Jim Pattison was born to sell
Born in Saskatchewan in 1928, Jim Pattison was learning to walk as 1929’s stock market collapsed into the Great Depression. In 1931, a decade-long drought plunged the Prairies into the Dust Bowl and Pattison’s parents, like many, moved to Vancouver’s east side.
His first business venture was selling vegetable seeds. His first job, aged 13 in the summer of 1942, was playing trumpet at church picnics. At bible camp he met Mary Hudson, the childhood sweetheart who became his wife of more than 70 years and bore three children.
While attending John Oliver High School, he worked summers picking fruit, selling doughnuts, as a hotel page boy, delivering papers, in a cannery, as a labourer, as a pantryman on trains — anything that turned a dime in hard times.
Studying commerce at UBC, he snagged a job washing used cars. One day, the salesman was at dinner and Pattison sold a car. He discovered he was born to sell. He sold to fellow students. In 1961, he opened a car dealership on Main Street.
Today, the Jim Pattison Group is Canada’s second-largest private company with $9.1 billion in annual sales. It holds assets in broadcast media, signage, supermarkets, fishing, forestry, entertainment, agriculture, equipment, manufacturing, recreation and marketing. Pattison’s own net worth is listed by Forbes Magazine at $4.8 billion.
Pattison was in Regina in 2015 to announce that his grocery store chain Save- On-Foods was opening four new stores in Saskatchewan. The brand also donated $10,000 to the Regina Food Bank.
Pattison has also donated millions to hospitals in B.C.
With Vancouver Sun and Regina Leader-Post files
As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, the StarPhoenix and the Leader-Post are telling the stories of 150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation. Send your suggestions or feedback to sask150@postmedia.com.