Printer For Mayor (July 2010)

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VICTORIA GAITSKELL

Practically every time you turn on the Toronto news these days you encounter the latest media frenzy over printer Rob Ford’s bid to become the city’s next mayor. But usually this publicity reprises Rob’s

prior 10-year career as city councillor for Ward 2 in North Etobicoke – rarely his work of even longer duration in the printing trade. On an earlier Saturday morning, Rob and his older brother and campaign manager, Doug, found some time in their hectic schedules to discuss theircompany, Deco Labels and Tags, and how Rob’s politics have been shapedby both his family background and business experience.

Legacy of Doug Ford Sr.In business and politics, both Rob’s and Doug’s chiefrole model was their father, Doug Ford Sr., who grewup in Toronto’s east end and in 1954, at age 16, at-tempted to swim Lake Ontario (unsuccessfully) along-side Marilyn Bell. A year later, he met his wife, Diane,when she went swimming at the pool where he workedas a lifeguard.

Professionally, Doug Sr. was instrumental in launch-ing the Canadian arm of Avery, where he earned 70percent of all sales and enough success by 1962 to starthis own outsourced label business from a small west-Toronto office. Two years later, he travelled to Japan tobuy three Hyundai presses and moved his expandedoperation further west, pending a third move in 1970that landed him at the business’ present location, 26and 28 Greensboro Drive (near Kipling Avenue andHighway 401).

In all, Doug Sr. ran the company for 34 years andgrew it into a multimillion-dollar, binational enter-prise. After retiring from the printing industry, heturned to politics and served as a Progressive Conser-vative Member of Provincial Parliament from 1995 to1999. He died in 2006 at age 73.

Evolution of DecoThe three Ford brothers, Randy, Doug and Rob, allgrew up in their father’s business. As their responsibil-ities increased, each gravitated naturally into a differ-ent role suited to his personality and aptitudes:Technically inclined Randy runs the Toronto facility;Doug, a born salesman, manages business develop-ment; and initially service-oriented Rob looked aftereverything at the front end.

In 1999, Deco opened a Chicago office that grew intoa plant and moved to increasingly large quarters fourtimes in six years, adding equipment as it grew. Then in2008, Deco bought a failing New Jersey company andturned it into another thriving operation through bestpractices and lean manufacturing (Six Sigma in theStates, ISO 9000 2001 in Canada).

To illustrate the strategy behind the company’s threelocations, Doug sketches a map of North America andwith three straight lines joins Toronto, Chicago, andNew Jersey into a Golden Triangle. Within four hoursthe company can access any location within its perime-ter, he explains. Next he marks a fourth dot on the mapto show the next area where they plan to expand: Dal-las – an addition that will reshape their tactical trian-gle to help serve an already large Texas clientele.

“In the recent recession our margins are tighterand we have to do more with less, but we’ve actually

Continued on page 28

Doug, Rob and RandyFord at their West Toronto

plant, founded 48 yearsago by their father.

Printer for MayorBusiness and Politics Mix Every Day At Deco Labels and Tags

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28 • PRINTACTION • JULY 2010

experienced growth,” says Doug. “One rea-son is that we’re very diversified, with flex-ographic printing, roll-to-roll 4x2-footsilkscreen, hot and cold foil stamping, em-bossing, tickets and tags.” Deco’s wares include identification products, expanded-content and booklet labels, IRC redeemablecoupons, shrink sleeves and flexible pack-aging. The company serves clients acrossthe continent in almost every industry –food and beverage, health and beauty, phar-maceuticals, transportation, manufactur-ing, and some of the most recognized retailchains and brand names.

Deco’s three plants house a combinedtotal of 200 full-time staff and 45 presses,including silkscreen, sheetfed tag and ticketpresses, and Mark Andy flexo presses, op-erating seven days a week around the clock(accounting for a routine 2:30 to 4:30-a.m.maintenance period). Their next plannedpurchases include Deco’s first toner-basedpresses and an 8-foot silkscreen press. Atpresent, the company deploys 19 accountexecutives throughout North America; op-erates sales offices in Michigan, Pennsylva-nia, and New Jersey; and generates about$30 million in annual revenues.

