Call it Brian Hesje’s wheel of fortune.

The CEO and chairman of the board of Fountain Tire has been named the 2003 recipient of the Henry Singer Award, recognizing Canadian retailing and service excellence.

“We’re very proud as an organization because the award puts us in very elite company. It’s an honour for us,” said Hesje. “To be put in the same category as Harley-Davidson, The Brick and Staples (past Henry Singer Award winners), we’re very proud to be recognized as a retailer of that calibre.”

The Edmonton-based tire and automotive service company, which traces its roots back to Wainwright, started out when Bill Fountain opened a small double-bay garage in 1956. Today, it has 146 branches from Vancouver Island to Thunder Bay, Ont., and is recognized as one of Canada’s 50 best-managed companies.

Brian Hesje has won this year’s Henry Singer Award.

On October 21, in a ceremony at Edmonton’s Westin Hotel, Hesje will accept the Canadian Institute of Retailing and Services Henry Singer Award. CIRAS presents the award annually to an individual who is found to be an exceptional leader in the retailing or service sectors, and who has made significant contributions to the community.

“This award was established in 1992 to honour the memory of a remarkable individual, the late Henry Singer, founder of the Henry Singer Fashion Group,” said CIRAS executive director Paul McElhone.

“One of the attributes of this award is that it’s a very human award. The award is given not so much for the amount of business a company does, but for the way it conducts itself, ethically and professionally, the way it treats its people and for the way it gives back to the community,” said McElhone.

“It’s not good enough in business today to just have systems and disciplines that generate a money-making machine,” added McElhone. “It’s important to recognize that without the communities in which we do business, we would have no business. Brian Hesje certainly lives up to the standard of excellence the award demands.”

For Hesje, the mechanics of Fountain Tire’s success are simple. “Over the years we’ve grown, it just seemed to happen. It didn’t seem to be that we got big, we did what we felt was right and took the opportunity to expand.”

Other components include great people who trust each other, said Hesje, and integrity in dealing with consumers.

“I would also like to think that it’s because we’re a business based on partnerships, and each one of our outlets are separate companies. In our program, the manager owns 50 per cent and we do, so we have a lot of partners,” said Hesje. Helping guide that, he said, is another successful partnership with Goodyear, which owns just under half of Fountain Tire.

“In 1988, we sold 49 per cent to Goodyear and that was a decision that really changed our business. It created a lot of opportunities. It brought a lot of expertise, particularly in marketing, and it put us in touch on a day-to-day basis with a very large organization. That gives you a comfort level that growing big is not as threatening as if you didn’t,” said Hesje. “It’s been an interesting relationship. It made us very aware of our culture and protecting our culture, but it’s also given us a lot of confidence that we could play with the big boys.” Since joining Fountain Tire in 1984, Hesje has helped increase the company’s sales by more than $160 million and has experienced three major changeovers in the company’s leadership structure. His award address, titled Roll On, will tackle the issues, challenges and opportunities of succession planning.

In addition to the keynote speech, he will spend two days as executive in residence at the University of Alberta’s School of Business early next year.

CIRAS was formed by the U of A School of Business in 1991 with a vision is to be Canada’s leading centre of retailing and services expertise through excellence in education and research.