Home Hardware owner “leads by example” after winning Business of the Year

November 10, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Recognition from your peers usually makes you feel a sense of accomplishment, and Bill Gillam of Shelburne’s Home Hardware Building Centre is no exception.

But Bill is a man of action and is not going to rest on his laurels after being named one of the big winners of the 2016 Business Excellence Awards hosted by the Dufferin Board of Trade.

Our local Home Hardware was named 2016’s Business of the Year with 10 or More Employees, at a ceremony which also recognized Jamie Lee Higginson as Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

“To be recognized by a third party group of individuals from Dufferin County gives you a great feeling of accomplishment,” says Mr. Gillam. “After becoming the owner in 2012, you just start diving in, making adjustments, making things more efficient and better for the customers, and you just have to have a vision of what is going on.”

Hailing from Peterborough, he says when he bought the store from the Fines Family, nearing the top of his list of tasks was becoming familiar with the community, looking at what the business had supported over the last two decades, as well as looking for ways to make a mark.

“I just continued on building the foundation of Murray Fines and the Fines Family, maintaining that level, as well as creating new opportunities for aspect I believe in, as far as planting trees at local schools, and starting the Donate a Plate program for kids at the five local schools for their breakfast club.”

Indeed, when Mr. Gillam recently had to sit down and type out a list of community groups and organizations Home Hardware supports for another award the store was up for, he said he couldn’t believe it when he saw everything in black and white.

These causes include Special Olympics, the Hospital for Sick Children, local sports teams, and even theatres such as Grace Tipling Hall and Theatre Orangeville.

Mr. Gillam came to Shelburne after working for a building supply company in Peterborough for nearly 20 years. Over that time, the company grew substantially and he eventually moved on to building a brand new Home Hardware Building Centre which was the largest and biggest of its kind in the area. He was there until 2011 with a group of partners when he started to looking at opportunities to set out on his own.

That opportunity became available in Shelburne, and he jumped at the chance.

“[The Shelburne store] had established relationships with contractors and local customers, both residential and retail,” he says, noting the store currently has a total of 62 employees. “It took over two years just to get the exterior signs all done and change over the inside format to what the store looks like now, while bringing new products in. The first five year plan was to bring [the store] up to its capability and I have another year left in the plan [addressing] the new housing market and the current housing market needs.

“That is going to be established in the next year, so then my five year game plan is to get all the products, revitalize the store and refresh it.

“Behind every person’s objective, whatever person succeeds in a business there is usually a spouse behind you. I go straight ahead and Carol, my wife, is the one who picks up the pieces and keeps me going in the right direction. If there is any final push of detail, as well as my own detail, I give all the accolades to her as well.

“Every business and every community has an emotion to it. You have to appreciate everything that is around you, the people who are working with you, and the people who are coming through the door. That is why the tops of my Home Hardware notepads say, ‘Lead by Example.’”