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jpAE Aý2j,WHITBY 'REEp4ES, fuszIchow ffasýe DNe~t4~ERAY2,1 e VOICE OF THE COUN' PL Y• S TYYTOWNP ublished every Wednesday, y 677209 Ontarlo nc. hone: 668-6111 Doug Anderson Publisher he Free Press Building 31 Brock Street North, .O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. Maurico Plfher Editor . Peter Irvine Advertising Manager Alexandra Simon Production Managér Mike Carroll Circulation Manager. The only Whitby newspaperlndependently owned and operated by WhItby residents for Whitby resident. Cover sto ry: Cobi plant begun during depression ,still growing With a few months to go in one of their best and busiest "seasons" ever, about the only thing holding back production expansion at Whit- by's CobiFoods Inc. is the plant's capacity. The companystill referred to by many residents as the Stokely-Van Camp factory; has had double work shifts since last June (coming off a 16-day shutdown in April when em- ployees went on strike), likely to continue until May,' says Peter Johnson, director of agriculture for allof Cobi's Ontario plants. In the last-year, ,Cobi sales overall were $140,000,000. "We're three times (in sales) what we were four years ago," says Johnson, vho counts 17 years with Stokely-Van Camp and Cobi. About one-third of that total can be attributed to sales of products by Hardy Farms Inter- national's three Ontario food processing plants, bought by Cobi four years ago. The Whitby plant uses about 30,000 tons of corn in a season, all corn grown locally, to produce 1.3 million cases, much of that to feed the ever growing export market. . "We've always been in Europe, but it's expanding every year," says Lee Obritsch, operations manager for Cobi. "Literally we don't make enough corn that we can sell over there now." Obritsch, who has been with Cobi for 13 years and came to Whitby from Nova Scotia in 1986, says many changes are underway in all areas of the strictly canning operation in Whitby, both to meet internal needs and the longterm growth of this aspect of the Cobi operation. "The major thing we're planning is a stabilizing of our workforce," he says. The current trend in the food processing industry, he points out, is to maintain a stable, rather than seasonal, workforce. "The goal is to develop a more consistent line of products," he says, noting that in Whitby, the schedule begins in Junle with peas, then corn, pumpkins and, now, in the winter months.until spring, pork and beans and kidney beans. "It's to keep a stable workforce rather than be a training ground for GM. "You have to give people a year- round job, not just be a seasonal packer." The Whitby regular work- force is now 130, but during the busy summer season, there may be 300 to, 250 more staff hired, many of them students. "We expect a problem this year to get seasonal help because of the low unemployment in the area." He ad- ds that students also return to school in September, which is still part of the busy season that lasts until Oc- tober so the company "hurts" for about a month. Other processors bring in offshore labor, but Cobi has rejected that op- tion to meet labor needs. "We've considered it, but we would have to house them," says Johnson. "The implications are extremely costly," adds Obritsch. Obritsch and Johnson say the stable workforce is one of the changes taking place in food processing. "Small and seasonal plants can't survive anymore," says Johnson, who says there will be fewer processing companies in the future as consolidation takes place, as has been the case with Cobi. "Eventually it will be survival of the fittest," says Obritsch. The Whitby plant at Brock St. N. first began as Metcalfe Foods in 1934, later to be bought by the American giant Stokely-Van Camp in 1949. Stokely bought the large M.W. Graves company in eastern Canada in 1969. When Quaker Oats lâter bought AN AERIAL VIEW of what was the Stokely-VanCampplantinthe1950's. Stokely-Van Camp, the Canadian companies came up for sale and were largely bought up by the Jodrey family of Nova Scotia. Eventually an amalgamation took place that saw Stokely-Van Camp, M.W. Graves and later Har- dy Farms -labels become part of what would be called Cobi Foods Inc., a name "spit out by a com- puter,"says Johnson. "They wanted a name that was easy to spell, easy to recognize and bilingual," explains Obritsch. "It's a general catch-all for all the brands we carry." Apart from those labels and plan- ts in Ontario and Nova Scotia, Cobi also sells all vegetable products un- der the Libby label, all except pork and beans. That acquisition was madetwoyearsago. "All acquisitions intend to involve improving in a position you didn't have before," says Obritsch, men- tioning Hardy Farms' fruit juices as an example. "We are always looking at expanding a certain market." "The company is going to get bigger in Ontario," predicts John- son. The two say that corn has really taken off as a popular vegetable in Europe.- "They didn't know what good corn was 'till we went in," explains John- son. Blueberries and kidney beans are also big exports for Cobi, which also ships to the Middle East and Japan. At one time or another, says Obritsch, a Cobi product, under whatever label, has probably reached almost every country in the world. The effect of a free trade agreement on the company is largely unknown as yet, says Obrit- sch, but he sees it as "a positive thing for us." The export market has been growing (one-third of Whitby- produced corn goes to Europe) and the low Canadian dollar will enable Cobi to remain competitive with U.S. processors, says Obritsch. "We do feel we're competitive with the U.S.," he says, adding that if free trade forces adjustments, they will be made by Cobi. Johnson says the peas, pumpkins and corn used by the Whitby are all grown locally, mostly within a 35- mile radius of the town. Corn oc- cupies 5,800 acres, peas 2,800, and the majority is contracted with local farmers. SEE PAGE 23 Companies separate fact from fiction in free trade COBI FOODS INC. includes labels such as Libby'à (ah vegetables except.pork and beans), Stokely-Van Camp and Hardy. Prudent companies are respon- ding to the free trade agreement by developing comprehensive strategic responses, according to a "case study" report released by ClarksonGordon/WoodsGordon. "'Our experience has shown that first impressions about the impact of free trade on business are often misleading," says Joe Buckley, director of the firm's task force on free trade. "Industry-level analysis of the pact doesn't provide the specific in- formation needed by a company to properly assess its position in the North American marketplace. Just as every business has its own ex- periences, strengths and weaknesses, no two companies in the same industry will be in exactly the same position in regard to free trade. "Free trade is not simply a question of 'good or bad.' Smart companies in Canada are developing plans to separate fact from fiction. In many cases, once therelevantinformationis gathered and analyzed, companies are recognizing that they can take positive action to ensure that they willprosperunder the agreement." In its report, Clarkson Gor- don/Woods Gordon explores seven actual cases-hi which:they Were in- volved in assisting businesses respond to the agreement; One-key component that they identify in the strategic analysis is a company 's "crossover point'?' -where tariff levels no longer offset any U.S. unit cost advantage for delivered gooda. "It is important to note that this point will vary from product to product. By investing in higher productivity during the transition period, we have found that certain companies will be able to improve their competitive position and delay the crossover point or eliminate it completely," says Buckley. The rules of origin, which apply to all goods entering Canada, are also exanmed in the report. These rules will be used to determine whether goods manufactured from third- party imported materials wll1 SEE PAGE 23 w