Mountain Climbing in the Business World

Head Table Guests

Rev. Prue Chambers, St. Nicholas Anglican Church, Birchcliffe; Julia Lydall, Senior Student, Appleby College; Ann Curran, Partner, Lewis Companies and Third Vice-President, The Empire Club of Canada; Tony van Straubenzee, Managing Director, Russell Reynolds Associates and a Past President, The Empire Club of Canada; Hal Blackadar, Shaw Radio Ltd.; Abigail Slater, Owner and CFO, Bakeworks; Susanne P. Hudson, Real Estate Sales Representative, Royal LePage, Johnston & Daniel Division and a Past Publisher, Canadian Geographic magazine and Your Money magazine; Albert V. Benoit, M.V.O., Vice-President of Protocol, Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts; and Dr. George Trusler, Grand Prior, Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem and former Head, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hospital of Sick Children.

Introduction by George L. Cooke

I have the pleasure today of introducing as our guest speaker, Marguerite (Crete) Hale, Chair of Morrison Lamothe Inc.

Morrison Lamothe is a family-owned market leader in the Canadian frozen-food industry. It has developed from the humble beginnings of a bakery started up by brother-in-law partners Richard Lamothe and Cecil Morrison in February 1933, to being named by The Financial Post in 1997 as one of Canada's 50 Best-Managed Private Companies. They have also won three President's Choice awards, including Supplier of the Year for 1998. The company's three operating divisions generate about $45 million annually in sales, and employ an average of 200 Canadians.

Perhaps The Financial Post Magazine, in its issue page--The 1998 Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards--was describing specifically the character and personality of our guest speaker today in its quote: "A salute to hard work, skill, talent, doggedness--and everything else it takes to win at home and abroad."

Ms. Hale's career spans almost her entire lifetime in the family business, starting at the age of 13 when she began to work Saturdays at the bakery. From 1972 to 1978 she was an Executive Vice-President with the company. She became President in 1978 and was appointed Chairman of the Board, her current position, in 1989.

Grete Hale was born in Ottawa on May 10, 1929; she graduated in journalism from Carleton University in 1954 and has had 10 years' catering experience in England, France, Scandinavia, Switzerland and the U.S. She is a trained chef and was responsible for the catering for 40,000 at Canada's 100th birthday party on Parliament Hill, July 1, 1967 and for the 20-foot cake which was cut by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

I will not attempt to list all of Ms. Hale's activities and accomplishments, which include numerous directorship and advisory board appointments, and community involvements. I would expect that her success will become evident as she speaks to us on her topic today of "Mountain Climbing in the Business World." Ms. Hale, welcome to The Empire Club of Canada.

Marguerite Hale

Good afternoon everybody. It's very nice to see so many of my Toronto friends in the audience. Hello to you all. Some years ago, when I was President of the Canadian Club of Ottawa, I would introduce the monthly guest speakers. I never dreamt there would come a day when I would be the guest speaker at a luncheon club. I feel truly honoured to have been invited to address you today.

Last November, in the ballroom of the Royal York Hotel when I received the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, I said in my acceptance speech that I had made it to the pinnacle of a mountain--a mountain that I'd been climbing all my life. I could never have reached that pinnacle without the support of family, friends and business associates. My journey has been full of ups and downs, avalanches that almost swept me away, chasms to cross and great vistas of success. Change has been the order of the day at every stage of that mountain. It's how I have survived and it's how my company has survived the difficult times. If I can leave you with one message today it is to learn to love change and to learn how to deal with it effectively so you can climb the mountains in your own lives.

Okay who am I? I'm a very ordinary Canadian of pioneer Irish, Scottish and Yankee stock and one who has been extraordinarily blessed. I had remarkable parents who taught my sisters and myself through example the riches of life from serving others. My parents' moral values were deeply imprinted on me. One of the last things my 89-year-old father said on his deathbed in our home was: "All I ask of my family is that they be contributors." And he was. My beloved husband of 36 years died five years ago. Reg was physically disabled but he never kept me back from doing 'my thing.' So that when he passed on I continued to have this absorbing challenging life with my corporate boards, my 19 volunteer boards and my job as Chair, as President, of our family company Morrison Lamothe Inc.

Most of my mountain climbing was done through the changing fortunes of that company so let me tell you a bit about Morrison Lamothe, our history and whom we are today. My father Cecil Morrison was English-speaking, a Protestant, a Tory and a Mason and his brother-in-law and partner was Richard Lamothe who was French-speaking, a Catholic, a Grit and a member of the Knights of Columbus. So we had all the markets tied up in the Ottawa Valley. They were a great Canadian combination. They build Morrison Lamothe into the largest independent bakery in Canada with 35 pastry shops and restaurants and for 40 years were the largest social caterers in the nation's capital.

