It was the little things that the Whites did to make their workers happy. During the early days of the company W.P. White's wife would make and serve lunch to the employees at the Goose Island plant, that's a prime example of a good place to work at, it shows the upper management cares.
In 1982 Bob White would step down from his position and had it over to Art Lawson. Art had worked at White Cap for a while and many saw him as a proxy for the Whites. Even Lawson would say that he saw himself as a caretaker manager, maintaining things as they had always been (Gentile 3). Lawson picked the wrong time to be the vice president and executive officer because the completion was starting to heat up. There were five significant manufacturers in the national marketplace and seventy worldwide who offered the twist-off cap (Gentile 3). White Cap never had a competitor that threatened them in the past fifty years, now they have five to worry about. The American Can Company came up with a squeezable plastic container which Heinz and Hunt used for there ketchup and barbecue sauce products. Before this product, White Cap held %100 of the ketchup business worldwide. Lawson knew something had to be done, so he called on Peter Browning to held solve this problem. On April 1, 1984, he took over a division with $175 million in gross sales, 1,450 employees, 12 sales offices, and 4 plants (Gentile 3).
Browning was brought in because headquarters wanted a new type of manager, a manager who would push the business toward being more efficient, and to have a more flexible operation, they needed someone would could to respond to the always changing market conditions. Browning proved himself to be a terrific manager when he took over of Continental's Bondware Division. Bondware produced waxed paper cups for hot and cold beverages and food, but was losing a lot of money. Browning took over a business that has lost $24 million in five years and that Continental could not even sell (Gentile 4).
