What would J.M. Schneider do?

I believe that the Schneiders brand is now dead. At best, it is on life support.

The announcement by Maple Leaf Foods that the main Schneiders’ plant on Courtland Avenue in Kitchener will close in 2014 and that a new plant will be built in Hamilton appears to have sealed the brand’s fate. The decision-making that lead to the announcement and how it was made tells us a lot about brands in 2011.

I reached my conclusion by reflecting on my personal experience of the Schneiders brand. I’m sitting not far from what is the literal shadow of the plant. While I have never had any relatives or good friends who worked there, I grew up not far away so the plant has always been a part of my Kitchener. But just about everyone born and raised in Kitchener or Waterloo Region has a personal experience of Schneiders and its role in the community.

I was fortunate enough though to spend part of a summer doing primary research for a history of the company to mark its 100th anniversary so in reflecting on last week’s events, I find myself asking, “What would J.M. Schneider do?” We could also ask, “What would J.M.s sons Norman, Charles or Fred do?” or “What would J.M.’s grandsons Frederick, Howard or Herbert do?” In all cases, I’m confident the answers would be the same and consistent with the brand the family established, lived and maintained until they sold the company in 1998.

When news broke about the plant’s closing, it hit me and Kitchener hard. While not entirely surprising, the news was sad. We had all hoped that a way would be found to keep it open and continue to employ 1200 people.

As coverage expanded, I didn’t see or hear anything from Maple Leaf Foods that recognized the rich history of Schneiders. The firm was a true made-in-Kitchener success story. Since 1890 when the firm was established in what was then Berlin, it played a key role in building its home city. The importance of the company’s significant role in the city’s growth and reputation as a manufacturing centre felt ignored. I assumed that the current staff would be first in line for jobs at the new plant so I was surprised to find the next morning that that was not the case.

When I saw the news release announcing the changes, I began to understand. Schneiders was just a brand to Maple Leaf Foods. The title of the release made clear that it was purely a business decision: Final Phase of Value Creation Plan Results in Facility Closures. The cold nature of the announcement helped explain what I was seeing and hearing. There was nothing about its historic connection to Kitchener. There was nothing about the human impact of a decision on people who dedicated their lives to working there. These people include whole families and multiple generations of family members. In short, the Schneiders brand appeared dead.

I later saw a video of the announcement made by Maple Leaf Chief Strategy Officer Doug Dodds (courtesy the Kitchener Post). While focused mainly on the “business” of the decision, he does say many of the right things about Schneiders, its place in Kitchener’s history and the people that work there. But when compared to “What would J.M. Schneider do?” or his sons or grandsons, the right words come across as lip service to the brand they developed.

Dodds should known better as he first became President of Schneiders in 1985 when it was owned by the family. Then again, it could be argued that Schneiders became just another brand under his watch.

Added Oct. 26 - A quote from Dodds in a Waterloo Region Record story on the iconic Schneider sign outside Waterloo Region on the 401 makes my point clearly, “Certainly, [the sign] has a very strong emotional attachment to Kitchener. But Schneider products are also made in Guelph, they’re made in Thamesford, we have poultry operations in St. Marys.” Isn’t the reason behind the emotional attachment in Kitchener a critical part of the Schneiders brand? For Waterloo Region, the sign will no longer be a beacon that we’re almost home. It’ll only serve to remind us of what used to be.

Why the Schneider brand appears dead

After the announcement then, it was clear that Maple Leaf Foods only thinks only of Schneiders as a brand. They don’t see its people or history. As far as I’m concerned, the people and history of Schneiders in Kitchener are integral to its brand. ”Taste the difference quality makes” was more than a brand slogan. Schneiders lived it and its workers felt it.

A brand is more than a name, a logo and a perception of an image. A brand needs to reflect the core essence of what a company or an organization is. When it does a brand is genuine and people internally and externally connect to it. Who the organization is, what it does and how it does it are all consistent with what people expect. Anything less is inauthentic and fails to strongly resonate with people.

In this case, you need to understand that Kitchener is a city where many people grow up and stay-or like me come back. Schneiders was never just another factory. Rather, it has been part of the fabric of the city. The growth of one paralled the other. Combined with J.M. and his heirs approach to managing their “family” who worked at their business, a genuine brand was born.

The quality that made Schneiders famous was always about more than just the food. It was about quality of life for the people who worked there and the community the company called home. As a result, people in the Kitchener area (or from the Kitchener area) bought Schneiders products because they had a connection to its brand. On a different level, the company built its success across Canada on the foundation of its local brand.

Closing the Courtland Street plant and packing up and leaving Waterloo Region and its workers behind is not consistent with our historical understanding of the Schneiders brand. No longer will people here (or from here) buy Schneiders products because they are Schneiders products. They may buy them but that doesn’t change that they will be just another brand in the grocery store. My conclusion is that the announcement killed the original, genuine Schneiders brand.

