Contact: Rod Jerred Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 5559) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: rjerred@haltonsearch.com BUSINESS Moffat beats out competitors from across Canada By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF IS YOUR GARAGE PR0TICT1NC YOUR CAR BETTER THAN YOUR BARGAIM-RATt CAR INSURANCE? SOW47-5671 Student tops in investment challenge Riziero Vertolli · Oakville Beaver P ierre P errenoud, president of T h u n d e rb ird T rading Ltd., shows some of his m erchandise to M ayor A nn M ulvale d u rin g the com pany's official opening ceremonies. Thunderbird Trading `comes home' By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF A fter m ore th an 50 years of trek k in g through the GTA, the T h u n d e rb ird T rading Ltd. has come hom e to Oakville. "It's where I wanted it in the first place ... five minutes from home," said its president Pierre Perrenoud. The 49-year-old Perrenoud, a father-of-two, grew up in Oakville. He came here in 1956 at age two then went to Maplegrove Public School and OakvilleTrafalgar High School ("the old OTHS, he said), before studying economics at the University of Toronto. A decade before, Carl Warder had opened a company called Thunderbird Beaded Belt Company that sold beaded belts made in Hong Kong. By 1953. the company incorporated and was eventually taken over by Warder's nephew, Guy Harris. By the mid-1970s. Perrenoud was operating a silk-screening company with a friend from uni versity and Thunderbird was a customer. It had become Thunderbird Trading Ltd.. and was a souvenir apparel company, which it remains today. Another decade passed before Perrenoud and Harris merged interests to become partners. With Harris retiring last year and Perrenoud taking over, it was "the perfect time for some major changes," said Perrenoud. That's when the company that had moved from Toronto to Markham, to Mississauga, headed west. Last November, what's now called Thunderbird Trading Ltd. moved into a 7,000-sq.-ft. facility on Wyecroft Rd. just east of Dorval Dr. -- a space almost dou ble the size of its Mississauga location. "I have a happy staff," said Perrenoud a big promoter of the live-work scenario. "I can bike here," said office worker Marie-Claire Kos, of Glen Abbey, one of a half dozen people who work at the company's head office. "Pierre has lived in Oakville for years and he has wanted to bring everything back to Oakville, so he could live and work here. That story so often surfaces," said Mayor Ann Mulvale, guest of honour at Thunderbird's official Oakville opening. "I've always wanted to pay (business) taxes where I live," said Perrenoud, who lives in town with his wife, Charlotte. Every fall. Thunderbird designs a collection of new sou venir apparel, mostly T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats, which its eight independent, com missioned sales staff take to resort operators and tourists spots across Canada and into the United States' Great Lakes terrain. With orders secured, apparel is then produced over the winter for delivery each spring -- in time for the tourist season. Those T-shirts bearing wildlife and catchy slogans and saying Haliburton, North Bay or the like are what's made in a complex process that occurs at the new Oakville office/warehouse. "It may say Haliburton and people think it's a souvenir, but it's really made here in Oakville." said Perrenoud. The company has also kept pace with changing technology that has greatly impacted business in recent years. What used to be lettering, hand-cut by stencil, is now churned out in seconds by com puter. Yet at the same time, intri cate drawings of wildlife have become tenfold more complex. Days can be spent looking for the right mix of inks to get the job done perfectly, said Perrenoud. "We take pride in keeping more than 75% of our clothing made-inCanada and we decorate our imported apparel in Canada" said Perrenoud. "We look forward to many prosperous years in this fine community." If the TD Waterhouse. Investment Challenge were real. Bryan MofTatt would be well on his way to being rich. As it is, he placed tops out of 10,000 Canadian high school and university students -- and picked up $1,000. Not bad for a 15-year-old Grade 10 student. "I think I'm going to put it (the $1,000) in the bank," said Moffatt, who attends OakvilleTrafalgar High School (OTHS). Asked if he might invest in the stock market Moffatt smiled and said, "You can lose it that way." Yet, it was much different when his cash wasn't green. In two short months, Moffatt a business student, increased a ficti tious $100,000 investment into a stock market portfolio worth $181,000. "The person who placed sec ond was $7,000 behind me," said Moffatt, who picked up his cheque from Jim Best, business development manager for TD Waterhouse Investor Services (Canada) Inc. Friday. Best's firm has sponsored the challenge for the last six years. It was at least a dozen years ago that another OTHS student took top spot in the contest, said OTHS business teacher Drew Rees. The traditional stock market challenge that occurs twice a year was part of Rees' Grade 10 course. Introduction to Canadian Business. Moffatt said he didn't really know too much about the stock market going into the Internetbased challenge, but picked up along the way. "I did it mostly at home and at lunch hours." he said. "I figured it out as I went and got the gist of it." "The challenge included 143 high schools and 10,000 students registered in Canada. Bryan's was the top portfolio in Canada" said Best. To start. Moffatt had the usual safe bets, like Sony and Microsoft. Then he began to look at what Riziero Vertolli · Oalaille Beaver Bry an MofTatt of O TH S smiles as Jim Best of TD W aterhouse Investm ent Services presented the student with his prize for winning the TD W aterhouse Investm ent Challenge. he called "the most losing stocks" because, as he explained, they were bound to rebound. Then his most successful investment came when he put money into Invisions Technologies Corporation, which manufactures a security device to detect explosives. In the wake of Sept. 11, it was n't a bad choice. "I bought it at $9 and it went to $25 by the end of the challenge. Now it's at $40," said Moffatt. "I also bought a lot of defence-type stocks, but about a month later they started dropping." From there. Moffatt turned his attention to technology. "At the beginning, 1 had a lot of defence stocks, but it changed. 1 looked into technology stock because technology is the future, really," he said. Throughout the competition, Moffatt consistently showed in the top 40. Later he was in the top 20. "It's pretty nice seeing your name in the top 20 in Canada," he said. And then, as luck would have it. as it always does with the stock market, his portfolio jumped in value unexpectedly and he was a shoe-in for the top spot. Moffatt isn't allowed to win the challenge again this year, but said he'll definitely play again next year. "It's fun, I enjoyed it" he said, adding technology and health care are good bets these days. "We try to bring a lot of the current trends in the market into the classroom," said Rees, noting. "On-line trading is the trend of the future." It was a more unusual round in the challenge last fall given the Sept. 11 events and their fall-out. Rees reluctantly admitted there's a bit of Lady Luck involved, too. "It is a function of luck at some time, but the overall process is a calculated one. The way Bryan won was definitely by trying to understand what could make a company's value increase and a lot of his investment was with biotechnology firms," said Rees. "We want young people to learn about investing and saving for the future." said B est noting that the challenge makes learning life's lessons fun -- and that if we'd all paid attention to those lessons, like what our parents told us long ago. we'd probably be much better off for it. You Have RRSP Worries. Today's changing economy will continue to play a crucial role in your retirement planning and savings strategies. If you're worried about your investments, you 're not alone. 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