Career
Born in Toronto, Ontario, at age sixteen, he went to work as a clerk at a branch of the Dominion Bank. The following year, the brothers moved the business to downtown Toronto where they began the conversion to a garage/retail business. In 1927, the brothers incorporated under the name Canadian Tire Corporation Limited. and in 1934, Canadian Tire opened its first official associate store in Toronto, Ontario.
The Billes brothers expanded into a full line of automotive products and home and garden supplies.
They created owner/operated stores throughout the Province of Ontario and into Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. Then, in 1966, they opened a store in Winnipeg, Manitoba and, by 1980, the most successful Canadian owned and operated franchise in the country"s history had a nationwide network of dealer operated Canadian Tire Associate Stores.
He held the position for the next ten years and served as a director until 1988. When he stepped down as the company"s President and Chief Executive Officer, the Board of Directors named Dean Muncaster (b 1934) as his replacement.
He died in 1995 and was interred in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.
A publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Canadian Tire’s Class A Non-Voting shares are widely held. However, the company has a dual share structure that gives voting control to the holders of a relatively small number of "Common" shares. In honour of Alfred Billes, the Canadian Tire Distribution Centre in Brampton, Ontario was named after him as the A.J. Billes Centre.
