Linda Ellithorpe chuckles when asked about the prospects of expansion into Calgary for the family-owned AllSports Replay sports equipment stores that are already in three Alberta centres – Red Deer, Edmonton and Lethbridge.

“One of the reasons why we didn’t go into Calgary is because we didn’t have any more kids,” jokes chief
executive Ellithorpe, a one-time standout high school track and field athlete.

“If we had more kids, maybe we could have more stores.”

Indeed, AllSports, which is slated to open a sixth store in Lethbridge in November, has been a true family affair since opening its doors 18 years ago.

Roy Ellithorpe, Linda’s husband, is the company president, and all three of their daughters have been involved in the business. Stacey Walker is buying one of the Edmonton stores with a partner, Shannon Brige has worked at an Edmonton store and Arlene Cook is a manager at the Lethbridge store.

Carla Victor, for Business Edge
Linda Ellithorpe has been riding the wave of sports trends for 18 years since she opened her first AllSports Replay store in an old bus depot in Red Deer. The company is a true family affair, with her husband and three daughters all in the game.


1. Who’s the boss, you or your husband?

“He’s going to say I am, but we generally share the responsibilities. We consult with each other and we each have our fortes. He looks after a lot of the PR (public relations) and advertising. We share the ordering. I look after the hiring and firing and the day-to-day operations and the books.”

2. Who has had the greatest influence on your life?
“My husband Roy. He’s a far more tolerant and patient person than I am. I’m a little more aggressive.”

3. What’s it like running a business with all your family involved?
“It’s really good in some respects and really bad in some other respects. Growing up, the kids were so much a part of the business because all your spare time and every cent was recycled back into the business. And the kids were involved in the business at a very young age. They were cognizant of everything that was going on by the time they were 10 or 11.”

4. How difficult was it to balance work and family life in the early years?

“I suppose now I can look back and regret that maybe we didn’t have time so that our kids could take the skiing and the dancing and other things they maybe should have done. But we did other things together. We took them to Europe one year, and it was wonderful. With that trip, we kind of made up for some of the things we couldn’t do with them when they were younger. But I don’t think it hurt them. They all have a really strong work ethic.”

5. Are you planning to expand operations in the near future?
“We hope to open our second store (a store specializing in paintball equipment) in Lethbridge by November if we can find the staff. Staffing is always a problem. Eventually, we want to open more fitness stores and paintball stores. We’d like to open a fitness store in Grande Prairie and a paintball store in Medicine Hat. Whenever we go to a trade show, we can come home with probably a dozen ideas of things we should be opening, but we’re getting a little tired. We keep saying we’re going to cut down, but there are some projects that we want to do. But we’d also like to take a holiday some time. We haven’t had a holiday in a couple of years.”

6. Why have you focused on putting your stores into smaller markets such as Red Deer and Lethbridge?

“Some of the smaller centres are crying out for certain things that the bigger markets aren’t bringing them. We’ve looked at Calgary, but it hasn’t happened, partly because we haven’t been able to find the suitable real estate for our stores.”

7. What initially motivated you to start the company in 1984?
“We were looking for cross-country skis for our daughters and couldn’t find the right ones. So we thought there must be people who had the same problem and others who had equipment they wanted to get rid of. So we thought about it on Dec. 1 and we opened on Dec. 4 in a 6,400-sq.-ft. space in the old bus depot in Red Deer. We started with my bike, my husband’s bike, my skis, my husband’s skis, our tennis racquets, our skates and our baseball gloves.”

8. What was the startup cost?
“Real cheap. All we had to pay was our rent. We had so much support from the start. Total strangers were coming in with equipment for us. We did it by trial and error. We had no idea what some of the stuff was worth.”

9. What’s the greatest obstacle you’ve had to overcome in your business?
“The greatest obstacle has been in staffing. I guess it’s because it’s retail and retail is not high-paying. I suppose everyone thinks that their business is the only one that gets all the bad ones (employees) or all the crabby ones . . . but it’s not. It’s the retail sector. I’m not sure whether the retail sector is the type of workplace that promotes stress-free living, but it’s definitely not high-income living.”

10. Describe your management style?
"It’s very relaxed. I’ve always figured that when you work for someone, you work your best and give them 110 per cent and they treat you reciprocally. Now, I don’t believe in ordering staff to do things I wouldn’t normally do. I don’t think we probably set a good example as far as establishing a good work ethic. We get kids that really need that guiding hand and whip-cracking and we’re just not prepared to do that. It’s a matter of coming to work and giving the best when you’re there. If you don’t, why bother
coming to work here? Why not find somewhere else to work?”

