OFMA to honor Shermag's Racine
By Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, January 5, 2003
Toronto — Shermag founder Serge Racine has been named the 2003 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Ontario Furniture Manufacturers Assn., in recognition of contributions to the Canadian household furniture industry.
Racine, now retired as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Shermag, the Sherbrooke, Quebec-based manufacturer, will be honored during the Canadian Home Furnishing Awards gala dinner Sunday evening, Jan. 12. The event will be in the new Aviation Ballroom at the Toronto International Centre beginning at 5:45 p.m.
The OFMA instituted the Lifetime Achievement Award three years ago to recognize Canadian furniture manufacturers not for only for contributions to their companies and the industry, but also to the community.
The first recipient was the late Orville Mead, president and CEO of Durham Furniture. Last year, the award was presented jointly to Bruce MacPherson Sr., president of case goods maker The Gibbard Furniture Shoppes of Napanee, Ontario, and Pat Thody, who retired in mid-2002 as chairman and CEO of Simmons Canada.
OFMA President Hugh Owen praised this year's recipient.
"Serge is an example of a man with a vision at a time when there were few successful furniture companies in Canada," Owen said. "He was able to convince others to join him in pursuing his dream, and he soon had a profitable company with sales well in excess of C$100 million. For having the vision and attaining his dream, Serge deserves this award. He truly is a star of the Canadian furniture industry."
Today, Shermag is a full-line producer of household furniture, offering bedroom, dining room, home office, upholstery, youth furniture and glider rockers. The publicly held concern has annual sales in the C$150 million range and more than 2,000 employees at 13 factories and three sawmills.
Shermag is the largest producer of assembled household furniture in Quebec and the second largest in Canada, behind Palliser.
The company got its start in 1977 when Racine took control of a small glider rocker factory, which had been built as the result of an economic development program he had initiated while still city manager of Sherbrooke.
Racine's selection has been widely applauded.
"He truly does deserve this recognition and honor," said Jean François Michaud, president and CEO of the Quebec Furniture Manufacturers Assn. "He built Shermag was humble beginnings into what is today the flagship of the furniture industry in Quebec."
In his nomination letter, Jeff Casselman, Shermag's current president and CEO, said: "Serge Racine has been a visionary businessman who understood that economic success in manufacturing furniture does not necessitate huge conglomerate size facilities. With vertical integration of basic material and the synergy of smaller mutually supporting factories producing various product lines in smaller production runs, the efficiencies and flexibility required to quickly respond to opportunities and ever-changing economic conditions can effectively counter the presumed advantages of larger manufacturing companies.
"Equally important to the Serge Racine philosophy is the importance of decentralized control of divisions with management teams motivated by an entrepreneurial spirit always looking for opportunities to grow their businesses and its profitability," Casselman said.
Before entering the industry, Racine, who has a Ph.D. in economics, was a university professor. Unlike many in the Canadian furniture industry, he was a strong proponent of free trade.
"During the difficult national debate over the NAFTA agreement, Serge Racine provided visionary leadership supporting free trade when many others in our industry were afraid of competition," Casselman said. "He believed the competitive stimulus to Canadian industry and the benefits to Canadian consumers were more important than the narrow protectionist interests of inefficient manufacturers."
A member of the board of directors of Hydro-Québec since 1995, Racine was a member of the Canadian government's consultative committee on free trade and a member of the Task Force on Canada-U.S. Trade Policy. He is also a former director of both Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and the Quebec Chamber of Commerce.
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