VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - BAUER RECALL A TEXTBOOK CRISIS PLAY

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:

Recalls of products made in China due to concerns about lead content are nothing new, yet different organizations handle them in different ways. Pet food maker Menu Foods handled it badly. Bauer Hockey is handling it in textbook fashion. At issue are 13 models of junior sticks which the company is recalling due to high levels of lead found in the paint used by the Chinese manufacturer. It started when a Health Canada spot check found lead levels above allowable limits in one model. Bauer responded by immediately testing all of their Chinese-made product, and then followed with a voluntary recall of the 13 lines which exceeded the U.S. lead standard – even though Canada’s higher allowable limits do not require it. “We feel that we’ve identified what is at risk here and we’ve put even more stringent procedures in place immediately to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Bauer Hockey President & CEO Kevin Davis, noting also that new third-party inspections have been added onto Bauer’s own internal quality control procedures as well. Immediate action going above and beyond the call is exactly what any smart company should do under these circumstances. As the vaunted Tylenol example showed, companies which act right away by putting the public’s interest ahead of their own always fare best in the end. Further, Bauer has announced it will replace any of the affected sticks (regardless of calibre) with its top-of-the-line model. Touchdowns all around.