About Us
History
McNiven Ranch Supply Ltd.(MRSL) is a family
business located in Southern Alberta, two
hours east of Calgary on the McNiven Ranch. Kathy McNiven
purchased Muck Boots in the
US for use on the ranch. Muck Boots proved to be warm,
comfortable and incredibly functional
for ranch life. McNiven Ranch Supply Ltd. was created in 2006
and began to import them for
sale. During an extensive testing period of the footwear at a
grassroots level, the demand for
Muck Boots grew at a furious rate. MRSL expanded in the fall of
2007. At that time, Laurie
Fuller (Kathy's sister) joined MRSL bringing her organization
and IT skills to the company.
Since the fall
of 2007, the number of retailers has increased on a daily
basis. The company built
a 10,000 square foot warehouse on the ranch following a growing
trend in western Canada to
move warehousing out of urban centres.
From modest beginnings, MRSL has now
expanded to encompass 4 full time employees, 6 part
time, a Sales Rep. Agency and a Board of Directors.
The retail stores sell Muck Boots for the same reason we
do - they wear them and believe in
them.
Staff
President & Vice President
Kathy, her husband Mike along with their three
sons and two daughter-in-law's run a commercial
herd of black Maine-Anjou X Angus cows and do their ranch work
the traditional way - with
horses. Laurie lives in the nearby town of Duchess with her
family and commutes to the ranch for
work. Kathy and Laurie both have an extensive history with
horses: hunter/jumpers,
thoroughbred and quarter race horses. Now it is roping and ranch
horses. Both are animal
people, who between them have sixteen horses, four dogs, nine
cats and a sheep named Mrs.
Woolworth who just showed up at the ranch one day. We own a third
generation family cabin
near Wainwright where we and our children continually put our
Muck Boots to the "waterproof"
test.
Office
Manager
Vanessa joined our staff in the fall of 2007
from Sao Paulo, Brazil. MRSL did indeed count their
lucky stars when Carlos and Vanessa moved to Southern Alberta.
Vanessa has an MBA in
Business and a Law Degree. She has an amazing grasp of the
English language but keeps us
laughing as she shares her struggles to interpret many of our
'slang' terms. She keeps an orderly
office and is on-top of every important detail for a business to
operate.
Warehouse Team
Jaclinn, our warehouse manager became full
time in the winter of 2007. Jaclinn has a BSc.
Agriculture and sometimes wonders how she ended up packing and
shipping boots but loves
every minute of it. She has whiteboards, clipboards, and
corkboards....anything to help keep the
warehouse organized while shipping the boots out fast. When Mike,
Kevin and Daniel are
available to help she takes complete advantage because they can
reach those high shelves and lift
more heavy boxes than the normal human. Dylan, Steve and Melanie
round out the "shop crew"
and are on a needed basis when we receive a container of boots
and/or get extra busy. Colin can
always be counted on to get a load of boots on the road when we
need an extra set of wheels.
Commercial/Industrial Team
Daniel McNiven is the sales and marketing
manager. He has an extensive knowledge base in the
oil and gas industry. Daniel has been employed through the
industry for almost 10 years. Kevin
McNiven is the operations manager. Kevin also has a wide base
knowledge in ranching and
farming and the oil and gas industry. Combined they bring to MRSL
all the tools to serve the
retailers and customers in the commercial and industrial field.
Someone once said that owners of
Muck Boots were like a cult. Our customers love to send
emails and call us with their "Muck Boot Stories" as they
discover (as we did) what an amazing
product they are.
