Guildcrest: one year later

Home builders beating the recessionary odds

Elizabeth Moreau
Record News Editor

MOREWOOD – In a troubled local economy, Guildcrest Homes is a rare success story.

From the posh, spacious, administrative offices to the clean factory floor where employees work in teams and pay close attention to quality control checklists, things are running according to plan.

The modular-home company, which rose from the ashes of the bankrupt Morewood Industries last year, expects to turn a profit in only its second year of operation.

"I'll be very disappointed if we don't," says company president David Poupore.

Poupore, a former employee of Morewood Industries, proposed a bailout package for the company in 1990 with five other management-level colleagues.

An agreement with the Eastern Ontario Development Corporation and the Bank of Commerce for a $2-million loan guarantee allowed the company to get off the ground.

And although Poupore says talk of Morewood Industries now is "ancient history," he acknowledges that it was the bankruptcy and the downturn in the housing market that eventually led to the birth of Guildcrest.

"If times were good we'd have never had an opportunity to buy this place," he says. "It really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

During its first year, Guildcrest met of exceeded all of its goals, including selling 72 housing units and connecting with more than 20 distributors in central and eastern Ontario, who buy homes from Guildcrest and retail them.

"From a bottom line standpoint, we did better than anyone expected," Poupore says.

Already this year, Guildcrest has sold 14 homes from its Morewood office alone, and its 1992 target is 125 sales. Poupore says low interest rates and more affordable housing prices will help Guildcrest meet these goals.

He says although local unemployment rates are hovering around 10 per cent, "there is life in the marketplace.

"A lot of people are just tired of bad times and saying let's get on with our lives. That's what you need."

Terry O'Reilly, director of economic development for SD&G, says Guildcrest's management team turned the company around.

"It's not that housing took enormous jumps forward," he said. "When you consider that even with the best of intentions, circumstances limit what you can do."

One thing management has done is try to involve its employees in the day-to-day operations of the company. The factory employees work in teams under one plant manager, and each team runs its own supply and tool budgets.

"They have a lot of input into how the organization is run," Poupore says. "I think people appreciate that, and they respond to that."

The company also introduced a production incentive plan on the factory floor, where employees receive cash payments for exceeding their weekly targets.

Poupore says there's a sense of commitment among Guildcrest's 70 employees, nearly all of whom were former employees of Morewood Industries.

"Almost everybody here lived through bankruptcy, and came very, very close to losing their jobs," he explains.

And Poupore says a superior product will ultimately make the company successful. He hails the benefits of modular homes, including greater design flexibility for home buyers, affordability, technologically sound materials and production techniques, and energy efficiency.

Guildcrest has about 30 standard home plans, from about 900 to 2,800 square feet, which range in price from about $65,000 to $169,000.

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