B.C. distributor’s north-south expansion proves wily

Many key industries in North America, including some in the natural resource sector, have been forced to consolidate through takeovers and mergers in the face of technology-driven competition that is virtually unprecedented in our times.

Brand name companies such as Chrysler Corp. and MacMillan Bloedel have simply disappeared off the corporate roadmap, a testament to the rapid pace of change in today’s highly competitive business climate.

With consolidated sales revenues now exceeding $C100 million annually, The BC Bearing Group, an award-winning Vancouver-based distributor of bearings and power transmission products, has actually managed to thrive during this tumultuous period. Formed in 1944 and family-owned since its inception, the company has grown throughout the Americas by being customer-focused and responding to changing market conditions with innovative products, services and policies. In the past 20 years, the company has doubled its number of retail locations and tripled its sales revenue in a highly competitive marketplace.

BC Bearing Group made a strategic decision in 1979 to “go south”–instead of expanding east–with the opening of its first U.S. operation in Washington State. Over the ensuing years, the expansion program continued through four more states into Arizona. In 1988, the company added a Latin American focus when operations were established in Mexico and it subsequently expanded to Chile, which was added in 1993.

Strategic growth has also been achieved through acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures, the most recent of which involved the purchase of Besco, Inc., a Seattle-based bearing and engineering company, by the company’s U.S. subsidiary. As a result, the BC Bearing Group’s string of nearly 60 branches now extends from Fairbanks, Alaska, in the north to Santiago, Chile, in the south–the deepest penetration into South America by any North-American-based bearing and power transmission distributor.

Commenting on BC Bearing Group’s latest acquisition, Robby MacPherson, president, CEO and COO, said, “The acquisition of Besco fits perfectly into our strategic plan of growing our business throughout the Americas by consolidating distribution in the Seattle, Washington, area, while firmly establishing ourselves further north in Alaska.”

He also noted that full North American bearing and power transmission coverage, east and west, is achieved through strategic alliances with Mississauga-based Canadian Bearings and with Affiliated Distributors in the U.S.

Representing over 100 manufacturers, the product scope of the BC Bearing Group includes: bearings, power transmission components, material handling components, variable frequency drives and systems, mechanical packing and gaskets and other allied industrial products. Technical support with design capability is available for all the company’s product lines 24 hours a day.

The company’s diverse client base competes in markets such as forestry, mining, food processing, agriculture, petrochemicals, high technology and many specialty areas. Among BC Bearing’s major accounts are forestry giants Weyerhaeuser and Norske Skog/Fletcher Challenge Canada, Syncrude Canada (oil sands) and Escondida Copper in Chile. The BC Bearing Group is one of only a few distributors in North America that is ISO 9002-94 certified at all of its North American distribution locations.

The firm has twice been listed among the “Top 50 Privately-Owned Companies in Canada” in a nationwide survey by Arthur Andersen and The Financial Post. And it has achieved a similar distinction by twice being named Power Transmission Distributor of the Year by Machinery and Equipment MRO magazine, most recently in 1998.

The company’s founder and chairman, Wendy McDonald, was the first woman chair of the Vancouver Board of Trade in 1990 and she received the Order of Canada in 1997.

Today, four of her children hold executive positions with the company, including son Robby Mac-Pherson; daughter Penny Omns, who serves as vice-president marketing and human re-sources; son Scott MacPherson, who is president of US Bearings and Drives; and son Bill Dix, vice-president international, BCB Group. In addition, McDonald has four grandchildren in the company, including Lance Ross who serves as marketing manager and three others who are in entry-level positions.

The company proactively participates in various industry associations, enabling management to keep up-to-date on issues affecting its industry. Penny Omns concluded her term as president of the Power Transmission Equipment Distributors Association on December 31, 2000, while Scott MacPherson, currently second vice-president of the Bearing Specialists Association, anticipates serving as its president in 2002.