Maple Leaf tells us that the Schneiders brand will continue. They even assured me by Twitter that, “Maple Leaf will continue to offer the same high-quality products in the tradition of J.M. Schneider.” But the value of that brand in Waterloo Region is definitely at a low point.

I’m sure quality will remain high but the Schneiders brand as it has been understood in Kitchener is dead or on life support. Will that make a difference to a mother in Vancouver buying hotdogs, a dad in Fredericton buying bacon or couple in Sudbury buying a ham? While sad, probably it won’t. But it should and companies in touch with their brand enough to live it are best able to succeed today just as they were when J.M. Schneider ran the company he founded.

How to live the Schneiders brand in 2011

So how might have things been different if the decision-making and the announcement were consistent with Schneiders brand as it existed for at least 108 years?

Closing Kitchener plant to open a new one in Hamilton

The family papers housed in the Special Collections department of the University of Waterloo give many clues about how this decision would have been made consistent to the Schneiders brand. Historian Kenneth McLaughlin, who is familiar with the collection, wrote that, “[t]he leitmotif that runs through the collection is family, church, business: taken all together “community. It will surprise no one that this was also J.M. Schneider’s cree, his sense of values and that of his children and their children, as they conducted the family’s business for more than 100 years.”

What would J.M. Schneider do? Faced with an aging plant and modern market conditions, J.M. and his heirs likely would have decided to close the Courtland Avenue plant at some point. But they would have made every effort to keep it in Kitchener or at least Waterloo Region. They would have wanted to be seen doing so for their community. Failing that they may have made the decision to build elsewhere but they would have explained why that was necessary.

Dealing with workers in Kitchener

Al Meyer, my friendly liaison with the Schneiders archive, would have been disappointed with the treatment of today’s workers. He had enjoyed being a part of the Schneiders family so much that he volunteered to work in the archives. His experience was a common one for folks working at Schneiders.

The company always had a “family” atmosphere. In the centennial history (p. 103), Ray Stanton wrote “J.M.’s legacy of treating employees as a ‘family’ made the company a pioneer in labour relations and employee benefits in an industry described by Norm Schneider ‘where working conditions are cold, wet, steamy, smelly and smoky and require a rugged type of worker.’ Early benefits included a guaranteed minimum week, a pension and a profit-sharing scheme.” These benefits had been negotiated by the Schneiders Employee Association an internal union started in the mid-19040s by the workers instead of joining a large external union.

The family atmosphere extended beyond labour issues. It included skating and Christmas parties, summer picnics, an employee store and the male chorus.

What would J.M. Schneider do? If they decided to close their Kitchener plant and move, J.M. and his heirs would have given their loyal, long-time employees first crack at jobs at the new plant. For workers unable or unwilling to work at the new plant, there would have been enough of a plan in place for training and severance that it could be featured at least in broad terms in the announcement. Speaking of the announcement, the workers and the community they live in and which the company has historic ties to would have been the focus of the announcement-rather than the cold business of restructuring.

What will the Schneiders legacy be?

In the words of Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr:

In many ways, the J.M. Schneider plant has been the backbone of our community for well over a century - and that kind of contribution should not - and will not - be forgotten.

The question now is, what will its legacy look like?

My hope is that Maple Leaf Foods will remember its long history in our community and consider a legacy investment of some kind.

I won’t presume to know what J.M and his heirs would do as a legacy other than that it would be consistent with their company’s brand. I hope that Maple Leaf will take the opportunity to show that it understands and values the Schneiders brand that it inherited. I hope it will yet demonstrate that it understands the history Schneiders in Berlin/Kitchener. The company’s call for a task force to deal with the future of the site is a good start but may not be enough to take the brand off of life support. Time will tell.

What do you think?

What is your experience of Schneiders and its brand? Has it now changed? If so, how and why?

Am I being unrealistic to expect Maple Leaf Foods to live a brand established in 1890?

Update Oct. 28 - City, Maple Leaf look at teaming up to help Schneiders workers

According to an article in today’s Waterloo Region Record, the proposed task force will first look at taking care of the workers in Kitchener affected by the closure. This move is a positive step in the right direction and can help the Schneiders brand locally. I’m still concerned though that Doug Dodds still appears to think of this move as just another plant closure.

Doug Dodds, chief strategy officer with Maple Leaf, said the company is committed to working closely with the city to reduce the impact of the closing on employees, the community and the local economy.

“We have an excellent track record of achieving this in previous plant closures,” he said. “With the closure several years away, we have the time to plan and achieve a good outcome for our people and the City of Kitchener.”