Yellowknife (Oct 29/03) - Roger Walker, one of two main partners in Peterson & Auger, is reluctant to speak about his business publicly.

Roger Walker, general manager and partner with Peterson & Auger, stands in front of a flat of Coca-Cola. Roger and Jack Walker are enjoying their 15th year at the helm of the company. - Stephan Burnett/NNSL photo

There are several reasons for this. Walker doesn't want to overblow gift-giving expectations -- you get the sense he feels uncomfortable tooting his own horn -- and then there's that unfortunate incident where a previous reporter misquoted him.

Still, Walker gradually warms up as he speaks about his company's past, its present and his hopes for the future.

Peterson & Auger is a stalwart within the Yellowknife business community. Founded in 1948, it is now one of only two remaining independent bottlers of Coca-Cola left in Canada. The company currently serves all of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Nunavik communities of northern Quebec.

The original partners, Peterson and Auger, ran the company for slightly over 20 years. They then sold to Neil Orser, with Orser running it for approximately the same period of time. The Walker brothers, Roger and Jack, bought the business in 1988.

Into their 15th year in the business, Roger Walker says the company's original territory was comprised of the Western Arctic, running as far west as the Yukon-Northwest Territories border and as far east as the Keewatin Line, straight north of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border.

While providing a tour of the warehouse, Walker explains that two years prior to acquiring the company, Orser sold the glass bottling line. Cans were becoming more popular and there were high cost associated with glass, he says.

Even though the company no longer bottles in Yellowknife, they continue to manufacture premix and postmix for restaurants and lounges.

In 1995, Peterson & Auger established a bottling plant in Iqaluit with eight to 10 employees on site.

Walker says there are roughly a dozen people working exclusively for the company in Yellowknife. Walker stipulates that number is specific to Peterson & Auger and does not include employees working for either Northern Food Services or Northern Snack Foods, both of which are housed under the same roof.

Walker explains the two other businesses are separate entities the brothers have partial ownership in, which were brought under one roof for logistical purposes. Northern Foods Services is a wholesale food distribution service, marketing toward restaurants, camps and mines, while Northern Snack Foods is the Old Dutch distributorship.

"We have a lot of the same challenges and difficulties in securing employees because of high wage costs," says Walker. But Peterson & Auger pays its employees very fairly, he adds.

"Unfortunately, being what it is, we can't compete with a high-paying job at the mine," says Walker, citing a challenge which is shared throughout this business community.

In December 2001, Peterson & Auger moved into its present-day digs, a 26,000 sq. ft. warehouse situated on a knoll just west of Old Airport Road, sitting, metaphorically, like a Northern version of the Friendly Giant's home.

Giving back

Touching on another present-day aspect of Peterson & Auger, Walker speaks of the company's efforts to give back to the communities they are involved in.

"In Kugluktuk, we supply them with product for their high school. They came to us with the idea for running the arcade. We supply product there and have helped out with sweaters and T-shirts and team jerseys," he says.

Another Peterson & Auger long-standing sponsorship involves the men's broomball team.

"It was the Coke Classics men's broomball team, until NorthwestTel also became a sponsor, so over the past couple of years the team has been named Coca-Cola-NorthwestTel," he says.

In the future, Walker expects to see slow and steady growth for his company.

"In a nutshell, we want to explore each opportunity as they present themselves, to get our product out there and available," he says.