A company for today and tomorrow
Last week, a new president and chief executive officer took the helm of the $3.25-billion Canadian Tire Corporation.
Stephen Bachand comes from Hechinger Company, an eastern U.S. retail chain operating traditional and discount warehouse home centre stores.
In 1986, Bachand was named executive vice-president of Hechinger and Home Quarters, the large store discount warehouse division, adding chief operating officer to his title in 1988.
Under his leadership, Home Quarters grew from six stores with sales of US$100 million, to 45 stores generating US$1 billion in revenue.
As head of Canada’s largest hardgoods retailer, Bachand will be steering a successful operation that grew throughout the recession, albeit at a reduced pace as economic conditions worsened.
In 1990, Canadian Tire launched a $1.4-billion expansion program designed to double retail sales and increase retail square footage by 40% in five years, and it is well on the way to meeting its target.
Today it has 425 associate dealer stores, more than 27,000 employees across Canada and two operating divisions, the Merchandise Business Group (mbg) and Diversified Business Group (dbg.)
mbg is an integrated supplier of automotive products and services and home and leisure products to the retail network of 425 associate dealer stores across Canada.
It provides marketing support to the dealers, as well as real estate and construction, distribution, merchandising, administrative, financial and information services.
mbg sources products worldwide, both national and private brands, primarily for the do-it-yourself market.
Canadian Tire’s private brands are Motomaster, Mastercraft and Supercycle.
mbg builds customer traffic through weekly promotional flyers, catalogues, tv, radio and newspaper advertising, along with its Cash Bonus Coupons, popularly known as ‘Canadian Tire Money.’
The Diversified Business Group comprises the Canadian Tire Petroleum Division and Canadian Tire Acceptance (cta).
dbg is also responsible for Auto Source Inc. (asi), a retail concept now being tested in the U.S.
The Petroleum Division retails motor fuels and fast oil changes through a chain of 207 company-owned gas bars and 48 Pit Stops.
‘Canadian Tire Money,’ or Cash Bonus Coupons, have been issued by the gas bars since 1958 and are redeemable for merchandise at any of the stores.
The value of Canadian Tire Money is issued based on a percentage of the customer’s cash purchase.
The petroleum unit also supplies lubricants in bulk, propane and diesel fuel to Canadian Tire.
The financial services division, Canadian Tire Acceptance, takes care of management and processing of the Canadian Tire credit card, as well as the processing of Visa and Mastercard transactions.
cta also provides leasing programs for the dealers and the corporation, and offers insurance products, cash advances and auto club memberships to cardholders.
The newest division, Auto Source, operates in the north-central region of the U.S. in a market area located within 250 miles of Indianapolis, Ind.
It is a warehouse-type retailer of name brand auto parts, tires and service focussing on keeping quality high and operating costs low.
asi started in June of last year and has two stores each in Columbus, Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and one in Louisville, Ky. and Dayton, Ohio.
