Citytv Ident Early 2000s

In celebration of Citytv's 51st Anniversary!

White Rose Commercial Early 2000s

From the August 3, 2002 Globe and Mail

A newly incorporated company is buying 24 Ontario stores in the bankrupt White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales retail chain and seven remaining stores will be closed, the court-appointed receiver announced Friday.

PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a release that White Rose Home and Garden Centres Ltd., a new company, is buying the retail operations. The price was not immediately disclosed and spokesmen could not be reached for more details.

The receiver also said it is close to selling White Rose's two farms.

White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales filed for bankruptcy June 20 but the chain of garden outlets continued business as usual with its 1,500 employees.

It was the second time in recent years that White Rose had run into financial difficulty.

The Bank of Nova Scotia became White Rose's dominant shareholder in 1999 after the retailer restructured under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act.

In the 1999 restructuring, the company shut down its stores in Quebec to focus on the Ontario market. But from July of 1999 to January of 2002, White Rose lost $24.7-million, although it made a slight $797,000 profit in the November-January second quarter. It had $10.9-million in bank debt at the end of January.

While the garden centre industry has boomed in recent years as more Canadians focus on their plants and flowers, the business is seasonal and subject to intense competition from big-box retailers such as Home Depot and Canadian Tire.

White Rose tried to offset the seasonal nature of the nursery business by offering craft materials. But even there the company faced increased competition from U.S.-based Michaels Stores Inc.

Established in 1956 by Alexandre Raab, who emigrated from France a few years earlier, White Rose expanded through the following decades, eventually reaching record revenues of $210.5-million in the 1998 financial year.

However, losses mounted that year to $37.9-million. Following the restructuring, White Rose closed its Quebec stores and cut its number of stores in half to 31.

It has outlets in Barrie, Brantford, Burlington, Cambridge, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Ottawa, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, St. Catharines, Sarnia, Sudbury, Waterloo, Windsor and several communities in the Toronto area.

Tilex Commercial 2003

The Clorox Company (formerly Clorox Chemical Company) is an American global manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products.

Clorox products are sold primarily through mass merchandisers, retail outlets, e-commerce channels, distributors, and medical supply providers.Clorox brands include its namesake bleach and cleaning products, as well as Burt's Bees, Formula 409, Glad, Hidden Valley, Kingsford, Kitchen Bouquet, KC Masterpiece, Liquid-Plumr, Brita (in the Americas), Mistolin, Pine-Sol, Poett, Green Works Cleaning Products, Soy Vay, RenewLife, Rainbow Light, Natural Vitality, Neocell, Tilex, S.O.S., and Fresh Step, Scoop Away, and Ever Clean pet products.

Hakim Optical Commercial 2002

Karim Hakimi, a native of Iran, learned to make lenses from old window glass as a child. After a stint in the navy, Hakimi worked in the optical industry in Switzerland. He then migrated to Canada and opened an optical laboratory in the former Elmwood Hotel (now the Elmwood Spa) in downtown Toronto, Ontario. He bought and rebuilt old equipment from a closed-down lab in Chicago. After making a variety of lenses, he began selling them to local optometrists. He soon began selling lenses directly from the Elmwood location.

In 2016 it had about 160 stores.

Gatorade Commercial 2001

Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks.

New6Ottawa The New RO April 2003

First 10 minutes of the nightly news cast for The New RO in April 2003 

IAMS Cat Food Commercial 2003

Iams is a popular brand name for dog food and cat food manufactured by Spectrum Brands in Europe and Mars, Incorporated worldwide. 

During the 1940s, because pet food was not available in stores, animals were predominantly fed homemade food, usually table scraps. Paul Iams, an animal nutritionist who graduated from Ohio State University in 1937, founded The Iams Company in 1946 in a small feed mill near Dayton. In 1950, he developed the world’s first animal-based protein, dry dog food, and called it Iams 999. In 1969, Paul Iams formulated a new dog food and named it Eukanuba. 

In 1973 during the Arab oil embargo, the costs for meat and bone meal tripled, but sale prices in the US were frozen by a nationwide wage and price control issued by then-President Richard Nixon. Iams did not change the product formula during the price freeze mandate and the company nearly went broke. Clay Mathile, who joined Iams in 1970, purchased half of the company in 1975. By 1982, he became the sole owner and president.  Mathile sold it to P&G in September 1999.

In its largest divestiture in five years, Procter & Gamble announced in April 2014 that it would sell its Iams, Eukanuba and Natura pet food brands in all markets except Europe to Mars. 

Arrid Deodorant Commercial 1994

Arrid is a type of antiperspirant and deodorant originally introduced in 1935 by Carter Products and was acquired by Church & Dwight in 2001.The active ingredient is up to 20% aluminium zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly

Always Commercial 2003

Always is an American brand of menstrual hygiene products, including maxi pads, ultra thin pads, pantyliners, disposable underwear for night-time wear, and vaginal wipes. A sister concern of Procter & Gamble, it was first introduced in the United States in test markets in the spring of 1983, then nationally in May 1984. By the end of 1984, Always had also been introduced internationally in United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, and Africa.

Always products are manufactured in Belleville, Ontario, Canada at a 700,000-sq.-ft. plant with 175,000-sq.-ft. of warehouse. The plant is one of Procter & Gamble's largest in North America. Although Always has local factories in the countries that it sells in, in some cases, its products are manufactured and exported.

According to Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter & Gamble, Always was Procter & Gamble's "first truly global brand."

The Brick Commercial 2002

Another for the Brick furniture store from 2002 

Ontario Government Hydro Rates PSA 2002

PSA from the Ontario Government on electrical rate changes