John Anderson is one of the most dec-
orated business professionals in B.C.
The chair, managing partner and
CEO
of Coquitlam-based produce distribu-
tor Oppy was named an Entrepreneur
of the Year twice (in 2002 and then
again in 2015 as the overall
Pacific Region winner—see
p.46 for more
EOY winners)
and last year he was induct-
ed into the Business Laure-
ates of B.C. Hall of Fame. We
check in with him about his
storied past and his plans to
keep Oppy, well, growing.
by Nathan Caddell
Oppy (formerly
Oppenheimer
Group and now
majority-owned
by Dole) has been
around since the
founding of British
Columbia—165
years. You've been
with the company
for 48 of those years.
How has it changed
since you became
part of it?
I started working in the warehouse, unload-
ing trucks and rail cars. It was one office
then; the company did about $7 million in
revenue. Then there was an opportunity
in sales to distribute apples and kiwis from
New Zealand. We started expanding: we
opened an office in Seattle, then Califor-
nia, then Philadelphia. We took the oppor-
tunity to expand the business by offering
year-round supplies of more and more cat-
egories, like kiwis and grapes. Then we got
into marketing, transportation and value-
added products. In the early days of some-
thing like Granny Smith apples, people
thought they were tough on your tummy,
so we'd work with newspaper and food
editors to add them into recipes.
What kinds of
products do you carry
nowadays?
All kinds: apples, pears,
kiwifruits, citrus, cherries,
grapes, plums, blueberries,
strawberries, raspberries—
and in our greenhouse we
have peppers, tomatoes
and cucumbers, among
others.
The
CONVERSATION
