A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
Since the Eucan thread is no longer available, here is a new one...from the Globe:
City didn't clean up on trash bin ads
Negotiations still on with new owners after company fails to deliver $1-million
JEFF GRAY
Turns out Toronto's troublesome litter and recycling bins -- which annoy some with their advertising and others with their mess -- have another problem: They aren't making enough money.
City officials have been in secret negotiations since last July with the private company that supplies and maintains Toronto's 4,000 silver sidewalk bins -- and makes money off the advertising plastered on them -- after the firm failed to give the city its full $1-million-a-year share of ad revenue. How much it fell short has not been made public.
The headaches over what has been a controversial public-private partnership have become public as the city accepts bids from private firms on a much larger, 20-year deal that will cover thousands of garbage bins, benches, newspaper boxes and transit shelters.
The plan will see the private sector design, build and maintain Toronto's new co-ordinated "street furniture" in exchange for the right to advertise, provided they return some of their ad revenue to the city.
"It's a cautionary tale for us while we are looking at a much larger project," said Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Scarborough Centre), chairman of the works committee.
According to a report from city staff released yesterday, city council authorized secret talks with Toronto-based Eucan (Urban Equipment of Canada Inc.) in a closed-door session last July, after the firm said it could no longer afford to honour its 10-year litter-bin contract, signed in 1999.
Eucan, now under new ownership, has offered a confidential settlement whereby it would maintain the bins until its contract ends in 2009, but would fork over less money to the city. How much less, and how much Eucan owes the city, remains secret. Officials have recommended that city council allow terms of the deal to be made public once it is finalized.
Under the original garbage-can deal, Eucan agreed to give the city a guaranteed annual payment of $10 per bin; the payment has since doubled to $20.
It also agreed to hand over an additional 10-per-cent slice of advertising revenue, for a total of about $1-million a year, city officials said. (For the first five years, the firm could defer paying the city its share of the ad revenue.) The Eucan deal apparently soured after city council vetoed the firm's plans to bring in new, 2.3-metre-high billboard-like garbage bins last May. About 80 of the so-called megabins were installed in a pilot project, but critics said they were ugly, took up too much sidewalk space, and were poorly designed. Mayor David Miller, at the time, however, praised them as "brilliant."
Despite the problems, Mr. De Baeremaeker, who also supported the megabins, says he doesn't have a problem with the private-public partnership model.
"City bureaucrats aren't experts at marketing garbage-can ads to Coca-Cola and Chiclets and to Kellogg's Corn Flakes," he said. "So let the private sector, which is really good at marketing, take that over and we'll take a commission."
He said it is important to remember that the company did provide $5-million worth of garbage and recycling bins at no charge, but simply was not able to meet its ad-sales targets.
Late last year, Eucan's Mexican parent, Grupo Eumex -- controlled by a Spanish firm, Cemusa, now bidding on the city's massive street furniture contract -- sold Eucan to a new company based in Caledon called Pro-Kyoto International Inc.
PKI, started by former Magna International executives, officially took over on Jan. 1, cleaning house and putting in its own leadership team.
Craig Marwood, the newly installed president of Eucan, said he plans to speak to the city's works committee next week, to convince them that his firm will be "good stewards" until the contract ends.
Mr. Marwood said his company, to be renamed EcoMedia Direct Inc., will focus first on gradually removing the unpopular megabins from Toronto streets. He said it also promises to launch a cleanup of Toronto bins in the downtown, which he said have not been kept up because of Eucan's problems.
"We're stepping into a company . . . that's financially not in good health," Mr. Marwood said in a phone interview.
He acknowledged that he believed the city is unlikely to cancel the contract, even though Eucan could not live up to its side of the bargain.
"I think that the city's done the right thing to be frank. . . . Would you prefer somebody to pull the boxes off the street, and then what's everybody doing? Scrambling for a solution to clean up the mess," Mr. Marwood said.
Eucan acquired the contract for the city's garbage and recycling bins in 2003 when it bought Concord, Ont.-based OMG Media in 2003.
_________________________________________________
A nice precautionary tale on public-private partnerships.
