OCTOBER 2015 BCBusiness 59 TONIA COWAN (LEFT); COURTESy LOUIE FAMILy (ABOVE)
Alliance, or IGA, super-
markets. Tong, then
second in command
(his elder brother, Tim,
was president), was
the driving force for a
move that would prove
pivotal in the transfor-
mation of the business.
By the 1960s, Tong had
bought out his broth-
ers and was ¡rmly in
control—expanding the
business yet again with the purchase of
the Dominion grocery chain's nine B.C.
stores in 1969. Then, seven years later,
came the blockbuster purchase of Lon-
don Drugs that would allow the family
to branch out of the grocery trade and
into the more pro¡table drugstore
business.
Brandt—Tong's eldest son—has been
with the company since 1972, after
six years working as an accountant
with what was then Touche Ross. He
assumed full control of the family
business upon the death of his father in
1998. Brandt sees himself in the driver's
seat for another three to ¡ve years,
after which time he expects his two
sons, Gregory and Stuart, to take over.
Currently Gregory (a trained radiolo-
gist) oversees the company's burgeon-
ing health clinic
business, Highroads,
while Stuart (a law-
yer) provides coun-
sel to all of the ¡rm's
divisional heads.
While in many
crucial ways busi-
ness conditions are
easier now than
they were for H.Y.
Louie, the retail
world is also under-
going profound change thanks to the
power of the Internet and an increas-
ingly global marketplace. In answer
to the question, "Can H.Y. Louie's
company last another 112 years?" the
grandson is philosophical.
"I think all businesses evolve," says
Brandt. "What made the business suc-
cessful when my father ran it, when I've
run it, and going forward when my two
sons run it, may be quite dierent. They
will have to learn and adapt to those
changes in time. We've discovered
that you don't have to be the largest
business to survive—but you have to be
very good at what your mission is. And I
think that, in our own way, we are very
good at serving customers."
■
"I think all busi-
nesses evolve. What
made the business
successful when
my father ran it,
when I've run it,
and going forward
when my two sons
run it, may be
quite di–erent"
Deep roots
(above) A family por-
trait with Tong (circled,
left) and his father
Hok Yat (circled, right);
(right) Tong's brothers
Ernie, Willis and John
outside the family's
Chinatown warehouse
in 1941
YORK
NEW
NEW
YORK
NEW
YORK
NEW
NEW
YORK
NEW
gala
november
13,
2015
november
13,
2015
november
bhfoundation.ca
