Cape Breton's Wall Coverings History and Growth

Cape Breton's Wall Coverings History and Growth

St. Clair Paint and Wallpaper Corporation, the parent company of Cape Breton Wall Coverings, was founded in 1939 by the late Harry Litwin, who began with one retail store. By 1989, St. Clair had grown to be a retailer, distributor and a manufacturer. The company produces paint, wallpaper, decorative supplies, and related products that are sold through 51 company-owned and 142 franchised locations in Canada and the United States. The distribution division consisted of Metro Wall coverings and St. Clair Distribution. The manufacturing division includes Phoenix Wall coverings, Window Magic and Cape Breton Wall coverings. St. Clair was a public company that traded 30% of its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The remaining 70% was owned by the Litwin family of Toronto.

A Cape Breton Wall covering was established in 1987 after St. Clair's United Kingdom plant, Phoenix Wall coverings, had reached full capacity. St. Clair wanted to expand to increase its share of the world market, so a second plant was deemed necessary. Cape Breton Wall covering was the first wall covering plant to be established in the Atlantic Provinces. In March, 1989, the official opening of the plant located in the North side Industrial Park (situated between North Sydney and Sydney Mines, in Nova Scotia). The plant opening was considered a major boost for the local economy, which was suffering from industry closures and layoffs, creating a large number of unemployed Cape Bretoners. The plant included all the latest equipment and technology as well as a design center. The state of the art equipment enabled the plant to produce a variety of wall covering: blown vinyl, gravure printing, and rotary screen printing. It began production in November 1988 and was fully operational by March, 1989. By December, 1989, the plant employed 103 people including the senior management team.

The Atlantic Canadian Opportunities Agency:

Contributed investment tax credit, offered reduced interest on $12.25 million of the total loan of $15 million, provided loan insurance on 85% of the loan for up to 15 years and provided a $3 million mortgage.

The Nova Scotia Department of Industry, Trade and Technology:

They provided an incentive of $15,000 for every job, creating up to a maximum of seventy jobs. Another incentive was the plentiful labour force, low labour costs and low land costs. A final incentive was the easy accessibility to North American and European markets.

The Stakeholders within the Company

John Hooker - President; He is having trouble keeping up with the company and making the right choices.

Michael O'Shea - Controller/Accountant; He has no background with working with wall coverings but he owns his own accounting business.

Donald Planche - Sales and Marketing Manager

Chris Wood - Production Manager

Carole Degre - Design Manager

Howard Venner - Plant Manager

Marketing

Cape Breton Wall coverings offer high quality vinyl products. This includes solid vinyl, blown vinyl, and flat screen wallcovering. Wallcovering were sold at competitive prices, at middle range prices. The colors and designs offered were to be consistent and met customer demands. Cape Breton Wallcoverings produced their products under two brand names, which were: Glenbeigh and Phoenix. The most effective promotional tools for Cape Breton Wallcoverings were their wallcovering collections. Each collection consisted of 25 designs in three color varieties with a total of 75 choices. The variety was suggested by the customers. An investment of $200,000 to $250,000 was needed to design each collection and a further $1 million to stock the complete line for each collection. The wall covering books were provided to distributors and retail outlets so customers could see the product and place orders. 70% of the products were exported. 60% went to the United States, and the other 10% to Europe. The remainder 30% went to Canada.

Human Resources

John Hooker estimated that he would require 60 people to begin work in the plant by June, 1989, these employees being mainly technical personnel. More than 550 applications were received and out of that only 103 employees had been hired, mostly in experienced for the job. The Employees hired in each department were as follows:

Design Department - 5 people hired

Purchasing Department - 4 people hired

Marketing and Sales Department - 8 people hired

Administration Department - 11 people hired

Production Department - 75 people hired

It was a new career path for all the new employees at the wallcovering plant and a new experience for every employee including the ones who were previously hired. As John said, "From myself, right down to the guy who's sweeping the floor, everyone who is here is in a different position than where he was before." Each position at the plant was considered to be a training position. The training was mostly evident in the Production Department. Since there was not an apprenticeship program for printing trades in Nova Scotia, the local people hired for the production area were not familiar with the printing. In general, the local men and women hired for this department were between 20 and 30 years of age, had obtained, on average, a grade 11 general level education, had very little technical experience, but, they were willing to learn. John had to hire five employees, who were experienced in manufacturing wallpaper from outside the area, who would supervise 70 Cape Bretoners who were unskilled novices in the printing area. These five employees would report back to Chris Wood, and provide on-the-job-training for trainees and then evaluate them. Another training technique that John looked into was the Canada Employment and Immigration Commission to provide for industry-based training through their National Training Program. The cost of the program was $15,000 per job created, for producing basic job-specific skills. John also planned to invite experts in the wallcovering field to provide training for both short and extended periods. The vinyl experts would stay for 150 days in 1990 and 100 days the following year. John was impressed with the Cape Breton workers, and had said that they have done an excellent job. However, the problem arises that they do what you tell them