Today we have a completely different focus. We have been in the convenience food market since my father first started baking bread in 1911. Today families need meals that are convenient and high-quality. Morrison Lamothe meets both of these requirements. With three divisions and a corporate office in Ottawa, we have a staff of 250 and sales this past year of over $45 million. The prepared-meals division located in Etobicoke serves the retail grocery market. Its products include Savarin and Holiday Farms brand frozen dinners, meat pies, and entrees. The division also produces private-label products for the Canadian and U.S. market. The fine food division up in Scarborough specialises in the preparation of meat pies, fruit pies, hors d'oeuvres and entrees, both as a co-packer and for private label. We make over 50 of the President's Choice products and all the fruit pies for McDonald's of Canada. Our third operating division is called the Frozen Network, a joint venture of five Ontario family frozen food processors. Its subsidiary, the Coming Home Foods Company, markets a wide range of premium frozen prepared food products to retail grocers in the U.S.

Growing up my father used to tell the family of the many mountains that he had to climb. Sometimes it was the courage to go to the bank manager to ask for a loan to buy a new bread oven and sometimes it was the difficulties he was facing with a competitor. He established the company values that continue today 66 years later within Morrison Lamothe. I can hear him as if it were yesterday saying: "Take care of the folk in the plant and those folk will take of the business." And they did.

I started climbing mountains on my first day at work. I will have to tell you about it. I was 13. I remember it as if it were yesterday--Dad driving me to the plant, leaving me at the front door and saying: "Grete, you may be the boss's daughter but no matter how tough the job may be or how long the hours I expect you to keep up your end." I was put in front of what seemed to be a mountain of those old-fashioned Dad's cookies which are quite rough and I had to pack 29 to a box. In those days there were no coffee breaks and you only had half an hour off for lunch but I finished the job. I remember coming home by bus and I went to my Dad and I guess the roughness of the oatmeal cookies had made the ends of my fingers rough and almost bleeding. I said: "Dad look at my fingers but I kept up my end." And at 13 what a lesson for life. You did the job that needed to be done. It was a lesson that I have never forgotten. Dad always gave us jobs that were bigger than ourselves, ones that we had to grow into. I remember my summer job at 16 was to check in 53 bread drivers when they came in with their day's cash. I was put into a little cage and I had to stay till the last driver was in, no matter how late he was in, and then I had to go the next morning by eight to make up the cash for the Brinks driver arriving by 10. I look back and say: "Did I do that when I was 16?" But you were expected to. The job was explained to you and you did it.

Fifty years ago I learned to speak French. Why? Because I wanted to be able to communicate with the French-speaking waitresses when I went out on catering jobs. In those days, I went out twice on Saturdays because, before Pope Paul John the XXIII, the Catholics were married in the morning and the Protestants in the afternoon so I was able to go out on two weddings a day. I worked my way through university by being a chef at one our restaurants. I used to take the 6:00 a.m. streetcar so I could get to the restaurant by 7:00 to open the restaurant and get a turkey in the oven so it would be ready for the noon-hour trade.

Over the years the company continued to evolve but in 1967 we hit the toughest spot in our entire climb. We were expanding and building one of the largest bakery buildings in North America. All of a sudden through a series of marketing mistakes and some factors beyond our control we were pushed to the edge of a chasm. We were advised to declare bankruptcy. Instead our family chose not to turn back. We chose to keep on climbing that mountain. My older sister Jean Piggot and I came back full-time to the company that year. We knew that if a single supplier had put us on a COD basis, that would have been the end. But none did. All had faith enough to help keep us going. We had to make many tough decisions. For example, we had to sell our new bakery building and it is now the home of Canada's national Museum of Science and Technology. It took 14 years before we paid the last of our debts. I will never forget the afternoon I sat at my desk and signed the dividend cheques going to our shareholders who had kept up faith in us. That was a long road. If I had known it was going to be 14 years I don't know whether I would have stuck it out. But we did. They all got paid.

Faith in God's plan has been an important ingredient throughout my life and has sustained me through many many difficult times. We had begun to diversify into frozen foods but that too was not an easy climb. Our U.S. competitor, who happened to be the largest food producer in the whole world with yearly sales of $24 billion a year, began dumping huge shipments of TV dinners onto the Canadian market. It affected our prepared-meals sales so badly that our market share dropped from 30 per cent to 7 per cent in just two months. Our directors as well as the bank advised us to close down the division. However, we persisted and stayed the course and following an investigation the government brought in anti-dumping duties and we were back in business despite great odds. I remember Scott Young in the Globe and Mail describing it as the David and Goliath battle but we won.

