2008-02-13 - Suzanne Fournier
By: The Province
Cactus Club sets award-winning PACE
Employees fit 'professional, attitude, character, entrepreneurial' formula
At the Cactus Club Cafe, being named one of Canada's 50 best-managed companies is not just a management kudo.
"It's a testament to all of our people and what they do every day," says Anna Grolle, director of corporation operations and human resources for Cactus Restaurants Ltd. "Our mission statement is that every customer leaves happy and to accomplish that, we invest in the people who work here."
"We have a very good education and training policy, a mentorship program and we often promote from within the ranks of people who work in our restaurants," says Grolle, noting that Cactus encourages employees to think of working in its restaurants as a career goal.
Cactus Restaurants operates 17 restaurants in Alberta and B.C. and has three more slated to open this spring. Projected sales for the chain are more than $100 million this year, a 24.5-per-cent increase over 2007, when sales were $84.3 million.
The winners of the 2007 Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies award, including four in B.C., enjoyed the highest profit and revenues since the program's inception, boasting combined sales of $8.5 billion and average sales growth of 31 per cent.
"This year's winners leveraged their entrepreneurial passion to drive their revenue, profits and value in the face of triple-digit oil prices, a strong Canadian dollar, mixed economic signals south of the border and a challenging labour market," says Daryl Johannesen, B.C. regional leader of the Best Managed program.
In B.C.'s highly-competitive "casual fine-dining" restaurant market, Cactus Club has carved out a durable niche where restaurant customers feel as comfortable in a hockey jersey as a business suit.
Cactus Restaurants also scored a coup by just hiring high-profile chef Rob Feenie, late of the eponymous Feenie's and Lumiere -- one of Vancouver's best and priciest restaurants, as its "food-concept architect."
Yaletown Cactus Club Cafe chef Sean Holland said Feenie "will be a great addition to the team," but Cactus will not be altering either its mid-range menu price point or its successful brand of "affordable luxury."
Holland, who has been with the chain for six years and is now mentoring sous-chef Brent McCann, enthuses that "our menu is definitely evolving and we're constantly improving."
Cactus Restaurants president and founder Richard Jaffray, an avid surfer who spends many weekends at Tofino, holds regular staff retreats, some at Maui, notes Grolle, and lives by the watchword that "quality is the No. 1 concern of this business."
Jaffray's enthusiasm as chairman of the "board," says Grolle, extends to staff, who are encouraged to share his keenness both for the restaurant business and water sports.
Staff are actively recruited through Vancouver Community College, which has a red-seal certification program that Cactus pays its trainee chefs to attend, and even high schools such as Templeton Secondary, which also has a food education program, notes Grolle.
"We call what we're looking for in an employee by the acronym PACE, which stands for professional, attitude, character and entrepreneurial," she says. "We want keen young employees who plan to stay with us and in the restaurant business for a long time."