Sandra Wilson is putting her best foot forward as she steps up to receive the 2004 Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of The Year Export Award.

The Burnaby-based maker of soft-soled leather baby shoes was honoured last week at a gala dinner in Toronto by BMO Financial Group.

“This award means a little bit of recognition of the time, the effort and the energy that has gone into building this business,” says Wilson, owner of Robeez Footwear Ltd. “Most people think we are an overnight success story, but it has actually taken us 10 long years.”

The award, presented by Export Development Canada, is part of an annual initiative of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and BMO Financial Group. It is granted yearly to the owner of a Canadian company that has increased its sales significantly by developing global markets for its product or service. At least 30 per cent of company sales must come from outside Canada.

Karen Dyer, Business Edge
Sandra Wilson knew little about running a business, but learned along the way, and now has sales of $15 million in a year.

Wilson’s company took its first baby steps in the basement of her family home a decade ago, after she had been laid off from her job as a training specialist with Canadian Airlines.

“I needed an income and my primary motivation was starting a home-based business so I didn’t have to find full-time day care for my son,” she recalls. Wilson’s son Robert was 18 months old at the time, and he lent his name to the fledgling endeavour.

Wilson began making the soft leather shoes on her own but soon found she needed help. “I probably sewed the first 50 pairs and then quickly passed the manufacturing on to a woman with an industrial sewing machine,” she says.

The company took off from there and Wilson soon made tracks to a larger facility. Robeez now markets, packages, sells and ships product from its head office in Burnaby. The manufacturing element of the business recently had to be relocated to a larger facility to keep up with increased demand for the product.

The firm (www.robeez.com) has grown into a multimillion- dollar international firm with offices in Canada, the U.K. and Australia. “We just completed year-end sales volume of $15 million, which was a 285-per- cent growth over the previous year,” says Wilson. “We’re now producing 120,000 pairs of shoes a month, which is roughly 6,000 pairs a day.”

Sixty per cent of the company’s business is in the U.S., with a further five per cent sent to other offshore markets. “Exports were just a natural opportunity for us, with the border on our doorstep.”

Wilson is convinced that she owes a good part of the company’s success to word of mouth. “Moms love Robeez – and they tell their friends,” she said last week in an interview from her Burnaby office.

“The designs are cute and the shoes protect (the) baby’s feet. Pediatricians recommend soft-soled shoes as the next best thing to bare feet for babies. And they work for moms – they’re functional and they don’t fall off.”

Wilson began Robeez as a total neophyte in the business world. She remembers making deliveries with her husband to local businesses with her baby slippers packed in empty boxes borrowed from local liquor stores.

“I knew nothing about this business – I’d never worked in retail, I’d never worked in wholesale. I didn’t know how to manufacture, I didn’t even know what should go in the box when you ship an order. I learned it all on the job. The first five years were a lot of work.”

After experiencing some success in the local market, Wilson took a number of government-sponsored workshops to find out how to export her product.

She is quick to note the importance of maintaining the family atmosphere at the company, and says she shares the award with her colleagues.

“Being a mom, being a woman – we have built a family, caring, respectful sort of culture. We are very careful when we hire that we hire people who fit into that culture.”

And Robeez is doing a lot of hiring these days. For two years in a row, Robeez has been named by Profit Magazine as one of the fastest-growing Canadian companies. Wilson is thrilled with her company’s standing, but notes that there is a downside.

“It’s just a real challenge keeping up,” she says. “Finding employees, hiring the right people.

“We didn’t have a human resources department a year ago – it was just me until then. Now we’re just about to hire our fourth HR staff member.”

Robeez currently has 360 employees in Canada plus a burgeoning number of independent sales reps. Add to that the growing ranks of offshore employees and Wilson finds herself in the position of scheduling meetings with her staff to ensure everyone in the operation is heard.

“We call it ‘Coffee with Sandra,’” she says. “Every Friday I meet with a group of five or six employees. Everyone introduces themselves, and then we talk about any issues, ideas or concerns they have. It’s a chance for them to cover anything they want to talk to me about, and it keeps me in touch with everyone.”

Wilson is ready to ensure Robeez steps smartly into the future. New directions include polar fleece booties and a recently hired product development expert to help explore product lines beyond footwear.

“We have lots of new ideas as to where we go next,” Wilson says.

Meanwhile, seven other B.C. exporters are also taking home the gold after winning the 2004 BC Export Award, co-hosted by the Ministry of Small Business and Economic Development and Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME).

The winners are:

* New Exporter: International Play Company Inc. (Langley). This five-year-old Canadian firm has become a leading supplier of children’s indoor and outdoor play equipment.

Web watch: www.iplayco.com

* Advancing Technologies Winner: TIR Systems (Burnaby). Established in 1982, TIR Systems develops specialty lighting systems and is now applying its research, design and installation experience to the development of solid-state lighting (SSL) technology.

Web watch: www.tirsys.com

* Consumer Products Winner: Marine Harvest (Campbell River). Marine Harvest is the world’s largest aquaculture company, and the largest producer and supplier of farmed salmon in the world.

Web watch: www.marineharvest.com

* Manufactured Products Winner: IMW Industries Ltd. (Chilliwack). IMW designs, manufactures and supports a full range of roll-forming products, and compressor system products.

Web watch: www.imw.bc.ca

* New Media and Entertainment Winner And Exporter of the Year: Electronic Arts (Burnaby). Electronic Arts is an independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for advanced entertainment systems and the personal computer.

Web watch: www.ea.com

* Primary Products and Resources Winner: CanPar Industries (Vancouver & Grand Forks). CanPar Industries manufactures environmentally friendly products, including Door Core.

Web watch: www.canparindustries.com

* Professional & Services Winner: Etraffic Solutions (Victoria). Etraffic Solutions is an international provider of online learning content and applications for K-12 and adult learning.

Web watch: www.etrafficsolutions.com

* International Business Studies Winners: Shona Sinclair, Terry Beech.

* Leadership Award Winner: Irving (Ike) Barber.

Ike Barber, the founder of Slocan Forest Products, one of B.C.’s biggest wood product exporters, is one of the province’s most prominent entrepreneurs. “His resume of leadership is truly impressive, whether you’re looking at his accomplishments in business or in community development,” noted Small Business and Economic Development Minister John Les.