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Local Canadian Tire dealer retiring after 50 years

'I am so fortunate that I got North Bay'
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Paul Lamont and his wife Chris. Photo supplied.

What started out as a part-time job in high school, turned into a successful 50-year career for Paul Lamont.  

The longtime owner of the Canadian Tire store off McKeown Avenue in North Bay is retiring after half a century with the well-known company. 

"I was only 15 when I started," admitted Lamont, who grew up in North York.  

"There was no magic, it was just a good company close to home and I thought it would be good to work for them." 

Lamont kept his job at Canadian Tire while he was going to college and moved up to an automotive parts manager. 

"At the time it was the biggest store in Canada and he told me I should consider applying for that position and so I did," he recalls. 

"That kind of started my career in Canadian Tire in the store." 

Lamont worked in a number of locations moving his way up from parts manager to store manager to general manager. While this was happening Lamont was also working with the corporate side of Canadian Tire as well. 

He became a store inspector as well and then grew into a position where Lamont had the responsibility to sell the store. 

When he became a dealer, he was given a store to run in Vegreville, Alberta, then went to Estevan, Saskatchewan, and then opened a second store in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. 

While running two locations in the prairies, another opportunity came about back in his home province in early 1994. 

"North Bay was offered, it was the old store on Cassells Street, but this was a new concept store they were planning to build in North Bay," said Lamont.  

But the North Bay store would come with a risk.  

"There were 12 Canadian Tire dealers before me that turned it down," admitted Lamont. 

"It was a new concept, they called it the 'superstore' going from the normal small store to the big store that it was in 1994.

"At that time, Walmart was coming to Canada. So there was the fear of the US entrance as well as taking a sort of corner store, and turning it into a superstore. The location was an issue as the other dealers did not like the location because you were kind of buried behind Sobey's.  

"A lot of dealers did not think it would work. I was young enough that I could ride it out if it was not as good as they had hoped. So consequently I was the 13th guy offered that store so I accepted it."

Lamont was not afraid of the risk.  

"I came in, bought the old store, and immediately started building the new store," he said.  

"I got here in February of 1994 and in November of 1994 we moved to the store we are in today." 

The risk ended up working out very well. Lamont feels he was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. 

"It proved to be successful," he said.  

"It was the biggest store in Canada at the time, and we did the best out of the group of stores that opened in 1994."

In 2007 the North Bay store had another expansion which doubled its size from what was built in 1994. 

"Even though we had built the biggest store in Canada we went 50 per cent bigger in 2007," said Lamont.   

Lamont believes some of his business's success triggered some of the additional builds that cropped up nearby. 

"Before that growth, we were an island on our own," said Lamont. 

"For sure, we were a destination store, a large volume store and I think that held up for the other retailers that opened and all the restaurants.  Look at all the growth that has happened since we were there. We were the first of the big retailers along McKeown so I think we were definitely a deciding factor for some of them who wanted to relocate."

And Canadian Tire continued to take notice of Lamont's success in North Bay.  

"We were very well known within the Canadian Tire community as the biggest and the most successful one they had built in 1994 and we still retain a pretty large volume in the company even though there are stores within much bigger populations than what we are," he said.  

"From that concept, Canadian Tire went on a massive replacement of facilities all across Canada. It was the birth of the new big stores in Canadian Tire."  

Lamont, a two-time winner of the North Bay Chamber of Commerce business of the year award, has received multiple Canadian Tire Corporations awards through his years in North Bay. 

Even though he's retiring, the dealer association has already requested to have him signed on as a dealer consultant. 

"I am not going from 100 miles per hour to zero," he said about the consulting. 

"Getting rid of the store is one part, but it still gives me some part-time work to stay connected with Canadian Tire and Canadian Tire dealers for at least the short term here, so I am very happy about that. 

On top of that, Lamont is proud to be only the third-ever to run a Canadian Tire store which goes back to the 1930s.  

"I am so fortunate that I got North Bay," he admits. 

"I am actually the third dealer in North Bay because everyone else that has come here, retires here." 


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Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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