Otter Co-op’s CEO Jack Nicholson is the winner of the 2018 B.C. CEO Award in the Large Company category.
Business in Vancouver, Deloitte and TEC Canada will present the BC CEO Awards. Winning CEOs will be profiled in Business in Vancouver on October 2 and honoured at a gala dinner in early November where each winner will share their leadership lessons to an audience of Vancouver’s business community.
The award recognizes the consistent growth of the member-owned Otter Co-op over the past eight years under the leadership of Nicholson and the co-op’s team of leaders and board of directors.
In addition to Nicholson’s role as CEO at Otter Farm & Home Co-operative, he currently serves as President of the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce, and has taken on leadership roles in the past at Aldergrove Rotary, Langley Meals on Wheels and Riverbend Co-op in Saskatchewan, Federated Co-operatives Limited, and Mayerthorpe Co-op in Alberta.
Originally from Ontario, Nicholson received his education at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
As CEO of Otter Co-op since January 2010, Nicholson is responsible for overall operations of $200 million in yearly sales in both retail and wholesale. He manages a senior leadership team of nine, with 390 employees overall of the Otter Farm and Home Co-operative, with locations in Aldergrove, Langley, Abbotsford, Ladner, Surrey, Pitt Meadows, Mission, Chilliwack, Penticton and Armstrong.
Otter Co-op is a member-owned Co-operative Association under the direction of the member-appointed Board of Directors.
Nicholson oversees all administrative controls, cash flow management, budget development and planning for retail, wholesale, and commercial sales of feed, food, petroleum and general merchandise of $200 million annually.
“Maintaining high levels of customer service to make our organization a respected and well-recognized community builder and leader, building on our mission statement of providing benefits to our member/owners, staff and community by promoting the Co-operative Retail System (is our goal),” says Nicholson.
Established by settler-farmers in 1922 in order to bring supplies here at an affordable price, Otter Co-op has changed and transformed itself many times over the decades, but the core values of “Integrity, Community and Excellence” are the key to Otter Co-op’s continued success, according to CEO Jack Nicholson.
Those core values are not merely a slogan either, as Nicholson says the board of directors, executive officers and all 360 employees strive to embody those values in everyday operations. Over and over again during an interview in his office on 248 Street — historically known as Otter Road — Nicholson stresses that, “We care about people.”
“The new Otter Co-op Outdoor Experience at the Aldergrove Credit Union Community Centre is an amazing opportunity for us.”