TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Llewellyn Smith, E.D. Smith - Llewellyn Describes the Challenges that the E.D. Smith Company has Faced

There have been some questions along the way as to whether there were challenges throughout this whole history, with respect to myself I suppose, or to the company, and my answer was, "When was there not a challenge?" The company, it went through two big fires that almost ended the business. We went through the depression, which almost ended the business. I took the company down a trip to the United States, which stretched its bank borrowing limits to the gills. We had a disagreement among family members as to ownership and direction, and we almost lost the ownership of the company at one point. We talked earlier about the free trade agreement and having to get through that (laughs). So there have been a lot of challenges throughout the whole period.