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SUCCESSION PLANNING
F LE
THERE’S
NO SUCCESS
WITHOUT A
PLAN FOR
SUCCESSION
BY FRANK CONDRON
In an industry
mainly composed
of baby boomers
looking to retire in
the next few years,
the time to think
about succession
planning is now.
J
oel Seibert can clearly picture the day
he acquired his business, Mountain
View Building Supply in Calgary.
Well, the day he started to acquire it at least.
Joel’s father, Doug, and his stepmother, Tracy,
started the business in 2006 and Joel went to
work with them about four years later.
“About six months after I joined the business,
my dad was basically forced to retire
for health reasons,” Seibert recalls. “That
was when we started to seriously look at me
eventually buying them out.”
What followed was a long process of
exploring the options available to business
owners planning a succession. That
involved talking to professionals about the
most advantageous tax and legal strategies,
and getting advice from other dealers
and business acquaintances who had been
through the process. Says Seibert: “There
was a lot to figure out, but we knew it was
going to have to be a something that came
together over time, because there was no
way I could have got a loan big enough to
buy them out in one shot.”
AN URGENT NEED
The issue of succession is looming larger all
the time as the population of Canada ages
and baby boomer business owners start to
eye the exit door. According to Statistics
Canada, there are now more people aged 65
and over in this country—almost six million,
accounting for just over 16 percent of
the total population—than there are people
aged 15 and under, and their numbers are
growing fast. The number of Canadians aged
64 and older is increasing at a rate of about 3.5
percent a year, four times the annual growth
rate of the population at large, and that pace
of growth has increased every year since 2011.
For industries with a high concentration of
family-owned businesses, like retailing, the
time for succession planning is now.
“Succession planning is both a growing
issue and an opportunity in the building
material and hardware industry,” says
TIMBER MART President Bernie Owens.
“The majority of the industry is made up
of baby boomers who will retire within the
next 15 years.”
Owens says dealers who plan for succession
usually experience a smooth transition
of ownership and business success thereafter.
This is because the succession process forces
them to engage in two very valuable exercises:
assessing who in their organization
has the necessary skills to lead the business,
whether a family member or employee; then
giving that person the training, guidance,
and the support they’ll need to succeed when
they finally take ownership.
“Assessment of your employees and
investment in them are two things businesses
should be doing on a regular basis
as is,” adds Owens. “Succession planning
34 FIRST QUARTER / 2018
Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly
www.hardlines.ca