Even though we had been able to stay in the bakery business after '67 the retail bread market continued to change. I will never forget having to stand up in the bakery's cafeteria and tell all our employees that in two month's time we would be selling the bakery division. I had such a lump in my throat that I could hardly get the words out. I told them honestly why we had come to the decision to sell. There was only enough white bread production in Ottawa for one plant and we were two plants. Our competitor was owned by Maple Leaf Mills and they were a fully automated plant so the writing was on the wall. Despite having just informed our employees that most of them would be losing their jobs do you know what they did? They stood up and applauded me when I finished speaking. I was very moved at that. I think they fully understood the reasons for the closure and their support meant a great deal to me and my team.

By now we were fully dedicated to expanding our frozen food line and once again we faced another mountain to climb. I call it the Himalaya of all mountains so to speak--free trade. During the eighties I tried to find a way that a company like mine, Morrison Lamothe, could survive under free trade. We were told that we had only two years to survive and we would be gone. Some so-called experts claimed that our company would be eaten alive in a sea of multi-nationals. Well ladies and gentlemen I'm pleased to report that not only is that not the case but we are currently distributing our products throughout the U.S. to well over 2,000 supermarkets. And we continue to climb.

As you heard earlier, this year Morrison Lamothe was chosen for the second year by the Financial Post and Arthur Anderson Consulting as one of Canada's 50 best-managed companies. I am very proud of that. President's Choice has 352 suppliers and picked Morrison Lamothe as their number-one supplier. Last year we also won the Product Development Award and the Product of the Year Award for our President's Choice salmon Wellington which I hope you all have tried.

I was deeply moved last autumn when I learnt that I had been chosen as the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in the lifetime achievement category. It was a very humbling experience to have one's life recognised by so many people as an achievement. But it has not only been through Morrison Lamothe that I have been able to contribute. There have been many highlights and I would like to list a few of them.

As you heard earlier, on July 1, 1967, I was responsible for all the catering for Canada's 100th birthday party on Parliament Hill. We had this marvellous 20-foot cake with a 10-foot flagpole that the Queen cut. It was memorable. Being chosen as the first woman president of the Bakery Council of Canada--a fascinating assignment for two years. Helping to create the Community Foundation of Ottawa where Tony van Straubenzee has helped us a great deal and serving as its president for five years. Do you know that in our 11-year history we have seen our assets grow from half a million to 15 million in cash in the bank and 24 million in bequests and life insurance which will come in over the years. To date we have given back $5 million in grants to Ottawa. Being asked by The Honourable Pauline McGibbon, a former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario to be the Registrar General of the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem and thereby opening a wonderful chapter of service for me. It is nice to see some members of the Order here today. And then as a Centennial project restoring with my husband, my great-grandfather's 1858 house in the Gatineau Hills. We had been told by the leading restoration architect in Ottawa that the house was too far gone to save. He said forget it. It's gone. But in spite of his advice and my husband having very little money we did it. It has brought great joy to our family especially to my Dad who was able to sleep in the room he was born in. And today I am living in the oldest house in Ottawa built in 1828 restored 70 years ago by my parents. I live with my youngest sister Gay who is the food editor of the Ottawa Sun. Gay and I are both widows and often use the house for fund-raising garden and dinner parties for a wide variety of charitable organisations in our community. It never stops. Then I took over my husband's command of the 78th Fraser Highlanders Fort Glengarry Outpost when his health began to fail and I became the only woman commanding officer in Canada for this restored Canadian heritage regiment. And I am glad some of the members are here in the audience today.

I have had such fun and fulfillment in my life, serving on dozens of organisations from community colleges to hospital boards, the IODE, and I believe I'm not done yet. I see these organisations as helping others climb their own mountains. I have just returned from an amazing 33-day trip around the world visiting family and friends in celebration of my 70th birthday. Even though I had an unexpected angioplasty procedure just three weeks earlier it didn't prevent me during this trip from climbing steep hills to see 6,000-year-old bushmen paintings or riding an elephant at 6:30 a.m. in Zimbabwe. I think I've learnt over the years to treasure every day and make the most of it.

A reporter once asked my mother: "Mrs. Morrison, what is the secret of your beautiful acre of garden?" And her answer was very simple. She said: "Oh, it is too weed every day." I have tried to apply this answer to my everyday life. To weed out any fear, pessimism, laissez-faire thoughts and attitudes so that I can be free to do what ever task comes along embracing change in whatever form it may take--to climb to the top of my mountain.

I would like to leave you today with three phrases from the Old Testament which I repeat very often to myself. Be joyful always. Pray at all times. Be thankful in all circumstances. And I sure am. And I hope that you will all find ways to climb your own mountains just as I have been blessed to climb mine.

Thank you.

The appreciation of the meeting was expressed by Ann Curran, Partner, Lewis Companies and Third Vice-President, The Empire Club of Canada.