Lavoie to step down after leading CPIA restructuring

Serge Lavoie is leaving the CPIA as of early 2009.

The Canadian Plastics Industry Association’s president and CEO, Serge Lavoie, will be leaving the position at the start of 2009. He told the CPIA’s annual general meeting on Wednesday that he felt it was time to make this move, after being at the helm for more than five years.

“The time was right,” he said. “However, I would like to oversee the restructuring we are about to undergo, before leaving.

“It will be a massive restructuring this time. What you will see is something completely different to what you have known before.”

CPIA has not filled the regional director’s position in Quebec, which has been vacant for several months, and it is unclear what is to happen in the province in future. After the headquarters operation in Mississauga, Ont., the Montreal office has CPIA’s largest staff grouping. However, Lavoie stressed that all commitments in Quebec through 2008 will be honoured, including the Expoplast 2008 trade show in Montreal, and the APAC conference that follows it.

Funding has been a key issue for CPIA, as it has for other industry groups. While renewal numbers are stable, there has been no real growth in membership in recent years. At the same time, environmental issues have come to dominate the association’s agenda, and fighting proposed bans on certain substances, plastic bags and disposable packaging is taking up increasing amounts of time, effort and cash.

The association’s chairman, Dave Birkby, president of Westbridge PET Containers (Calgary), told the meeting the CPIA has had to cut what it can do as the industry goes through its adjustment to a changed business environment.

“We hope to report more about the restructuring in July,” he said, “after our annual board meeting.”

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