Committing to public serviceAbout his move from printing to politics,Rob explains: “I was raised to give back tothe community, but I was also frustratedwith the system and the city councillors inmy area. The last straw came when I calledthem many times about an enormous pot-hole on the street where I lived, and theynever returned my calls. That’s when I de-cided to enter municipal politics myself.

“The number one complaint I still hearfrom people who call the City is that theycan’t get an answer,” he continues. “So whenI’m elected mayor, I will make sure phonesare answered at City Hall and people canreach the appropriate person they want totalk to.” Doug adds that, because of Rob’sreputation for providing good customerservice to constituents by circulating hisprivate phone numbers and returning callsafter hours, Rob and his two staff typicallyfield over 100 calls a day from citizens seek-ing remedies to their problems, includingmany from outside Rob’s ward.

The brothers note that the number of e-mails and calls they receive has escalateddramatically since a June Globe/CTV/CP24/Nanos poll of 1,000 Torontoniansplaced Rob in the lead for mayor at 17.8percent of the vote, compared to 15.9 per-cent for his nearest contender, GeorgeSmitherman. Despite their growing workoverload, Doug still travels relentlessly be-tween American cities to build business,Rob still functions as Deco’s CFO, keepinga weekly watch on the company’s financialstatements, and the brothers stay in closecontact via three or four phone calls daily.(They also admit to getting by on four tosix hours’ sleep a night.)

Gaitskell Continued from page 15

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Business agenda for City HallBusiness wise, since being elected city coun-cillor in 2000, Rob has set a commercial-development record by landing WoodbineLive!, the largest private-sector tourism andentertainment development in the GreaterToronto Area, resulting from a partnershipbetween the Canadian non-profit Wood-bine Entertainment Group and TheCordish Company, a private, family-ownedMaryland development firm. He alsobrought his ward Wal-Mart to revitalize therun-down Rexdale Plaza, and is now court-ing another American colossus, LowesHome Improvement Warehouse.

“Rob understands business because he’sgrown up with it his whole life, confirmsDoug. “He wants to lower taxes forToronto businesses to stop them from mi-grating to regions in the 905 area codewhere corporate taxes are lower. And inbusiness he knows the importance of sur-rounding yourself with people who aresmarter than you in their specific areas ofexpertise; so he plans to establish com-mercial advisory boards throughout theCity. The boards will consist of represen-tatives of the printing industry and othermajor commercial sectors and will meetregularly to discuss everything from alter-native energy sources, to tax incentives, tobringing jobs back to the City.

“Rob also wants to make it easier forbusinesses to come into Toronto and cutthe red tape on things like applying forbuilding permits,” adds Doug. Both broth-ers recall how years ago, when they wantedto build a front addition onto Deco Labels,municipal authorities obstructed theirplans for fear their intended expansionwould encroach on nearby Highway 401.“To achieve our goal, we had to go overtheir heads to the provincial Minister ofTransportation,” recollects Rob. “We ex-plained that we would create jobs in con-struction and in the printing industry bybuilding the addition, and he took care of it.We were lucky because we already had con-tacts in the provincial government throughmy father; but for average business owners,the amount of municipal bureaucracy theyhave to wade through isn’t fair.”

Notwithstanding Rob’s reputation forfiscal conservatism, he also demonstratesa social conscience by donating countlesshours of community service to theToronto West Rotary Club and other

causes – for one, by serving as head coachof the Don Bosco Catholic SecondarySchool’s Eagles, a football team he foundedin 2002 with $25,000 of his own money inone of his ward’s tougher neighbour-hoods. He also founded the Rob FordFootball Foundation to buy sports equip-ment and establish football programs atother Toronto high schools.

