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The BC Tree Fruits Cooperative has gone through a major shakeup, with layoffs of staff and key changes in upper management over the last several months.
The Co-Op’s Chief Financial Officer has left to work for the city of West Kelowna, the Chief Executive Officer is no longer in management, some grower support staff have been dismissed, and a member of the marketing department has not been replaced.
Jeet Dukhia, BC Tree Fruits Cooperative (BCTF) board president, confirms that CFO Warren Everton has left. “He was with us for six years and he was looking for other opportunities,” Dukhia says. The replacement process is underway. Two applicants have been called back for second interviews, staff confirmed at press time.
BCTF’s most recent CEO, Stan Swales, did not have the management portion of his contract renewed in November, but he remains an employee of the Co-Op. “He is assisting the operations manager and focusing on long term plans,” Dukhia says.
Human Resources manager at BCTF, Bob Fisher Fleming, has been appointed interim CEO while the Co-Op advertises for a replacement. A new hire will be the company’s third leader in the last seven years. Alan Tyabji was hired in 2012 and spent four years at the helm. Swales came on board in 2016.
In addition to changes in top management, five members of the Co-Op’s grower support staff have been laid off. BCTF media spokesperson Chris Pollock confirmed the dismissals were “without cause” and that severance packages will be given.
Senior Field Services Manager Hank Markgraff and long-time Okanagan field serviceman Tony Di Maria have both been let go. Over in the Creston valley, field serviceman Duane Holder has also been terminated. Plant Pathologist Danielle Hirkala and lab technician Lisa Hilbrecht have been dismissed as well.
Doug Needham, the former Export Cherry Coordinator who resigned this summer, will not be replaced.
“One of the hardest things to do in any organization is to let senior staff go,” said board member Amarjit Lalli. “Knowledge, experience, you name it they’ve got it, and there are also the relationships that have been built up over the years.”
Lalli called it “a change in direction,” that included costs savings as part of the equation. “At the end of the day we have to give our growers a better return,” says Lalli. “The only way to make sure of that is by making sure you are running effectively and efficiently and you don’t have redundant programs that are costing the growers money.
“There hasn’t been a push to update the entire system and I think that is what’s happening here,” Lalli adds. “We have too many properties and out-dated equipment. The main goal of this exercise is going to be one packing facility in the south in Oliver and one facility up north, which will be a state-of-the-art facility.”
A recent report to the industry that outlined priorities for the new $5 million BC Tree Fruits Competitiveness Fund says, “Dissatisfaction with returns from BCTF has led to a new wave of fractionation in the packing sector.”
The report adds that “some large growers believe that the cooperative system protects the weaker growers and penalizes the stronger ones. Growers have set up their own packing operations, but these new businesses will continue to lack economies of scale that can be achieved by competing producing districts.”
“In planning for the future, we have to right size the operation,” says Lalli. “What might end up happening is the weaker growers at the bottom might have to pull up their socks and become better growers, or they might be left out of whatever the new model might be.”
“Retail is demanding better quality fruit,” says Lalli. “With a new CEO there will be new direction and I think that is what the growers are looking for”.
Grower contracts are for three years and there is always a worry that if they have a disagreement with the Co-Op that their fruit might not be treated in a professional manner.
“This concern has been around since before I became a grower and started shipping to the Co-Op,” says Lalli. “That is just not the case. Our plant manager Peter Hoffman is well aware of all the concerns and issues and the board has worked diligently to make sure stuff like that does not go on.”