What on Earth can Canadians need with that many oil filters?

When you move to a totally new country, some things seem familiar or intuitive and some things just…don’t. When it comes to corporate branding, which sometimes obfuscates on purpose, this can lead to some pretty amusing misunderstandings. This is one of those stories.

The very first time our family flew to Canada, one of the things that I noticed before we even got to our gate was a nearby cargo plane emblazoned with a name I was already familiar with: Purolator.

In my youth, my parents had owned a series of…let’s call them “high maintenance” budget-model domestic cars. If we wanted to be able to leave the confines of our suburban home regularly, that usually meant some portion of my weekend was spent laying between jackstands and experiencing colourful language. To be fair, I also learned a lot about auto maintenance.

so about that “new” radiator from the junkyard…

Purolator was a brand I saw a lot as a kid because they made all kinds of filters and fluid additives, and our cars ate a lot of both. We always had a stack of white paperboard boxes, and a collection of mysterious metal bottles, sporting blue and orange-red logo treatments on a shelf in the garage. The brand was also a constant presence when watching motorsports on television. To me, the word was instantly synonymous with the smells of motor oil and exhaust fumes.

“… and here comes number ten out of turn four!”

For a moment on the taxiway that day, I pondered whether Canadians watch much NASCAR? Probably more of an F1 country, I imagined. My attention soon turned to packing up small children for “deboarding” and the thought left my mind…until a few hours later when we were getting out of a taxi downtown and I saw a Purolator delivery truck roll by. Wow, I thought, do they have their own distribution network? I was used to seeing box trucks with automotive brands on them, but down south those were usually companies that owned retail parts stores: Advance, NAPA, East Coast, Western Auto.

I chalked up my confusion to this just being “one of those Canadian things,” like how they pack half of a Sears into a tire store. I figured one day it would probably just make sense and seem normal. Once we moved here though, I felt like I started seeing those delivery trucks all over the place. I had to be missing something, I mean, what on Earth can Canadians need with that many oil filters?

seriously these trucks are EVERYWHERE

The last straw came when, one day, I walked past a pharmacy and saw a Purolator sign in the window. My internal monologue was transfixed. Just how diversified is this company up here? Do they make generic drugs now? Could I get myself some Purolator branded nose spray, or cough syrup? I almost popped in to find out, but had to get home and feed the kids. After dinner, my curiosity got the better of me…and I had a really good laugh once I’d consulted Wikipedia (and the phrase “hey honey you’re not gonna believe this” was definitely uttered when I explained my discovery after the munchkins were asleep).

Purolator Filters, LLC was founded in 1923 out of New York City and remains a giant in American auto parts (and motorsports) headquartered in North Carolina. Believe it or not, these days they’re actually owned by a German company. But even more surprising, at least it was to me, is that in 1967 the original “Purolator” bought and rebranded Trans Canada Couriers, Ltd thus also giving that name to one of the leading parcel couriers across the Great White North! In 1987, that company repatriated itself but kept the moniker, and today it’s headquartered right up the 407 ETR in Mississauga with a 91% controlling share owned by Canada Post. In the present day, the two companies have no connection to each other whatsoever.

you won’t see this sign at a CVS or a Walgreens

In Canada, there aren’t nearly as many commercial shipping stores or standalone post offices (especially in rural communities) and one frequently finds their nearest postal service location or shipping counter in the back of a local pharmacy. In fact, whenever we recieve something too big for our little townhouse mailbox we often pick it up at the Pharmasave down the street. I was so tickled and amused by finally understanding all this that I almost sent my mom a package just for fun…but then I realized that Purolator, the Canadian parcel courier, only delivers domestically. In fact, if you send a package “by Purolator” from up here to any address in the USA, it gets transferred to UPS when it crosses the border.

Purolator, as it turns out, is a household name in Canada…but it doesn’t make anyone think of racecars or a leaky radiator. Besides delivering millions of Amazon orders and presents from grandma, their (or perhaps I should now say our) Purolator delivers millions of meals to food banks as part of their “Tackle Hunger” initiative. In 2007, a full decade before Tesla Motors was founded, Purolator developed the Unicell Quicksider, a fully electric delivery vehicle that can do 110 km/h on the highway without a drop of gasoline. Just last year, they announced a billion dollar investment in growth and innovation, and were named as one of Canada’s most admired corporate cultures (which might really be saying something, in a society that’s far less corporatist than the USA).

So there you go, mystery solved…and now if you visit Canada you’ll have one fewer confusion when it comes to consumer branding. This has been fun to share, especially considering how much serious news there is this week, so maybe I’ll have to make this part of a series. Ever wonder why Canadian Tire, the store that has everything, doesn’t have any clothing racks? Maybe you’d like to know where they keep all the beer at The Beer Store, or just laugh at how long it took one silly Ontarian newcomer to figure it out? Those adventures may deserve some posts of their own, so say tuned.