‘I’m a micro-manufacturer’: Canadian-owned company changes the game plan to stay alive

In 1981, Paul Vella, who immigrated from Malta and spoke little English, was working as a foreman at an Ontario manufacturing plant when he got some tough news.

“The plant where he worked was shutting down,” his son David Paul Vella said. “He was sad. I was happy because I said, ‘Dad, now’s our chance’.”

That chance was creating their own company, something the younger Vella had wanted to do, even though he was just 17 at the time.

“I was still in high school but my dad had the skills and knew how to create and spin quality pizza pans,” said Vella.

They saw an opportunity.

“There weren’t many companies that continued to make the pans, so we decided to create our own company.”

They started in a garage, then eventually moved to a small facility on Norfinch Drive in North York, which was the start of a company called Crown Cookware, now located in Etobicoke.

“We bought some of the equipment from my father’s company that was shutting down, we still have some of that today,” said Vella.

They began to embark on a new mission, treading in unknown waters.

“We knew very little about our licenses and stuff like that. And you know what? When it comes to it, sometimes you just got to do it and then worry about the technicalities after,” said Vella.

The business took off, orders were coming in, and for nearly two decades, things were working.

“The 80’s and 90’s were great to us,” Vella said. “It was a time when manufacturing in Ontario—and Canada—was still doing okay.”

But by 2000, things changed. A more global economy increased imports and Vella says taxes he had to pay went up too.

“My biggest problem wasn’t making money or selling – it was paying taxes.”

He says Canada also does not incentivize companies when it comes time to buy new equipment, like the machines they use to manufacture their cookware.

“If you grow tomatoes, you need the sun and water. It’s a plant,” Vella said. “We too need outside help, that’s why they call it a manufacturing plant. It needs to be nourished and grown from the environment outside. This is where Canada has gone wrong.”

Canadian manufacturing took a hit after the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis and many plants closed down. Vella says more should have been done to keep them running.

“This isn’t about blaming any one single government administration,” he said. “You can go back 60 years, and politicians, none of them have been proud about manufacturing.”

While Vella was able to survive the financial crisis, things did not get easier. As web technology advanced and imports rose, more and more consumers saw the ease of ordering the same products they made cheaper from overseas.

“It got to a point where we could not survive anymore,” Vella said.

CANADIAN MANUFACTURING NOT DEAD, BUT FACING STRUGGLES

Vella’s complaints are not going unheard, and many others are fighting to keep what still is an important economic driver. According to Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, an organization that advocates for 2,500 companies, manufacturing is still very much alive in Canada.

“The manufacturing sector is a cornerstone of Canada’s economy, playing a crucial role in creating jobs, fostering innovation, and driving economic growth,” the organization stated in its latest report. “The nation’s 90,000 manufacturers directly generate 9.5 per cent of Canada’s real gross domestic product (GDP), make up one-quarter of its business research and development spending, and account for 60 per cent of the country’s outbound goods.”

But CM&E points out there are many challenges, some of which include labour shortages as well as a lack of incentives to invest in machinery and equipment.

“All levels of government need to work together with industry to develop and implement a comprehensive national strategy for advanced manufacturing,” the report stated. CM&E released the report in November, which details the problems presently facing Canadian manufacturers.

The report outlines several recommendations which, among other things, include expanding the workforce and creating programs to stimulate and encourage innovation and domestic manufacturing production and exports.

Vella says changes are needed on a national scale. He points out plants like his are an asset, especially for newly arrived immigrants looking for work.

“As soon as you have immigration and someone comes here, like my father did in the 50’s who doesn’t speak English, they can have a high-paying job at a manufacturing facility,” Vella said. “But if we’re not around, what happens then?”

Vella came to that point. Due to what he calls an increased cost to run the business, he made a tough decision last February.

“We weren’t making enough to continue, so I decided to shut down. We had to close.”

The news hit employees, faced with layoffs, hard.

“We were devastated because we love this company,” said employee Mohsen Khoshakhlagh. “There aren’t a lot of family-owned companies and this place is like home.”

After advertising the closing and a clearance sale, something happened.

“For that sale we had lines of people here staying in line for hours to get the last cake pans or pizza pans of ours,” Khoshakhlagh said. “People could not believe we were closing.”

“If you want to save your business, tell everybody you’re closing. All of a sudden everybody comes,” Vella jokingly said. “But really, customers came from everywhere and begged us to stay open.”

Those pleas and the recent demand made Vella rethink the closing and Crown’s strategy. The company had several meetings to change things in order to survive. While the company could not operate at its current scale, a smaller one might work.

“We rented out a portion of the warehouse to another company,” Vella said. “We don’t have to do everything in-house, but we do everything that’s important in-house.”

Vella calls himself a “micro-manufacturer.”

“I may have invented that term, but ‘micro’ in the sense that we do it in a smaller place, and just focus as much as we can on our cookware and bakery products, so we scaled down quite a bit.”

So far the downsizing has worked, keeping local jobs and a decent customer base.

“Are we going to get rich? Probably not. But I think it’s important to still have products made in Canada,” Vella said. “If there’s anything ever wrong with a product we sell, a customer can stop by or call us, that’s sometimes missing when ordering from a company a thousand miles away.”

As for the future, Vella has hope. He and other manufacturers continue to pressure the government for help, and his employees remain committed to ensuring Crown stays viable. While Vella does own the building where Crown operates and receives rent, he hasn’t taken a salary in years.

“I’m fine but the employees are what keeps this running. They want it to continue so I’m doing this all for them,” he said.

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