This year, Canadian Tire celebrates having been a part of Canada for 100 years.
During my work career I had the opportunity for a short period to meet quarterly with one of the two founders of “The Tire”, Mr. Alfred James Billes, always called and referred to as “AJ”.
After leaving Southampton in 1960, to see what opportunities there might be in Toronto, I was offered a junior clerical position at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. In the late 60’s, Goodyear acquired the company that had first put Canadian Tire in the tire business. It was the Seiberling Tire and Rubber Company of Canada located on Bloor Street in North Parkdale Toronto.
About eight years after acquiring Seiberling, it was in 1977 that I was appointed as the Secretary Treasurer of this Goodyear subsidiary company. Canadian Tire was by far our biggest customer and our management team met with senior members of their team on a quarterly basis, and AJ never missed a meeting.
When I was first introduced to him, I called him Mr. Billes and he promptly told me “it’s AJ”. He was always very active in discussions when we would be adding a new tire size or offering newly designed products. My responsibility in these meetings was to present the dollar value of their purchases from us with comparisons to past periods, the forward dollar amounts in our accounts receivable, and our current unit inventory status of tires for their future needs, as well as presenting the latest financial results of Goodyear Canada which was then a publicly traded company. AJ always wanted to know the details on our parent company and took a real interest in the North American Tire industry.
In 1980, Seiberling was folded into Goodyear, and I was repositioned within Goodyear, but I always have had fond memories of the boardroom meetings at 2180 Younge St. at Bloor in the Canadian Tire Tower with AJ Billes, truly a Canadian Business Icon. He passed away in 1995 at age 93.