AoD
City didn't clean up on trash bin ads
Negotiations still on with new owners after company fails to deliver $1-million
JEFF GRAY
Turns out Toronto's troublesome litter and recycling bins -- which annoy some with their advertising and others with their mess -- have another problem: They aren't making enough money.
City officials have been in secret negotiations since last July with the private company that supplies and maintains Toronto's 4,000 silver sidewalk bins -- and makes money off the advertising plastered on them -- after the firm failed to give the city its full $1-million-a-year share of ad revenue. How much it fell short has not been made public.
The headaches over what has been a controversial public-private partnership have become public as the city accepts bids from private firms on a much larger, 20-year deal that will cover thousands of garbage bins, benches, newspaper boxes and transit shelters.
The plan will see the private sector design, build and maintain Toronto's new co-ordinated "street furniture" in exchange for the right to advertise, provided they return some of their ad revenue to the city.
"It's a cautionary tale for us while we are looking at a much larger project," said Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Scarborough Centre), chairman of the works committee.
According to a report from city staff released yesterday, city council authorized secret talks with Toronto-based Eucan (Urban Equipment of Canada Inc.) in a closed-door session last July, after the firm said it could no longer afford to honour its 10-year litter-bin contract, signed in 1999.
Eucan, now under new ownership, has offered a confidential settlement whereby it would maintain the bins until its contract ends in 2009, but would fork over less money to the city. How much less, and how much Eucan owes the city, remains secret. Officials have recommended that city council allow terms of the deal to be made public once it is finalized.
Under the original garbage-can deal, Eucan agreed to give the city a guaranteed annual payment of $10 per bin; the payment has since doubled to $20.
It also agreed to hand over an additional 10-per-cent slice of advertising revenue, for a total of about $1-million a year, city officials said. (For the first five years, the firm could defer paying the city its share of the ad revenue.) The Eucan deal apparently soured after city council vetoed the firm's plans to bring in new, 2.3-metre-high billboard-like garbage bins last May. About 80 of the so-called megabins were installed in a pilot project, but critics said they were ugly, took up too much sidewalk space, and were poorly designed. Mayor David Miller, at the time, however, praised them as "brilliant."
Despite the problems, Mr. De Baeremaeker, who also supported the megabins, says he doesn't have a problem with the private-public partnership model.
"City bureaucrats aren't experts at marketing garbage-can ads to Coca-Cola and Chiclets and to Kellogg's Corn Flakes," he said. "So let the private sector, which is really good at marketing, take that over and we'll take a commission."
He said it is important to remember that the company did provide $5-million worth of garbage and recycling bins at no charge, but simply was not able to meet its ad-sales targets.
Late last year, Eucan's Mexican parent, Grupo Eumex -- controlled by a Spanish firm, Cemusa, now bidding on the city's massive street furniture contract -- sold Eucan to a new company based in Caledon called Pro-Kyoto International Inc.
PKI, started by former Magna International executives, officially took over on Jan. 1, cleaning house and putting in its own leadership team.
Craig Marwood, the newly installed president of Eucan, said he plans to speak to the city's works committee next week, to convince them that his firm will be "good stewards" until the contract ends.
Mr. Marwood said his company, to be renamed EcoMedia Direct Inc., will focus first on gradually removing the unpopular megabins from Toronto streets. He said it also promises to launch a cleanup of Toronto bins in the downtown, which he said have not been kept up because of Eucan's problems.
"We're stepping into a company . . . that's financially not in good health," Mr. Marwood said in a phone interview.
He acknowledged that he believed the city is unlikely to cancel the contract, even though Eucan could not live up to its side of the bargain.
"I think that the city's done the right thing to be frank. . . . Would you prefer somebody to pull the boxes off the street, and then what's everybody doing? Scrambling for a solution to clean up the mess," Mr. Marwood said.
Eucan acquired the contract for the city's garbage and recycling bins in 2003 when it bought Concord, Ont.-based OMG Media in 2003.
_________________________________________________
A nice precautionary tale on public-private partnerships.
AoD