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“Our after-market products are sold to US. distributors and 95% of our products are exported,” says Milligan. “We sell mostly to the US. but also to South America and Taiwan. We couldn’t exist on the Canadian market alone.” Milligan received his training from General Motors where he Polywheels is a plastics moulding company that produces car parts for the after market and for original equipment. Cheatle wasn’t the only person to consider Milligan a good candidate for the Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Milligan was presented with the award at the Chamber's annual meeting Wednesday night. The award recognized his business attributes in four areas: his survival in a competitive market, his ability to overcome unusual circumstances, his contribution to the community and his innovations. “When I saw the application for the Entrepreneur of the year, I looked up the definition of entrepreneur in the dictionary,” says John Cheatle, controller at Polywheels. “The definition, which described a person willing to take risks to obtain profits, seemed to fit Frank Milligan, who organized Polywheels from nothing, with no help from financial institutions. Today, he has a product with a quality that is known worldwide. It’s so good that even Ford and General Motors recognize us and give us ongoing business.” By Shelly Sanders Greer Special to the Beaver Glen Yates: Business Person of the Year. (Photo by Peter McCusker) When he started out, Milligan says he realized he had to be better than everyone else. “We had a lot of hurdles as the product was traditionally in the hands of the Big Three car manufacturers. We have an absolute passion for quality. In the last two years, we “We are getting a larger market share in the after-market,” explains Milligan. “And we’re getting new business from Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. We’ve made inroads into the marketplace.” worked for 12 years as a process engineer in the body tooling department and with the plastics group. When he started up Polywheels in 1986, he chose Oakville because “it has a good access to a good workforce and points of entry to the U.S. It is also fairly close to major automotive plants.” The success of Polywheels is best reflected in the significant staff increases over the years. In 1987 there were four people and today there are 97. For 1994, Milligan estimates an increase to 120 employees. "We have an absolute passion for quality. In the last two years, we spent a quarter of a million dollars in training sessions involving quality and confinuous improvement."- Frank Milligan HE OAKVILLE BEAVER | “Frank obviously had an appreciation for what was happening in the auto parts business,” says Ian Murray, a partner in Peat Marwick Thorne and the accountant for Polywheels. “He saw a niche and is going all out exploiting that need. He’s an entrepreneur who takes risks and you’ve got to admire him for that.” For Milligan, this award means more to him from a company perspective than from a personal perspective. “It’s very flattering,” he says modestly. “It means that the company is recognized as being successful.” “We’re unique in that we’ve established such a high reputation for quality,” he explains. “Every time we bring out a new product, we displace some of the existing products.” In the future, Milligan plans to expand and is looking into new markets like mainland China. However, he is keeping quiet about the specifics of these plans until they are finalized, which should be in the next few months. Another reflection of Milligan’s success is the fact that some of his parts have displaced original parts from other companies, because of the high quality Polywheels offers. Some of the ways Milligan shows his appreciation to his staff are through birthday celebrations every month and an annual Christmas Party. spent a quarter of a million dollars in training sessions involving quality and continuous improvement. We work hard on the teamwork concept and we’re family-orient .” “Everyone has a primary responsibility, but we all do everything,” he explains. “By condensing jobs, people are happier, the day is more interesting, I’m saving money and customers are more satisfied. But I couldn’t do this if I didn’t have such a wonderfully adaptive staff willing to try anything.” The car business has been in Yates’ family for years. In fact, his father owned the dealership he now owns from 1971 to 1990. “My father sold this dealership to me, but he’s still a dealer in Service spelling success fer Business Person of the Year One example of this “job-sharing” idea is the customer shuttle, which all of Yates’ employees drive, including himself. “The staff and customers think it’s fantastic,” he says, “and the level of service has increased.” that exist between departments and jobs is one reason Glen Yates, owner of Towne Chevrolet Oldsmoble Geo, was voted Business Person of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce. B reaking away from the traditional barriers By Shelly Sanders Greer Special to the Beaver Frank Milligan: Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year. Higgins began his involvement in real estate organizations in 1984 when he became a member of the Ontario Real Estate Association’s long-range planning committee. In 1986, he was appointed to the CREA board of directors as a member representing a large company. Outgoing president David Higgins will continue to serve as past president on the Board of Directors of The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) following its 50th Annual Conference in Calgary. Branch manager of a major Royal LePage office in Oakville, Higgins has been active in real estate for 23 years. Higgins retains post with CREA One of the philosophies behind his business is his commitment to 100% customer satisfaction. “We follow-up with customers closely and all my service Customers are called by my sales people the next day, which is unusual. We believe that happier customers today will mean sales tomorrow." Judging from a recent General Motors survey, “My greatest asset as a business person is my staf ,” says Yates, who goes out of his way to reward them for their hard work and commitment. He gives a children’s Christmas party as well as one for his staff, and everybody gets a turkey. There is also a golf gala event and they have their own social club which is going to Yuk Yuk’s at the end of the month. “It’s important we play together as well as work together,” says Yates. The recession has made things a bit tough for Yates, but he’s thankful business has been steady. “I try to be innovative,” he explains. “Realistically, the marketplace is fixed.” Hamilton. We enjoy the camaraderie of being in the same business.” FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1993 PAGE 24 (See 'Yates' page 25)