While many people have been very vocal about the beef crisis, one group has not- the company that owns the XL Foods plant in Brooks.
The plant is owned by Edmonton-based Nilsson Bros. Inc. Global News has asked the company for a comment however, there has been no response.
The company’s silence is not going unnoticed by consumers.
“They definitely owe everybody an apology,” said Breanna, a beef consumer, adding, “It kind of makes them look like cowards. They don’t want to step forth and own up to it so, it makes them look really guilty.”
“It’s mostly all distrust at this point in time,” said Richard adding, “I think they should be telling the customers out here what’s going on with the beef.”
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Teresa Sturgess is a Marketing Instructor at The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. She specializes in crisis management and says the company’s silence comes as a bit of a surprise to her.
“Aside from that initial release from XL Foods, they’ve gone dark,” Sturgess explained adding, “Communications counsel would advise to be more forthright and even to share the fact that you don’t know and that you are trying to get to the bottom of the situation. Even saying that is more honest and transparent then just not saying anything.”
The response from XL Foods is a major contrast to the deadly listeriosis crisis Maple Leaf Foods experienced in 2008. In that situation, the company’s CEO was very transparent and open with the public.
“Almost immediately they took responsibility for their consumers in recalling their products, beyond what they needed to at that time, to really reassure customers that they had their best interests at heart,” said Sturgess.
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She says reassuring consumers is important in a crisis situation like this because, after this is over the company will need those consumers to continue purchasing its product.
“If (the consumer) has not be reassured and they don’t feel good about the company and how they’ve handled it, it may cause them to look elsewhere for their product.”
The beef recall related to XL is connected to 1,500 products distributed across Canada and the United States.
With files from Vinesh Pratap.
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