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Pattison grocery empire started with a phone call

Jim Pattison recalls clearly the unsolicited phone call from a stranger that caused him to buy Overwaitea Foods 47 years ago.
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Jimmy Pattison, 86, says a succession plan is in place.

Jim Pattison recalls clearly the unsolicited phone call from a stranger that caused him to buy Overwaitea Foods 47 years ago.

The then-39-year-old entrepreneur was working at his Vancouver car dealership when a stockbroker called him with a unique proposal. He can’t remember the broker’s full name, but his last name was Cunningham.

“He said: ‘Hey Jimmy, I think you should buy Overwaitea,’ ” Pattison said. “I told him I didn’t know very much about the company because they had no Lower Mainland stores at the time. They were a small-town B.C. store.”

But Pattison’s interest was piqued, so he did his due diligence and eventually bought the “small-town” grocery chain in 1968 for about $8 million.

“I didn’t know much about the food business, but I didn’t know much about any other business we bought over the years, except the car business,” he said.

Overwaitea Food Group, which held a private bash this week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Overwaitea store in New Westminster, now operates 145 stores in B.C. and Alberta, employs about 14,500 people and plans to hit Saskatchewan next year.

The group’s brands also include Save-On-Foods, PriceSmart Foods, Cooper’s Foods, Urban Fare and Bulkley Valley Wholesale.

Pattison drew a standing ovation at the company party in Vancouver at a packed Westin Bayshore ballroom when he played Happy Birthday on the trumpet in front of a Model T Ford. His rendition was occasionally shaky, but the exuberant crowd was happy to sing along when he played it a second time.

Potential buyers have asked about acquiring the company over the years, but Pattison insists he has never been tempted to sell. Not even once.

“We don’t tend to be sellers of businesses, generally speaking,” he said. “Overwaitea has been a very important part of our company for a long time.”

The company is building a 528,000-square-foot warehouse in Edmonton that will facilitate future growth in Western Canada. “We’ll take one step at a time,” Pattison said. “Right now our objective is to be a good grocer in Western Canada.”

Pattison said that at age 86, he tries to remain as active as ever in running his Pattison Group empire, which generates about $8.4 billion in annual revenues. He said he and his senior executives, including former B.C. premier Glen Clark, put the firm’s three private jets to good use. “I’ve been in Toronto and Swift Current, Sask. this week and this is just Wednesday,” he said.

Pattison knows he won’t live forever and said his company “absolutely” has a succession plan in place but refused to discuss details.

Clark, who joined the Pattison Group in 2001, is president of the company and an obvious potential successor. “Some divisions report to him and some report to me,” Pattison said. “We have quite a few key people in the company, but Glen Clark is the president now and has a good responsibility for a number of our divisions.”

Vancouver entrepreneur Nelson Skalbania doubts Pattison will slow down any time soon.

“He doesn’t have a dog to walk around the park and he doesn’t play golf, so his avocation is his business,” he said. “I can call his office at six o’clock on a Saturday morning.”