Canadian Tire Celebrates 100 Years

Heading into yet another new year, not many businesses can say that they have 100 years of history behind them and are still growing but, everyone living in Canada knows the name … Canadian Tire, and this year 2022, the company is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

A true national institution, Canadian Tire has been celebrated on a Canadian postage stamp and has won the nation’s highest honour, the Order of Canada.

It began in 1922, when two brothers, John William and Alfred Jackson (A.J.) Billes, invested their life savings of $1,800 in the Hamilton Tire and Garage Ltd.  The company purchased tires from manufacturers at a discount in the winter and then resold them during the summer.  From their inauspicious beginning, they then opened their first retail store in Toronto on Yonge and Gould Streets.

In 1927, with the main focus on tires, the brother changed the name to the Canadian Tire Corporation Ltd. was born and, in 1928, the Canadian Tire catalogue was launched.

The first ‘associate store’ was opened in 1934 in Hamilton …

Source: Saugeen Times