Alan Tyabji appointed CEO of BC Tree Fruits Ltd. - Fruit industry shake-up welcomed by some Okanagan growers, November 2012

Adapted from a report by Doris Maria Bregolisse, CHBC News : Friday, November 02, 2012 8:04 PM

A shake up within the Okanagan apple industry is being welcomed by growers. The head of B.C. Tree Fruits Limited was fired Thursday to make room for a new CEO; a man the board believes can bring about the changes growers are demanding.

“Right now our job is to pack and sell fruit at the highest price possible,” said Alan Tyabji, the new CEO following a board meeting on Thursday.

Tyabji is the new head of BC Tree Fruits and the Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative, OTFC. He comes to the job during a time of industry turmoil.

“They need stability from us, from our packing organization or that they have a place to ship their fruit too,” said Tyabji.

One of his last jobs was to manage the Okanagan Similkameen Cooperative, a job that disappeared during the valley wide co-op amalgamation in 2008. He was appointed joint Chief Executive Officer of the OTFC, but left the job shortly after to pursue other ventures. He ran Calona wines in the 1970’s and owned Okanagan Vineyards.

Tyabji replaces Gary Schieck, who was fired by the new board of directors. It was a shakeup that many growers were beginning to demand.

Tyabji began his job Friday by introducing himself to his new employees and sending out letters to each grower Friday morning asking for advice on what could be done better.

“I’m going to do it differently” says Tyabji. Four years ago, when the amalgamation was happening, there were two ways of operating; one called centralization the others called regionalization. I’m committed to regionalization. And the difference is regionalization places a senior manager closer to his people and centralization, the people tend to be here in Kelowna. Under regionalization, I’ll have a senior manager down south, and a senior manager at the Vaughan (Avenue) plant, and that is from existing staff. We go down in numbers, not up.”

With 40 years’ experience in the fruit growing industry, Tyabji hopes he can bring the changes growers want, without upsetting the whole apple cart - the livelihood of all growers in the Okanagan valley.