On July 1, Wakefield Canada celebrated its official 20th Anniversary and hosted a special event at headquarters in Toronto to mark the occasion. Gathered for this special celebration were members of the Wakefield Canada management team and employees, key industry partners, as well as celebrities and special guests. 

Wakefield Canada’s story is a very unique and successful one. It can trace its origins back to the 1990s, when British Petroleum (BP) acquired the Castrol lubricants business. Castrol originally started operations in Canada in 1954 and has been manufacturing motor oils and lubricants in this country for 71 years. 

A different direction

Not long after BP acquired the global Castrol business and following a strategic review, the company decided to concentrate its efforts on larger markets and looked to divest its interest in others, including Canada. 

At the time, industry executive Bob MacDonald, saw a unique opportunity to acquire the business and in 2005 Wakefield Canada was born. During the late-1990s and early-2000s many aftermarket organizations in Canada began restructuring their business, moving their headquarters and management down to the U.S. MacDonald and original partner Kent Rennie, decided to do the opposite and put together a proposal to acquire Castrol’s Canadian business and build a unique model where management, manufacturing and distribution all took place in Canada. Since then, Wakefield Canada has gone from strength to strength.

Remarkable road

Dave Fifield, President of Wakefield Canada remarked during the special anniversary event, that the last 20 years have been “a remarkable road of significant accomplishments.” Some of these include growing the number of employees at Wakefield Canada from 65 to over 210, as well as expanding the company’s footprint and distribution via facilities in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Moncton, in addition to the facilities in Montreal and Toronto, plus the creation of innovative solutions such as Think Tank which enables tanks at customer facilities to be automatically refilled. Wakefield Canada has also acquired a very significant amount of OEM business for Castrol products including Volkswagen, General Motors, Subaru and Kia, as well as launching its own line of Wakefield branded lubricants which have been doing exceptionally well.

Today, Castrol is now the number one selling brand of motor oil in Canada, and through Wakefield Canada’s efforts, the brand’s market share has doubled in the last two decades. 

Highest market share

At the special anniversary event, Bob MacDonald noted that 20 years, ago as Wakefield Canada was launched, a special gathering was held at the very same location. “It is amazing how quickly 20 years can go by,” he said, but was proud to acknowledge that today, in Canada, Wakefield Canada has one of the highest market shares of Castrol products of any country anywhere in the world. 

“To our employees, our partners, customers and friends, thank you for standing with us for every phase of this journey over the last 20 years,” said MacDonald. “We are proud of our past, excited by what is going on presently and even more excited about what are opportunities are in the future—here’s to the next 20 years and beyond!”