John Risley: A pickup truck and a load of ambition.
Case 1: Clearwater Fine Foods Inc.
Group 5
BUSI 3312
Professor Nickolas Murray
August 1, 2011
1976-2004
Clearwater History (ADD OVERAL COMPANY)
John Risley had a clear objective when he co-founded Clearwater Seafoods with his brother-in-law, Colin MacDonald, back in 1976: He wanted to make money and put food on the table.
“That was the driving force,” says Mr. Risley, the company 's former chief executive officer and current chairman. His family 's tough financial times while growing up in Nova Scotia made him determined not to be poor. “We started Clearwater Seafoods with a pickup truck and lots of ambition,” he says.
Mr. Risley and Mr. MacDonald took the business from a small lobster distribution company, in a low-tech industry, to about $300-million in annual seafood sales by 2002, the same year that Mr. Risley was named one of Canada 's top entrepreneurs by Profit magazine. Mr. Risley 's strategy was to foster innovation by investing in the latest and best technology to improve the product and keep costs down, for example, something as simple as replacing Captain’s logbooks with notebook computers, while GPS tracks vessels and maps the ocean floor. Clearwater is the largest shellfish company in North America and its chairman believes integrated technology and innovation is what has given Clearwater an edge over the competition in the global seafood market.
The company, has ships around the world and has cashed in on growing demand for its shellfish. It has also devised new ways of shipping fresh seafood to global customers, creating new markets for its products, which we will discuss with you in the below analysis.
The company primarily sells its products in Canada and exports to more than 30
References: list Hill,W.L., &Mckaig,T.(2009) Global Business Today (2nd). The McGraw-Hill Companies. Seaman, T. (2011, Feb 03) Will China Set the Global Seafood Price Agenda? IntraFish. Retrieved from http://www.intrafish.no/global.news/article282532.ece Canadian Fisheries and Seafood Marketing Communication (China). (2009, April) The trade in imported Chinese Seafood in 2008. 43, page 1-2.