Telecom pioneer enters BBOT hall of fame
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Updated: September 30, 2009 4:12 PM
The Skidmore family was finishing off its fourth decade in the auto glass industry in 1985 when it received an intriguing call from back east.
Along with its Speedy Glass and Apple Auto Glass chains, the family also owned a chain of auto-electronics stores, giving them a retail presence coast to coast.
The company now known as Rogers Communications asked the Skidmores if they’d open up retail stores for its Cantel cell phone business.
It was a natural fit, says Thomas Skidmore, president and CEO of Burnaby-based Glentel Inc. After all, those first mobile phones had to be attached to the electronics system of cars.
For the first few years, cell phones were the size of briefcases or smaller bags before they progressed to the one resembling a brick on the way to the virtual mini computers common today.
That chain of Cantel stores, which they sold to Rogers in 1990, introduced the Skidmores to the burgeoning telecommunications industry and eventually Glentel was born.
The Burnaby Board of Trade and the City of Burnaby will induct Glentel into the Burnaby Business Excellence Awards Hall of Fame at a luncheon today (Thursday).
The company has had its headquarters in Burnaby’s Lake City area since 1984. After starting the Cantel venture, the company took over Glenayre Electronics, a Vancouver-based company which had been developing and manufacturing communications and wireless equipment since 1963.
At one point, Skidmore said, Glenayre had half the world market in paging terminals, necessary to operate pagers, the forerunner of the cell phone.
Eventually, Glentel got out of the manufacturing business and focused on selling and servicing wireless communications systems for governments and corporations, from communication within fire and police departments to using satellites to monitor pipelines in Alberta and 1,500 fishing boats in Alaska.
In 1994 Glentel was the first communications company in Canada to independently resell residential long-distance service, a business it eventually sold to AT&T Canada.
But it was the addition of new mobile phone operators Clearnet and Microcell (Fido) to the Canadian cell phone marketplace that proved a “defining moment” for the company.
Skidmore said he noticed how many people were frustrated at only hearing one company’s line whenever they shopped for a cell phone and service plan at one of their stores. “You got to a point, how many sales pitches could you listen to?”
He came up with the idea of selling several different brands in one store, much like how shoe, clothing, electronics and jewelry stores sell products from a variety of companies.
And thus WirelessWave, the first store of its kind in Canada, was born in 1997, at the Metrotown mall location where it still operates today.
Along with Tbooth in Quebec and Wireless etc. in Costco stores, Glentel now sells cell phones out of more than 270 locations nationwide.
Their award-winning staff training program not only focuses on customer service and good knowledge of all the phones and plans being offered, but takes into account the differences in needs, wants and approaches for different demographics.
In a recent one year period, the company’s approach led to sales jumping by 33 per cent.
Glentel now employs 1,600 staff, including part-timers, and many have been with the company for decades.
“We sold the first phone for Cantel in Western Canada for them and the fellow who sold it still works for us,” Skidmore said.
As for the hall of fame award, he said, “You don’t do things for awards but ... it’s nice to be recognized by your peers from your home base.”
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
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