He sums up: “I push these 16-year-oldsto succeed at sports and by getting an edu-cation. One thing I want to do after I’melected mayor is to develop more facilitiesin community centres offering positive out-lets to keep youth engaged like computersand indoor sports.” He identifies the diffi-cult circumstances of his father’s upbring-ing as the source of his interest in youthprograms and such other social supports assubsidized child care, public housing, andbreakfast clubs: “Our father was theyoungest of nine children. His father diedwhen he was three months old, leaving hiswife to raise nine kids during the [Great]Depression as a single mom.”

Ford’s war on spendingOne of the most publicized part of Rob’splatform is his intention to reform spend-ing at City Hall. “My father used to say ifyou watch the pennies, the dollars will takecare of themselves,” he says. “Just as inbusiness, it’s important to get the City’s fi-nances in order – especially since Toronto’s2010 budget is $9.2 billion plus another$2.4 billion for capital expenses – biggernumbers than for some countries in theworld,” he says.

Currently, Toronto’s government con-sists of the mayor and 44 councillors. In ad-dition to annual salaries of $99,620, eachcouncillor receives benefits includingmileage, life and health insurance and apension plan, perks such as free passes totourist attractions and free parking,$207,584 to hire staff, plus a tax-free dis-cretionary office allowance of $53,100.

Relative to these numbers, Rob’s low tonil expenses as a councillor have promptedwarnings from the City’s auditor generaland integrity commissioner for failing toreport office expenses he paid out of hisown pocket and printing materials for dis-tribution to constituents at his family’sprinting business at his own expense. Thesepractices breach the City’s Code of Conduct

Rob Ford hands out cake to constituents and volunteers during his 41st birthday barbecue,May 28, which also marks the grand opening of his new campaign headquarters at Dixonand Islington.

Continued on page 30

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requiring such expenses to be paid throughthe councillor’s budget rather than withpersonal funds or by a third party.

Among Rob’s ideas for fiscal restraint, asmayor he wants to reduce taxes, reduce thenumber of city councillors to 22, put a stopto backroom deals, and increase the City’stransparency and accountability for the waycitizens’ tax dollars are spent.

“Despite the alarming structural deficitforecast by the Toronto Board of Trade,some members of City Council are stillspending like drunken sailors,” he fumes.“Councillors don’t need to hire three, four,or five staff to replace themselves at meet-ings. They don’t need to buy themselvesmeals at exclusive restaurants, seats in pri-vate boxes at the Rogers Centre, limousinerides, cases of wine, or $12,000 retirementparties with taxpayers’ dollars. These areabuses of taxpayer’s money.

“Before the amalgamation of Toronto’sseven municipalities, Doug Holyday wasmayor of Etobicoke and Frances Nunziatawas mayor of York, and both ran their of-fices successfully on frugal budgets,” he con-tinues. “Based on their examples, I believewe can stop the waste at City Hall and getspending under control.”

Doug estimates, that at most, only abouta quarter of Toronto’s sitting councillorshave a business background and believesRob’s business experience would make hima valuable resource: “Rob wants to run theToronto on a business agenda, because heunderstands how to read a profit-and-lossstatement, how to be more efficient, how tomarket a company and manage customerservice. He knows ways to put more rev-enue in the City’s coffers, revitalize itsempty buildings and forgotten areas, attractinvestment, and provide incentives to growbusiness and employment.”

Only the election on Monday, October25, 2010, will decide for sure whether Robwill get the opportunity to apply the les-sons that have made his family’s businesssuccessful to municipal affairs. But judg-ing by the latest poll, his ideas about what’sgood for business and good for the Cityseem to be attracting a broad base ofToronto voters.

Victoria Gaitskell is a veteran print and electronic journalist both outside and insidethe printing industry. Her interests includebusiness, personnel, and communicationtrends and strategies. She is keen to sharethoughts and discuss story ideas with readersat [email protected].

Gaitskell Continued from page 29

Rob Ford’s role model and father, DougFord Sr.

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Printer For Mayor (July 2010)

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