Robert Meggy, President and CEO - The Great Little Box Company

Robert Meggy, President and CEO
The Great Little Box Company

Robert Meggy was just 35 years old when he and his wife, Margaret, purchased a failing cardboard box company. The timing couldn't have been worse. It was 1982, and the country was in the midst of a recession.

"I had just bought the company and the economy took a nosedive," says Robert. "I had personally guaranteed the rent for two years. I had personally guaranteed the company assets. At one point, I owed more on my house than it was worth. It was not a good time."

Since then, the Great Little Box Company has grown to become the largest independent corrugated sheet plant in western Canada with more than 170 employees and offices in Richmond, Victoria, Kelowna and Everett, Washington. It produces more than 150,000 cardboard boxes a day from a new, 250,000 sq. ft. facility on Mitchell Island. Today, the company's sales for one day are more than the total sales that first year, and they fill more orders in an hour than they did in their first month.

The company started with three box-making machines, two machine operators, and a sales representative. Robert, a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) by training, would pitch in and operate the third press when it got busy. "I did everything in the beginning," says Robert. "From taking orders and making sales calls to running one of the machines and shipping out the completed jobs."

The Great Little Box Company makes a complete line of corrugated boxes and packaging materials in all shapes and sizes, ranging from very basic stock boxes, such as shipping boxes, to custom boxes with detailed artwork and four-colour printing. About 80% of Great Little Box Company's customers are manufacturers.

The first year was tough. "We just weren't getting any sales," said Robert. The experience taught him that a good sales person was essential to the company's success. It was a turning point in the company's history and set Robert on a path that has led to the transformation of his company from the bottom up, starting with a belief that the company's greatest assets are its people. "Everything we do has to be by people who are well-motivated. If you've got people who enjoy working together, they don't leave."

Meggy's "people first" strategy has garnered the company awards and recognition as one of the top employers and best companies to work for in B.C. and Canada for several years in a row.

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