If you ask the leaders of many Winnipeg based companies, it’s a mystery why firms from all over the world don’t move their head offices to the Manitoba capital.
A diversified economic base, easy access to tri-modal shipping, relatively inexpensive real estate, a deep talent pool, clean and inexpensive energy, a central North American time zone and proximity to the largest market in the world are just some of the reasons nearly 100 companies choose to base their head offices in Winnipeg.
The list ranges from global players, such as Canada Life in financial services, agribusiness conglomerate James Richardson & Sons, StandardAero in aerospace, Mondetta Clothing in apparel, to tech companies such as IntouchCX and SkipTheDishes, bus manufacturer NFI Group, furniture manufacturer Palliser Furniture, snack food maker Old Dutch Foods, lottery ticket manufacturer Pollard Banknote and general retailers The North West Company and Princess Auto.
But there are a lot of intangibles to consider, too. Just ask Joe Cyr, president and chief operating officer at Price Industries. Like many newly-graduated Winnipeggers in the 1980s, he sought out greener pastures in Toronto. He found work at Hewlett Packard for a few years before moving on to Magna International. When he decided to move home to take a job with Price Industries in 2004, more than a few people questioned his sanity.
After all, nobody moves back to Winnipeg, right?
The numbers certainly told a good story. During his time in Toronto, the manufacturer of air distribution products had grown from $165 million in annual sales, which were primarily in Canada and the U.S., to $1.3 billion in sales around the world. But Cyr realized quickly that he had forgotten about the sense of connection and community that Winnipeggers have.
“People in Winnipeg want other people to succeed. We all understand that if you’re driving down a road during a storm and you see a car in the ditch, you stop and help,” he says.
“Winnipeg businesspeople build the community. They want other businesspeople to succeed,” says Cyr, Price Industries’ president.
Winnipeg boasts a limited number of employers of Price Industries’ size—it has 1,500 local employees and more than 4,500 in total occupying nearly 2.5 million square feet of manufacturing space—and that kind of magnitude tends to stand out and attract a lot of attention from graduating students.
“These (local) graduates are ambitious, and they want careers. Being a relatively large company with an international presence and growth creates a certain allure. I think there are only so many companies that are in that group (in Manitoba),” he says.
“Price is the leader in the field of what we do for commercial ventilation products. We’re the number one player in the U.S. and Canada. That graduates can join a company that has that kind of scale and with a Winnipeg head office, matters to them. They feel proud.”
Cyr doesn’t have to take many recruiting trips because the graduates coming out of the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg and RRC Polytech are as high quality as they come.
“That humble, home-grown and helpful spirit is a part of everybody’s make-up and that makes a massive difference. People here have their feet on the ground, but they don’t know how good they are,” he says.
Kiera Young, senior vice president, customers, products & services at MacDon Industries, agrees. The manufacturer of farming and harvesting equipment has long-standing relationships with post-secondary institutions and employs a “tremendous” number of co-op students every year in engineering, supply chain management and IT.
“As Winnipeg has the only engineering school in the province where you can get an accredited degree, you have to be connected to them. I always say, ‘if you can find good engineers who have roots in the community and see good employment opportunities, they’re going to stay,’” she says.
Winnipeg is the ideal setting for MacDon because the city is in the company’s geographic sweet spot. “Winnipeg is the core of western Canadian farming,” Young says.
“Plus, it’s close to the U.S. border so we’re able to service a large percentage of our customers right from here. Harvesting has a western Canadian focus and that’s where the majority of our customers are.” Young drives into Winnipeg each day from her home in Carman, 40 minutes to the southwest, which gives her a unique perspective on the impact that her employer has.
“What’s awesome for me is I see our products moving on highways and working in the fields every day. It’s one thing to work for an organization that goes about its business, but it’s quite another to live and work where what you produce is being used,” she says.
“That’s been a secret to our success at MacDon. In the early days, our equipment and products were right around us so our ability to support them was key to us in figuring out how to build a company of scale,” she says.
Both Price Industries and MacDon celebrate their 75th anniversaries this year.
Head offices are a significant economic driver in Manitoba, and they can have a unique role in a community, says Amanda Macdonald, vice-president of business development and market intelligence at Economic Development Winnipeg (EDW).
Local CEOs often head up the annual United Way campaign and sit on a variety of different boards. They have also been known to spearhead various fundraising initiatives.
“Headquarter businesses drive a lot of our business expansion in Winnipeg and Manitoba. So, we need to make sure we protect the businesses we have here and create an enabling environment for them to grow,” she says. “Their growth fuels the growth of supplier and service businesses within our local ecosystem, creating a multiplier effect for economic growth.”
A headquarter business tends to offer high-quality jobs and diverse career opportunities in the community where it’s based.
“We have strong corporate brand names, like Princess Auto, SkipTheDishes and Wawanesa, offering fulfilling career pathways that help us retain skilled labour in Winnipeg and retain our youth, who are always on the lookout for where they can go for exciting jobs. We want those brands and job opportunities to be here, so our youth not only stay in Manitoba but thrive over their careers,” she says.
But just as EDW strives to convince companies headquartered in other jurisdictions to move to Winnipeg, economic development agencies from around the world are making similar pitches here.
Price Industries receives overtures to relocate to different cities and countries “all the time,” but Cyr says the recruiters are wasting their breath.
“There’s not a chance we’ll ever move our headquarters from Winnipeg. Our founder Gerry Price is building the company for the people, and we’re deeply committed to Winnipeg and to our employees,” he says.
In fact, there’s no number that could be written on a cheque that could ever change Price’s mind, Cyr says.
“It never even gets to that point. It’s clear in any discussion that Gerry would never consider it. We’re die-hard Winnipeggers. We love everything about Winnipeg, including the cold and the challenges. That’s part of what makes Winnipeggers who they are. You learn to help others through the harsh environment,” he says.
In case there’s any doubt about the strength of the company’s convictions, Cyr is quick to note the next generation of leaders at Price Industries is already in place and they’re cut from the same cloth.
“We are locked into Winnipeg,” he says.
MacDon hears the same pitches. But even when the long-time family-owned business was bought in 2018 by Guelph-based Linemar Corp., its location was never in doubt.
“It’s never been a question that we would not be in Winnipeg,” Young says.
There should, however, be a greater concentration of head offices in Winnipeg, she says, and that’s going to take a joint effort, particularly from the business community. While Young loves living and working in Manitoba, she is quick to acknowledge a long-time shortcoming about the province.
“We are much too shy about singing Winnipeg’s praises. We need to be louder cheerleaders. There are so many industries in Manitoba, and we don’t do a good enough job of recognizing that that’s a huge strength for our province,” Young says.
“We’re all about supporting farmers who are helping us feed the world. There is a groundedness in what we do and there’s a harmony with what Manitoba has been built on and what it should continue to build on.”
As published by Manitoba Inc. Magazine.