On December 6, 1896, when Wilbert Copeland (Bert) Wood was born, Ontario farmers like his grandfather John and his uncle Charles were still clearing land for farming. Bert was raised on that farm in Luther Township until 1909 when (again like many Ontarians) his family trekked to Saskatchewan where they took a homestead.
Bert Wood graduated in the early ’20s from the University of Saskatchewan in Agricultural Engineering and joined Massey-Harris in Toronto where he worked as a research engineer on Massey’s new farm machinery until the Great Depression forced Massey to lay him off in 1930.

Wood saw the introduction of electric power across rural Ontario as an opportunity for a new business and founded W.C. Wood Company Limited in February 1930 to manufacture electrical farm equipment. His first product was an electrically powered grain grinder which would save farmers the necessity of having to transport grain from the farm to the feed mills for grinding and back to the farm for feed. He had parts for his grinder cast and tooled at a local machine shop, assembled them on the back porch of his landlady’s house and with the $150.00 he received from a Brampton-area farmer for his first grinder he established his new business.

Wood rented an empty candy shop on Howard Park Avenue in Toronto, bought a lathe and machined the castings for his own electric grinders. From this one-man shop, the company developed over the next 64 years into Canada’s leading freezer producer and the largest Canadian-owned appliance manufacturer.

By 1934 W.C. Wood Company had moved to a larger factory on Dundas Street north of Bloor in Toronto where it expanded its electrical farm equipment line to include an oat roller, a farm milking machine, and a farm milk cooler. It was the refrigeration system designed for milk coolers that got W.C. Wood Company into its first electrically operated farm freezer in 1938. Little did the founder realize at that time that this product would be a stepping stone on the path from farm equipment to appliance manufacturer.

In 1941 the company moved from Toronto to a 25,000 square foot factory at 123 Woolwich Street in Guelph, where for the next 15 years it grew and prospered expanding the facility to 40,000 square feet. By 1956 another move was necessitated and the company acquired the Taylor Forbes property and moved its manufacturing facility to 5 Arthur Street South where an existing 90,000 square-foot plant allowed the company to continue to grow over the next few years. By 1963, additional space was needed and the first of many additions was undertaken which resulted in the company owning two Guelph plants by 1985, totalling 600,000 square feet. By this time, the company’s total manufacturing was devoted to appliance production, chest and upright freezers, compact refrigerators, compact kitchens, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, and rangehoods. More than 95 percent of the total production was for the domestic market with the remaining being shipped to the United States, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean.
 

1. 1994 Top Team at W.C. Wood Company 2. Grandfather John Wood and Uncle Charlie, in 1987, clearing family farm where W.C. Wood was born.

By 1985, however, free trade was in the air and the company began focusing on a North American market with all the opportunities that lay south of the border. Initially all United States sales were of Canadian-made product. However, by 1988 it became apparent that higher value added costs in Canada would necessitate a U.S. facility to serve this U.S. market.

Twelve months were taken to study 40 communities in 6 states, and finally in late August 1989, the company announced the selection of Ottawa, Ohio, as its choice for its U.S. manufacturing facility. In early September 1989 ground was broken on an alfalfa field to construct a new 137,000 square foot factory to manufacture upright freezers for the North American market. Equipment started to arrive at the new plant in January 1990, tool proving commenced in March, and first production came off the lines in late April.

The new plant has provided three benefits to the corporation. It has allowed the company to take advantage of significantly lower operating costs. It has allowed the company to reduce its exposure to exchange rates by exporting back to Canada upright freezers to offset a significant surplus of U.S. funds generated by the exporting from Canada to the U.S. of chest freezers. Most importantly, it also gave the company a U.S. presence that enhanced the opportunities for the company to expand its U.S. sales. The result of all this was that while certain production was being transferred from Canada to the U.S. employment continued to grow in both countries.

Over the years, the company has received many awards from various sources for its products including the National Industrial Design Award in 1955 pre- sented by C.D. Howe, numerous customer recognition awards for customer responsiveness, quality, and supplier/customer partnership as well as an “A” for Achievement Award from the Ontario government recognizing the world leadership provided by W.C. Wood Company for energy efficiency in its products.

In 1977 the company produced its one millionth freezer and by 1983 the company had reached the two million mark in its appliance production. In June 1991 the company on both sides of the border celebrated its five millionth appliance.

W.C. Wood Company is still a privately owned Canadian company with its owners continuing to work in the business. Its objective is to see that at the end of each year its suppliers, customers, employees, and shareholders are each a little better off. It looks forward to the challenges of a tri-lateral trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It will continue its focus on productivity, quality, customer responsiveness, integrity, and organizational effectiveness combined with a strong financial foundation.