Visit Bannister Ford Edson for Top-Notch Auto Service and Repairs.

Welcome Letters

From the Bannister Family

Welcome to the Bannister Automotive Group! For over 40 years, the Bannister Family and its partners have been bringing quality automotive products and services to communities across Western Canada. Starting with our first store in 1979, our company has lived by the motto "A Family Business with Family Values", and we extend this to our employees, with competitive wages, excellent benefits, and an outstanding company culture.

We are thrilled to be bringing the Bannister Ford Edson team into our group, and increasing our support for Edson and the surrounding community. Our number one priority is to make this transition as seamless as possible for all of our new team members.

We know that you may have some questions, and we've put together a comprehensive list of questions we anticipate will be asked. Did we miss anything? Ask us! Submit your questions via the contact form below, and we'll get you your answer.

We're so excited to welcome you to the Bannister family, and we can't wait to see what we can all do together.

Thanks,

The Bannisters

Frequently Asked Questions

Operations and Organizational Changes

For over 40 years, the Bannister Family and its partners have been bringing quality automotive products and services to communities across Western Canada. Starting with our first store in 1979, our company has lived by the motto "A Family Business with Family Values", and we extend this to our employees, with competitive wages, excellent benefits, and an outstanding company culture. Founded by Lyn and Joanne Bannister in Barrhead, Alberta, this family business is led by their children Chad (Nadine), Mark (Laurie) and Mary Jo Payeur (Darryl), and their Dealer partners.  

There will be no impact to the current daily operation in each of the dealerships. It will be business as usual as we work together to continue to grow our business.

The Bannister Automotive Group has a corporate office in Kelowna that houses additional support resources for the entire group.

As our company has grown, we have always taken the strategy of “buy, invest, and grow” through our mergers and acquisitions.  We look for partners with similar values, and portfolios that are complementary, and we invest in businesses that can support our current and future growth expectations.

Yes, we are rebranding the store as Bannister Ford Edson as part of the acquisition agreement.

Continuous improvement is a big part of the Bannister culture. One of the huge benefits of having a group of stores is the ability to experiment, share information, and apply best practices on a group-wide scale. Our partners and managers work together to improve quality, safety, customer service, efficiency and cost in areas where it makes sense. We expect to work the same way with Bannister Ford Edson, and we expect to learn a lot from you!

Bannister has a number of subject matter experts at the corporate office in areas such as Accounting, Finance, Operations Management, Marketing, and Human Resources. This staff provides resources, knowledge and expertise to all of our stores, and we are excited to offer this same support to our newest store.

Absolutely. We know there’s a lot we can learn from our Bannister Ford Edson team, and we’re looking to learn, to share and discuss best practices that we can apply to all our dealerships

Job Security, Benefits, and Human Resources

Our motto for this transition is “business as usual”, and we do not intend to lay off staff as a result of this acquisition. Our ultimate goal is to grow the business in Edson, and our employees are an important part of that. We are going to take our time to fully understand the business, get to know our new employees, and look at how we can better integrate shared resources into the Bannister group.

Initially, there will be no change to your existing benefit plan. It makes sense for us to eventually move to a single benefit plan for all Bannister employees, but we will not be making this change in the near future. Any and all changes to your benefits plan will be communicated with plenty of notice.

Yes, your current benefit structure will remain intact. We have already begun reviewing all employee benefits with the intention of aligning all benefits across the company, but we’re taking our time with this important task. Any and all changes to your benefits plan will be communicated with plenty of notice.

Yes! Current active employees will have service dates reflective of those currently on file with Jerry Ford when calculating vacation pay, employment milestones, and anything else related to your employment with us.

Yes, employees will continue to receive their current incentives open to Jerry Ford employees. Bannister Automotive Group also offers significant incentives to their employees, and over time these will be aligned between organizations.

There will be no impact to your current payroll system or processing dates.

While all accrued vacation has been paid out for this year (2022), we understand that time off is important. You are entitled to time off this year, it's just unpaid. We will start accruing your 2023 vacation on March 1, 2022.

Communications Strategy

In preparation for the public announcement, we will be providing you with official documents and strategies to help communicate to all our business partners. In addition, please use this FAQ document to answer any specific questions you may receive. 

All media inquiries should be forwarded to:

Doug Brown
General Manager, Bannister Ford Edson
dougb@bannisteredson.com
403.348.6355

Ask us anything!

Have a question? Ask us!

Contact Us

Have questions that aren't addressed here?
Want to speak to someone directly?
We'd love to hear from you!

Doug Brown
General Manager, Bannister Ford Edson
dougb@bannisteredson.com
403.348.6355

Adrienne McKellar
Human Resources Director, Bannister Automotive Group
adriennem@bannisterautogroup.com
250.448.2241