11. You once stated that starting a business required a 200-per-cent commitment. Is that approximately what it took?
“When we started the business, I worked seven days a week and it was demanding on my home life and my children. But you have to give 200 per cent of yourself when you’re
starting a business. That’s the trouble. You get into that habit and it’s very difficult to take a holiday or stop and take a step back for a while because you don’t know what to do with yourself. You’ve spent so much time driving the horses that you can’t back off and take a breather from it. And that’s not good enough. Yes, I learned that work ethic from my parents growing up on a farm.”

12. How do you deal with the stress?
“Living on the farm (32 kilometres from Red Deer) helps. I have my cows (50 head of Shorthorns) and my (13) horses. It’s been stressful with them lately, trying to find feed for them and explaining to them why they have to eat those lower leaves on the branches.”

13. What’s the best advice you can offer a young entrepreneur?
“There are so many opportunities out there. I can think of five businesses I’d like to open right off the top of my head. The only problem is that you’re only one person and I don’t know whether you’re being fair to yourself by starting a business. Sometimes, I wonder if it would be nicer to have a nine-to-five job. You leave work and you have no stress. You don’t have to come in at six in the morning. But I guess if you really want to make a success of a business and you start it from scratch, you really have to treat your staff right and remember that they have a life, too. You’re the one who will be putting in the long hours and doing the dirty work.”

14. How has the sports equipment market changed since the early years of your company?
“There’s less demand for the used equipment. Equipment that people were happy with years ago, they’re now becoming more discriminating. Of course, safety is a big factor, but I think advertising is so much greater now and that has changed people’s perception of equipment. So many people believe a certain brand is better simply because the company spends more on advertising. Kids in particular don’t want to buy equipment that isn’t a name brand. In the early years, kids were glad just to have equipment and there was more of a feeling of gratitude towards being able to participate rather than wanting bigger and better. If somebody has a $50-million advertising budget and somebody has a $50,000 advertising budget, the kids are going to go for the $50-million budget. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but that’s what we see more of. Peer pressure is tremendous.”

15. What’s your vision for the company?
“I think we’d like to gear down a bit and maybe inject some new blood into it. I’m looking forward to my daughter and (her partner) taking over one of the stores because they have newer ideas. The thing is, you get stale.”

16. How much of your sales are now from new equipment?
“It used to be 75 per cent used equipment, but now it’s probably close to 50-50.”

17. How do you see the market for sports equipment evolving in the next decade?
“I think the baby boomers are going to be the biggest market, so it will be equipment for more mature sports. Fitness equipment has been very big, but paintball is the fastest-growing North American sport so paintball equipment is very big. That sport knows no bounds.”

18. What’s it like running a business out of a smaller centre like Red Deer?
“It’s great. Red Deer’s a small-town city. The people in this area are phenomenal. They’re still small town and they’re still concerned about other people. Everybody knows everybody else.”

19. Is owning your own business worth the sacrifice?
“You get real excited about some things and some things are very frustrating. When you’re in business for yourself, the stress may be high, but it’s always a thrill when you break new ground.”

20. What do you see in your life’s crystal ball?
“I don’t know. My crystal ball’s pretty murky right now. I’d just like to have more time to do the things I haven’t had time to do. I’d like to paint. I’d like to rearrange my house. But I need the time to do those things.”

IN PROFILE: Linda Ellithorpe
* Title: CEO, AllSports Replay.
* Born/raised/age: Stettler, AB; 50.
* Residence: Red Deer-area farm.
* Education: Grade 12.
* Family: Husband Roy, daughters Stacey Walker, Shannon Brige and Arlene Cook.
* Career: Ellithorpe has operated the family business since 1984 and worked in her husband’s printing shop prior to that.
* Claim to fame: Stettler High School Female Athlete of the Year, 1967.

THE COMPANY: AllSports Replay
* Brass: Linda Ellithorpe, CEO; Roy Ellithorpe, president.
* Profile: AllSports is an Alberta retailer of new and used sports equipment with an emphasis on fitness and paintball equipment. The company has five stores – two in Red Deer, two in Edmonton (including a wholesale store) and a fitness
equipment store in Lethbridge.
* Sales: The company had almost $4 million in gross revenue in 2002.
* Web site: www.allsportsreplay.com
* Headquarters: 5237 54th Ave., Red Deer, AB T4N 5K5.
* Phone/Fax: 403-346-0700, 403-341-3118.