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NEWS EXTRA
Kal Tire Conquering the World from BC
Kal Tire chairman Ken Finch, left, and president Robert Foord. The Vernon-based family business is now in its third generation of the Foord family.
has formed who weareasa company.”
Ken Finch, who is Tom Foord’s son-in-law, says having a head office in a large city often cuts off a company from its customers.
The company’s appreciation for the value of things small has
Family-controlled Kal Tire has enjoyed smooth leadership transition because of its consensus-based approach to making decisions, family- business adviser, David Bentall says.
But Kal Tire founder Tom Foord developed a culture of collaborative decision-making that enabled the company and the Foord family to avoid infighting, Bentall says.
A strategy like this needs “maturity, self-confidence and humility” — qualities Kal Tire’s leaders have in spades, says Bentall, who is also an adjunct professor at University of B.C.’s Sauder business school.
“When Tom Foord retired as president and CEO of Kal Tire, the leadership transition to his son-in-law, Ken Finch, went so smoothly there was scarcely a ripple,” Bentall says.
“Similarly, the transition from Ken to Tom’s son, Robert, was accomplished without acrimony.”
Finch, now chairman, refers to a
Kal Tire employment policy applying to all positions that stipulates a job goes to the best- equipped person.
Only if the qualifications of applicants are equal does a family member get the nod, Finch says.
Kal Tire founder Tom Foord opened Kal Tire’s first store on June 12, 1953, in Vernon. Foord named the company after Kalamalka Lake near the city. Sixty years later, Kal Tire has grown to about 240 stores serving retail and commercial customers. It has stores as far east as Quebec and as far north as the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
It’s adding six to 10 stores a year through openings and acquisitions.
The company’s mining tire division operates at more than 150 mine sites in 19 countries. The company employs about 5,000 people. Last year, it finished a new corporate office in Vernon. Almost 300 people work there.
Out in the outskirts of what was one of the remotest parts of the British Empire, British Columbia, Canadian Kal Tire has built another Empire.
From the quiet town of Vernon, more renowned for mountain biking and watersports, Kal Tire has has forged operations in 19 countries, from more than 4,000 metres above sea level in the Chilean Andes down to the baking desert of Western Australia and the steaming rainforests of Ghana.
Kal Tire marks its 60th anniversary in June and still operates from the town where it all started.
Most firms with a workforce of 5,000 and a turnover of $1.3billion would have headed for the bright lights and the big city, but for family operated Kal Tire home is where the heart is. “We have people coming here from all over the world, and kind of taking a full day to arrive,” Foord says.“They get here, take a look around and say, ‘I wondered why you guys are in Vernon but now I get it.’ ” Robert’s late father, Tom Foord, was initially the reason why Kal Tire never moved head office. Born in rural Saskatchewan, Tom Foord moved to Vernon, Norah’s hometown, after the Second World War.
“Coming from dust bowl-era Saskatchewan, he thought he’d gone to the Garden of Eden,” Robert says. “There was no way you were going to pry him out of here with a crowbar.”
“If we moved to a larger centre, which could make business sense, we would lose a bit of our identity and small-town values,” says Robert, 55. “Vernon is where our family grew up and it
helped shield it from the willy- nilly drive to expand that often puts over-extended companies at risk.
Kal Tire even includes the principle of controlled, balanced growth in its core seven aims. “Our rate of expansion will not be beyond our ability to finance or manage to a consistent standard of quality,” the company says.
Finch says the need to seize opportunities for growth sometimes causes the company to grow faster than it should. But it’s always conscious of the need to catch up with itself and nurture the culture of customer service in its new operations, he adds.
“That’s way more important than putting pins on a map,” Finch says.
Running a tyre empire from Vernon does have disadvantages. Coaxing people to leave big cities to fill senior staff positions and information technology jobs can be challenging, Finch admits. But the Okanagan’s beauty is a compelling recruiting tool, he says.
Decades ago, Tom Foord knew he had to hire top talent to help him run the company. He also knew he would have trouble paying the kind of salaries they could command. So he created an executive partnership.
These execs — there are six today — own a slice of the company.
“This allowed Tom to keep control of the company. It also gave him the ability to bring in good people who were looking for a form of ownership to get rewards from the growth of the company,” Finch says. Consensus-Based Management
CSG Renews Bandvulc Contract
Cleansing Service Group (CSG), one of the largest privately owned waste management companies in the UK, have extended their tyre management agreement with Bandvulc Tyre Contracts (BTC), the management arm of the Bandvulc Group. It sees the continuation of the already well- established systems and processes which have been in place for the past 2 years.
Tony Doyle, Sales Channel Manager for Bandvulc and CSG’s
Account commented; “We place a lot of time and effort in working with our customers so that we all see long term benefits. This news reflects our endeavours and we are delighted to remain a long term supplier to CSG, managing each aspect of tyre delivery and management services throughout the UK”.
The agreement sees Fulda new tyres being fitted to all steer axle tyres supported by Bandvulc’s retread products on all other positions.
50 Retreading Business