products in many Europeancountries, but as the market matured, local companies saw thesuccess of prepared foods, gauged the opportunity and began tocompete directly with Wilson products.
Pricing
The Canadian market for food producers is split into twoavenues: retail sales, selling the product through major grocerychain stores such as Sobeys; and food service sales, such asMcDonald’s or Swiss Chalet. On the retail side, major grocerychains have developed their own “housebrands” to compete on priceagainst Wilson Brothers products in many of their food lines. Onthe food service side, Wilson Brothers is only able to maintain thebusiness primarily on “best price” so that over time, regardless ofvolume increases, profit margins tend to decrease.
Consumer Preference
In the early years the Wilson Brothers products were extremelypopular, solely based on the convenience of prepared food. Recentlyhowever, consumers are being more discerning about purchasingconvenience foods, paying close attention to such health concernsas transfats, unsaturated fats, salt, and sugars. Wilson Brothersdesserts in particular have suffered. In Quebec the market hasalways been softer than other markets in Canada, and continues todeteriorate because of the preference for ‘home cooking’.
Transportation
Able Distribution Limited, (the wholly owned subsidiary ofWilson Brothers Limited) transports raw product to its plants formanufacture and inventory to its customers to market. However, theglobal cost increases in petroleum products have been significantand with the need to keep product prices low, transportation costis a major area of concern for the Company.
Recruitment
Wilson Brothers has been an attractive company for Canadianexecutives, managers and plant personnel to seek employment becauseof its Canadian roots, culture and success. However, they have hadsignificant issues recruiting in the Vancouver market in recentyears since the cost of living in that market far exceeds realincome.
Unionization
Most of Wilson Brothers Canadian operations are non-union andfor competitive reasons the brothers tend to prefer it that way.They have always felt that any issues with an employee could andshould be dealt with directly, on a one-to-one basis. The brothersbelieve they need to operate with flexibility in order to makequick strategic decisions; to develop a new product idea; and takeit to launch as quickly as they do. Labour agreements can add alevel of structure and time consuming protocol that creates a lessflexible operational environment.
The Current Situation
You are brought in to the organization as Director of HumanResources for the Canadian operations. The Company hasmanager-level HR representation in each plant in Canada, but no onecoordinates the overall effort. Your job, as described, is todevelop and implement HR policies so that the company can applythem consistently throughout the Canadian organization.Subsequently, you will introduce policy to internationaloperations, ensuring that where currently the company has non-unionstatus, it is maintained. In that capacity, you report to RonAbrams, Vice President of Operations, Canada. You work from thecorporate offices in Brandon.
You discover a number of HR issues that need to be addressed.Executives and managers are hired at starting salaries that wereset primarily by their ability to negotiate their own salary ratherthan on any specific salary range criteria. No policies regardingEmployment Equity or Pay Equity exist. The company has no jobdescription, nor any job evaluation processes in place. Performanceappraisals are nonexistent below senior management, and even atthat level, appraisals are informal and totally based on anManagement By Objectives style of management. Bottom line resultsare paramount regardless of the behaviours exhibited by theexecutives and managers to get those results.
There are no bonuses in the organization except for the salesand marketing staff and they are paid solely on sales targetachievement and market share improvement. Succession management hasnot been considered. Historically, if a brother determined avacancy he would offer that position, based only on an employee’sability to implement a strategic objective. Often that judgment wasbased on a fleeting impression. Even the brothers themselves haveno plan with respect to who will replace them should theyretire.
Along with the pride of working for the company there is also apervasive fear. At the head office and plants in Brandon forexample, employees are very afraid of losing their jobs as WilsonBrothers Limited is the one major employer in the area. Since thereare no consistent policies on any employee relations issues; anyemployee at any level could be terminated at any time if he/shefell out of favour with the owners.
The brothers attend two noteworthy team meetings. The team thatincludes the CEO’s from all of the European and Asian subsidiariesmeets once every three months at the corporate office in Brandon.The purpose of this team meeting is to discuss and improve profitresults. The brothers also meet once a month with the seniorexecutive team in Canada including the VP Sales-Retail, the VPSales-Food Service, the Executive VP Marketing, the VP Engineering,the VP Finance and the VP Operations. No other formal team meetingsare held in the company. There are groups that meet on an ad-hocbasis to manage new product implementation; these employees comefrom Sales, Marketing, Finance and Operations.
As the newly appointed Director of Human Resources for WilsonBrothers Limited, you recognize that there is substantial workahead. You know that while changes are required, you are very awarethat the company has been a huge success. How will you help movethe company forward? Bob, John and the other members of theexecutive team will have projects and assignments for you to do inthe near term. You will gain knowledge and experience as you offeryour leadership in the field of Human Resources Management. Goodluck and have fun!!
Company Details
Wilson Brothers Limited Executive Team-Canada
Bob Wilson: Co-Owner-CEOJohn Wilson: Co-Owner-PresidentMurray Brown: Executive MP MarketingRon Abrams: VP OperationsDave English: VP EngineeringJohn French: VP FinanceGayle Robillard: VP Sales RetailDiane Ouellette: VP Sales Food Service
You are aware from reading the Wilson Bros Case Scenario thatthe company has operations in the Province of Ontario. As a resultPay Equity has and will continue to be a major component of yourstrategy regarding Internal Equity going forward, in particular forthe employees in Ontario.