The Real Deal

Howie MacKenzie believes that, in business as in life, human nature always wins out. Considering his experience, it’s hard to argue the point.

MacKenzie, a solid man with a quick smile and a positive outlook, seems born to be in business; his sincere, easygoing nature has served him well in several ventures, dating back to his first one thirty years ago, when he was just 19.

Fresh out of school, he negotiated a $100,000 loan and started a sporting goods store. While that venture didn’t exactly flourish–skates and hockey sticks were about the extent of the business back then–it did provide a grounding in business and led to his getting involved in household paint, a knowledge base that still serves him well to this day.

In the interim, the outgoing MacKenzie found himself in the car dealer business in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia for a dozen years before he purchased the local Bestbuy shareholder, Rafuse Autoparts Centre.

An hour’s drive west of Halifax and some 25 kilometres inland of the province’s South Shore, Bridgewater looks as if it might be perched a bit too precariously on the steep banks of the LaHave River. The town boasts some 8,000 residents, but has a draw of more than 40,000 from the surrounding areas, and bills itself as the region’s “Main Street.” In terms automotive presence, it seems an accurate characterization.

The Michelin tire plant serves as the economic centrepiece, though some other manufacturing and a few gradually fading fishing industry facilities a few minutes away add to the influx. Primarily, it is small business that drives the economy and lives of people in Bridgewater. It is the kind of town where people stop their cars to let you cross the street, and give a polite pip-pip on the horn to say hello to people they know.

It is also a town with every dealership you can think of: virtually every vehicle manufacturer is well represented. And, though Rafuse remains the dominant player, there are five jobber competitors in town, plus what MacKenzie says is the biggest Canadian Tire store east of Montreal.

So competition can be fierce, and it has required Rafuse to be agile in order to succeed. It was a point that MacKenzie recognized when he bought the business almost a decade ago.

To him, it’s really about doing the things that feel right. That applies to business, and it also applies to his place in the community. To him, it just feels right to take his energy and apply it to more than just his own success. He is one of those people who are involved in everything.

He has served with the Cystic Fibrosis Association, worked with the Multiple Sclerosis group nationally and in the Maritimes, and was part of the Rick Hanson Man in Motion Tour across Canada (a signed poster hangs proudly in his office), and served as an auxiliary RCMP officer, to name just a few.

Although the purchase of the Rafuse business forced him to step back temporarily from some of his more nationally-based areas of involvement, his commitment to the Bridgewater region has continued unabated.

“I think that 10 years ago people would have jumped into their cars and gone an hour to Halifax, but now with the new stores, people are tending to stay here. We are the business community for the South Shore. We entice people to stay in town.”

And when he says “we”, he’s not speaking figuratively. As the chair of the local business development association, he plays a direct role in the town’s development.

“We are very involved in the development of the town. We work very hard, the board of directors. We are volunteers, but we are really dedicated to the town and the surrounding area.”

He jokes that he had always wanted to be involved in politics, “but this was one way to get involved without all the headaches.”

Of course, his involvement in governing is not restricted to outside the aftermarket. He serves on the board of the Bestbuy Distributors buying group, and recently attended his first meeting as part of the Auto Parts Associates (APA) group’s board, of which Bestbuy is a part.

He feels it has all helped him keep the business on the right track, almost without knowing it.

“I think that we have done some things in the stores without ever realizing why we were doing it. We diversified into household paint, and now we’re into a dcor shop. We have diversified into a lot of areas as far as where you can make a dollar.”

And growth has been significant. What was once a million-dollar-a-year business has more than tripled in less than a decade. He credits a staff of 22 with being able to successfully manage that growth.

“The best thing with the store has been the staff. The ones who stayed after I bought it and the new ones who came on board have really been a plus for me. This is the best staff we have ever had, from delivery people, to counterpeople, to warehouse people, our salespeople, to accounting people. When you get to that point in your business, you’re pretty proud and pretty happy that you have them.”

Of course, Howie, didn’t do it all himself. It was, for a while, a family affair, with wife Patty working in the store and daughter Maureen, now a teacher in Calgary, working as a delivery driver for many summers.

He says that it became a goal of his three years ago to have the business become as independent of his daily input as possible.

“I had a young fellow who was running the store then, though not fully. I realized that it was time to let him do more and take on more responsibility. He has done very well.”

That “young fellow” is Robbie Fahey who relies strongly on the expertise of the many experienced staff around him– the three most experienced have a total of more than 100 years with the company–and says that the biggest issue for him is not with the current staff, which is excellent, but with filling the occasional position with someone who is willing to work. The aftermarket is changing and the way people work needs to change with it.

MacKenzie picks up on this point.

He knows that the imperative for change is not just on the horizon; it’s here.

A new computer system that will allow customers to order online is ready to launch. The main store in Bridgewater, and the machine shop an hour away in Kentville, are always being evaluated for ways to improve.

The structure of the business has made it possible for him to think about those sorts of long-term issues, rather than being continually caught up in day-to-day transactions.

It has also enabled him to step away from the business for other duties and, occasionally, even a vacation.

Last winter, that meant he was out of the office for five weeks at a stretch. “I have to say that I was at an APA meeting, and all of them couldn’t believe it. I look around at our industry and see a lot of people who are older and feel they need to be at the store every day. They take a week off and that’s it. They grew up that way, but I believe different. I think you have to enjoy life while you are here and you only have a short time.

“If I have to be here I have to be here, but I went away last winter and I felt very comfortable leaving. I think I’ll try it again this winter,” he says with a nervous laugh. “You’re only a cellphone call away, and you’re always nervous and wondering what is happening when you’re away. It was my first time and I have to say it worked out well.”

He sees that this approach will also help to spur successful succession plans.

“If you go to any aftermarket meetings, you will see a lot of older people. You have to bring the younger people up to the level where they will understand the business. You will always have to have a good counterperson, but you have to train somebody to run the business.”

He has a management team consisting of the store manager, sales, warehousing, purchasing, and himself.

While he reserves the last say, he says that open discussion within the management team and the rest of the staff keeps the business trying new things.

“I listen to their ideas, and it is such a diverse group–they all have different ideas. They have ideas that sometimes I think are way out in left field, but we try it and sometimes it is very successful.”

Then there is the industry. One of the chronic shortcomings of the industry that he believes needs to change is training.

“I know that the manufacturers do have some of this for the individual lines, but I am talking about the rights and wrongs of being a counterperson. We can train a delivery driver, we can train a receiver, we can train accountants because they go to school, but when you get to counterpeople, there is just no training.”

He’d like to see that responsibility handled on an industry-wide basis.

For MacKenzie, the concepts of focusing on retaining profits and quality, succession planning and an empowered staff, training, learning from others in the industry, and trying new things are all part of accepting that the future will be different. Succeeding will require reinvestment by the individual businesses that make it up.

It is important to reinvest continually in the business–he expects to increase inventory investment by 10% to 15% a year–but adds that this is only part of the total investment in the business.

“Without the inventory, you’re dead. If we don’t do that our staff won’t have a job. It’s people’s lives.”

His attitude is that Rafuse will take care of the customer, then worry about the details of how to accommodate changes better afterward. He says that the firm is only able to do this as well as it has through the support of its suppliers.

It’s a give-and-take relationship. For him, that just comes naturally.

“I think if you were to look at all the automotive jobbers and [which ones] are successful, they’ll have the same outlook on life. They want to give back to their community; they want to give back to their staff. They want to make their store look good and be comfortable to walk into.

“Most of the guys want to do that. It didn’t come from a school or a book. They just did, because it is in them. I believe that is how you are successful.”