D8 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday May 12, 1999 To reach this section call 845-3824 Fax:337-5567 Business Photo by Ron Kuzyk CanAm era Foods was recently awarded the prestigioius ISO 9002 designation for quality. The company attributes its success in reaching that goal to its em ployees including: (foreground 1 to r) Tracey Giannou, H eather Riley, and N ichole H alliday and (background I to r) Kevin Cole, Robert Farr, M atthew Hunter, Brent H opkins and Rick Cipolla. Largest edible oil producer credits employees for success Young Drivers of Canada being bought by Ford Ford Canada is acquiring a majority interest in Young Drivers of Canada, (YD) the only driver education company to operate on a worldwide basis. It currently has units in Canada, the U.S. and Finland. The company w ill soon be expanding to the United Arab Emirates. "Acquisition o f Y D is an oppor tunity for Ford and its dealers to grow our business by building rela tionships with consumers during their development as safe drivers," said Ford Pres, and CEO Bobbie Gaunt in making the announcement yesterday. "It's an important step on the road to achieving Ford's global vision o f becom ing the world's leading consum er com pany for automotive products and services." Young Drivers, whose motto is 'Your Licence to Survive', provides driving instruction to 51,000 stu dents each year. An estimated 15% o f Y D graduates purchase a vehicle within one year o f graduation. The Ford acquisition w ill see the company control Y D o f Canada based in Hamilton, including 158 franchised driver education centres in seven provinces, along with Y D o f America, based in Delaware with 25 franchised centres in four states. "Ford's leadership in the design o f safe vehicles and in raising safe ty awareness complements my life long advocacy for effective driver education," said Y D Pres. Peter Christianson. "Together, Ford and Y D will spread the safe driving m essage to many more people in Canada and beyond." O nce the deal is com plete, Christianson w ill retain his posi tion. Dean Tesser, Ford Canada's Director o f Retail Growth and B usiness D evelopm ent said the acquisition w ill support Ford's growth strategy. "We intend to grow this busi ness and the revenues from it, by expanding into se lect markets where the Y D brand w ill be associ ated with our dealerships," said Tesser. "This strengthens the com petitive position o f both com panies and our dealers. Second, as 90% of Y D students are under the age o f 30, w e w ill have an opportunity to reach and satisfy an entirely new set o f customers for Ford vehi cles." CanAmera Foods achieves ISO 9002 quality status Y ou m ay not recogn ize the nam e, but y o u 've m ost certain ly tasted the products.I f y o u 've baked w ith C risco shorten ing , p iled N u traW hip topp ing on your berries or indulged a taste fo r fast food, y o u 've encoun tered CanAmera Foods. H e a d q u a rte red in O a k v ille , C an A m era is C a n ad a's largest p rocesso r o f ed ib le oil products, the resu lt o f a m erger in 1992 o f C S P Food L im ited , C en tra l S oya C om pany L im ited and the edible oils d iv is ion o f M aple L ea f Foods. W ith 10 m anufactu ring fac ilitie s and th ree sales o ffices across C anada, C anA m era's operations run the gam ut from sourcing and crush ing the raw seeds to re fin in g the oil and packag ing the final product. T he recen tly expanded O akv ille facility on South S erv ice R oad houses both the co rpo rate offices and a p ackag ing p lant. A v isit to the boardroom reveals a wall full o f b ig -nam e logos inc lud ing Tim H o rto n 's, H arveys, K FC , P izza P izza, A&W , K elseys and K raft Foods. W ith a c lien t lis t tha t includes som e o f the b iggest nam es in the food industry , a tten tion to q uality is param ount, accord ing to Jim Francis, com pensa tion and benefits m anager. O ver the past th ree years, the p la n t's 120 em ploy ees have focused on bu ild ing quality into every aspec t o f the production process, resu lting in the m uch sough t afte r ISO 9002 designation and a spe cia l H A C C P (H azard A nalysis C ritica l C ontro l P o in t) recogn ition by the C anadian Food Inspection A gency. R obert Farr, p roduction superv iso r at C anA m era, says the com pany is on ly the fourth in C anada to ach ieve H A C C P sta tus, a p rogram that puts the onus on com panies to provide food safety for con sum ers. S im ilarly, Farr says the recen t ISO 9002 designa tion is unusual in the food industry because it is already so heavily regulated by governm ent stan dards. "We dec ided to go fo r the ISO designation because we w anted to be a leader in the area," com m ents Farr. "We could see that the trend w as sta rt ing in the industry and we an ticipated that our cus tom ers w ould be asking about it." B oth F arr and F rancis cred it a "team approach" and a very "se lf-d irec ted" w orkforce for the success in achieving the quality recognition . Specifically , they m ention the efforts o f Tracy G iannou, G ord W alm sley, N ichole H alliday and R o lf M antei in d ri ving the process forw ard. "E m ployees created the ir own w ork instructions, their own train ing and the ir own preventative m ain tenance w ithout a lo t o f d irect superv ision ," says Farr. "A ny auditor could go out and ask any one o f them a q u es tio n , and th e y 'd fee l co m fo rtab le answ ering ." F arr says the advantage to the custom er is that they can be assured o f a h igh-quality product each and every tim e w hich in turn cuts dow n on custom er com plain ts. "W hat they w ant is w hat they get, so it gives us a com petitive edge," he adds. Francis says the th ree-year process to achieve both quality designations m eant a lo t o f hard w ork fo r p lant em ployees in addition to the ir regular duties. "I t's clearly a benefit to the com pany and a cred it to the people w ho had to do the w ork." Edward Jones #1 choice of brokers survey finds T he fin an c ia l industry new spa per, In v e s tm e n t E x ec u tiv e , has ranked the Edward Jones com pany firs t in its ca tegory fo llow ing a sur vey o f 4 0 0 random ly -se lec ted bro kers. T h is is the second year the com pany has f in ish ed first. E dw ard Jones took top honours in 17 o f 20 ca tegories includ ing best overall ranking and overall eth ics o f the firm . The survey asked brokers from the top 10 C anadian brokerage firm s to evaluate the ir em ployers. T he survey evaluated firm s on c rite ria such as continual train ing, account statem ents, availab ility o f fixed incom e products and quality o f the firm 's research . Edw ard Jones has th ree offices in O ak v ille and m ore than 400 in C anada. The com pany's in teractive web site is w w w .edw ardjones.com "At Erin Mills Lodge, Mom gets the care she needs to stay independent." It wasn't an easy decision because Mom has always been so independent and we d idn 't want to quell that wonderful spirit of hers. But even she agreed that she needed more help than we could give her. Thank goodness for the caring people at Erin Mills Lodge. Mom loves her active new lifestyle and she's as happy and independent as ever. - Daughter of Mrs. Robertson, Resident since 1991 OR CA V 2132 Dundas St. W. 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