John Miles and John Potter, equal partners in the Toronto-based food brokerage firm Betmar, purchased the assets and trademarks of Millie’s Hand Cooked Potato Chips from a receiver.
In March, 1990 John Miles and John Potter, equal partners in the Toronto-based food brokerage firm Betmar, purchased the assets and trademarks of Millie’s Hand Cooked Potato Chips from a receiver. When the deal closed, Miles returned to his native Nova Scotia to re-establish the business. He expected to be able to have the unique chips back on the Nova Scotia market in six weeks. In order to turn the business around quickly, Miles needed to determine what had gone wrong. How could Millie’s sales have increased from $500,000 to $3 million in three years and the company still have gone out of business?
John Miles had a wealth of experience in the confectionary business, having spent 23 years with Nabisco Brands as a sales manager and national account representative. After leaving Nabisco, Miles started Betmar, a brokerage company, with partner John Potter of the sales promotion company Nash Potter. Potter was the idea man and Miles made things happen.
Betmar was the successful bidder for the assets of Millie’s: the machinery, a computer, the trademarks and a few supplies. The plant was not in working order, as the packaging machine had been repossessed in January, 1989 due to a default on payments. In addition, the registration of the trademarks had never been completed, so the brand names were not legally protected. Betmar was to be a source of working capital for the first year.
Upon arriving at the plant, Miles discovered that there were no records or files and that he would have to try to understand what had gone wrong using only limited information. Based upon recent newspaper articles, previous conversations with Brian Shore (the former owner of Millie’s), and interviews with former employees and retailers, Miles was able to piece together the following chronology of events.
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