Draft:Leonard H. Omstead

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Leonard H. Omstead (born 1930) is a retired executive and co-founder and owner of Omstead Foods Ltd. of Wheatley, Ontario. The company in 1984 underwent ownership change and rebranding (John Labatt Ltd.), and the following two decades more ownership changes (H.J. Heinz) and (TriWest Capital Partners)

Biography

Born in 1930 in the Village of Wheatley, Ontario, Leonard H. Omstead is the son of Leonard Roy and Mabel Omstead. Leonard H. Omstead's grandfather Everett H. Omstead is a descendent of early settlers in Essex County and the founder of the Omstead Fishery in 1911. Everett and his son Leonard Roy, president of Omstead's Foods, were the first on the North Shore of Lake Erie to attempt to "fillet" fish. Later, Leonard Roy was responsible for initiating and introducing trawling for smelt in the Great Lakes after speaking at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada that funded and built a stern trawler ("Leo d'Or") to kick-start the program. Then, Everett's grandson Leonard H. Omstead went on to develop a modern food processing plant under the brand of Omstead Foods Limited (1961).

Before the Second World War half of the Wheatley population worked in the fishing industry and the largest of the fisheries was owned by Everett Omstead with three pound-net fisheries, four grill-net fisheries and a fleet of six modern boats. He also conducted a large-scale warehouse and retail business. In the early days of commercial fishing in Wheatley the pioneers were: Everett H. Omstead; George and Enoch McLean; T.H. Maxwell; Issac Shaw; LaMarsh Brothers; Josh Liddle; Moody and Coulson, A. E. Crewe; John W. Bailey; Adolphus N. Baldwin; and many others.

In 1942, the height of World War II, Leonard's grandfather Everett passed away at the age of 56 when most of the male population in Wheatley either left for overseas or were about to leave. This acute shortage of manpower, forced 12-year-old Leonard to work at Omstead Fishery. Later, he attended St. Andrew College and H.B. Beal Technical School in London, Ontario, majoring in electrical science, along with two of his family members, Bob who took courses in construction and Norm in mechanics. After graduation, Leonard developed the Infrared Cooker, Norm built the conveyor line for the Infrared Cooker and the cook room elevator, and Bob supervised the building construction of the office and two cold storage units. With the Omstead Fishery office manager Rae Bell, Leonard, Norm and Bob invested five hundred dollars each to form a company called Wheatley Industries Inc.

Wheatley Industries Inc.

Their first purchase was a large grinder, a rack, galvanized metal trays with a capacity to hold twenty-five pounds of ground fish waste and a plate freezer. Leonard, 18, was now a shareholder.

The company went on to purchase a tandem dual truck that carried twenty thousand pounds of mink feed. The deliveries of mink feed and fresh fish throughout Michigan, Wisconsin , New York and Ontario fell on Leonard, who enjoyed the driving despite the difficulties encountered on the road, bad weather, and a variety of unexpected obstacles that awaited him. From a truck driver, Leonard worked his way up to sales and quickly learned other facets of the Omstead Fisheries operations and processes. The firm sold breaded and battered fish portions of many species from the fresh waters of Lake Erie all across A&P stores, then opening across Ontario and Canada. Later on, when other chains got the word of "Omstead's great product" they wanted to cash in. Not to jeopardize the good relationship with A&P, Leonard and his family members decided to develop different trademarks for the different chains. Brand names of Omstead Foods Ltd. were Wheatley, Sportsman, W Brand, Omstead Foods and Leo d'Or labels.

In 1951 when the future Queen of England, Princess Elizabeth was visiting Canada with her husband, a chef was rummaging in his mind what to serve the royal couple when they stop-over in Toronto. Then, remembering the Omstead's reputation of being the first to "fillet" fish, he immediately "ordered 320 kilograms of fresh fillets from Wheatley Fisheries."

On 2 May 1971, the 26th Annual Meeting of the Fisheries Council of Canada, held at Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Leonard H. Omstead, vice-president of sales with Omstead Fisheries (1961) Ltd., was elected its president.

In 1979 when Leonard became the company president and his father (Leonard Roy) chairman of the board, they decided to build a plant in Port Dover and expand the cook room by adding two cooking lines. That helped the company to expand sales and the profit exponentially.

Recognition

Fifteen years later, Leonard H. Omstead as President and Chief Executive Officer of Omstead Foods Limited was invited to the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries and Forestry by Honourable Senator Jack Marshall at the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa in 1986. He was personally introduced by Marshall to other senators for the work his family did to develop the Lake Erie freshwater fishing industry in Canada that was being hailed the world over as the largest and most efficiently run.At the height of Omstead Foods Limited, Leonard recalls that they had 125,000 square foot refrigerated warehouse and a fleet of more than two dozen refrigerated trucks.