Stephen Bebis did not grow up wanting to be a professional golfer.

He did not start playing golf until he was an adult and admits he is still learning the intricacies of the game. But Bebis, the president and CEO of Markham, Ont.-based Golf Town, has mastered the art of selling golf-related equipment and products.

In the past decade, Bebis has built Golf Town into a 40-store operation. The company has opened four new stores in the first quarter of this year alone.

And like a good drive, Canada's largest golf retailer shows no signs of slowing down.

Brennan O'Connor, Business Edge
CEO Stephen Bebis says Golf Town's fun working environment is a hit.

1. What was your upbringing like?

"I grew up in a small city (New Bedford, Mass.). My father was a reverend (in the Greek Orthodox church), so I had a very religious background. I was part of the parish and lived in a parish house. I got exposed to community living and living in a world with lots of different personalities and people. I watched how my father stickhandled through all that and learned a lot from him about people."

2. What were some of the lessons that he taught you?

"He taught me how to be merciful, how to forgive, forget and move forward, how to get the best out of people, how to listen, how to be humble but confident. Of course, being in that religious background taught me a lot about integrity and honesty. He gave me good fundamentals for my life and business. He's still the parish priest (in New Bedford). He's 81 or 82."

3. What was your boyhood dream?

"My boyhood dream was to be a leader and to make money in business - and to be a civil engineer. My father wanted me to be an engineer and I wanted to be a businessman, so I went to university and I majored in civil engineering for the first two years, realized that I really loved business and transferred to business. I went for six full years, did very well, but just didn't get enough credits to get my (degree). I stepped out of school and said, 'I'll got back some day and finish it.' Well, I never had a chance to do that."

4. What was your first job after university?

"While I was in university, I worked at Sears and Roebuck. I worked in sales on the sales floor and liked it a lot. Every day was different and challenging. I moved up, and they asked me if I could go into a full-time role. I said I couldn't, as I was going to university. They said, 'We'll have one ready for you when you graduate.' (But) I left university full-time to work and then I got married and the rest is history. You have kids. You get bills. So I never went back. I was (at Sears) for eight years, I believe. Then I went to Grossman's Lumber, the largest lumber chain in the United States, as a buyer. I bought flooring and ceiling material and I also bought close-out specials. I moved up and became general manager of their Midwest division, which was headquartered in Oshkosh, Wis. I ran their division out there for a couple years, and then I left in '84 and came to Home Depot in Atlanta and stayed with them a few years."

5. How did you end up coming to Canada?

"I was approached by Marshall Cohen, (CEO) of Molson Companies, to come up and open up home improvement stores similar in the look and size and feel of Home Depot. At that time, Molson owned Beaver Lumber. They knew if Home Depot came to Canada, it would really hurt their investment. So they wanted to pre-empt that by opening Home Depot-type stores in Canada. I flew up to see the market and I liked it. I was young, and I was a VP and I had a chance to be the CEO and a founder - with a great parent company supporting me. So I moved up to start the company (Aikenhead's). It was a greenfield start - no employees, no office, no phone, no paper, nothing. I built it from scratch and then we sold 75 per cent of it to Home Depot in 1994. I stayed on as the CEO until '96.

Stephen Bebis

I was chairman of the partnership, because Molson still owned 25 per cent. After my two-year contract expired, I found a CEO to replace me. I wanted to be a CEO again, but not of a subsidiary. I moved to Tampa, Fla., and signed a two-year deal to be CEO of a sporting goods retailer called Sports and Recreation. They were the second-largest sporting goods retailer in the U.S. at that time."

6. How did Golf Town come about?

"Marshall Cohen retired and he and Robert Foster, the CEO of Capital Canada, and another fellow by the name of Jack Steckel were looking at different ideas to invest in. They found this golf concept they really liked in Minneapolis called Golf Galaxy. These guys are very avid golfers. They were talking and said, 'This is a great idea. Who do we know that could start this up and run it?' Marshall said, 'I know the guy. He's in Tampa right now, but his two-year contract's expiring soon and I know he wants to move back. He loves Toronto, loves Canada, and he wants to move back.' So they called. They said, 'You've got to go look at this idea in Minneapolis. It's a fabulous store.' So I went and looked. I loved it, so the four of us worked together to get funding for the first store, and that's how it got started."

7. How did you get the funding?

"We went out on a road show.

Capital Canada was the funder. We worked with them to go out and raise capital for the business."

8. What were those early days like?

"Well, we made 35 presentations and we got one bite. This was back in '98. It was during the dot-com craze. So we would go to equity firms and say, 'Look, we've got this great idea, we have this great store, we know it's going to be successful in this country. We've got this great management team with Stephen Bebis, an experienced retailer who's done this before in Canada with Aikenhead's and Home Depot.' And they would say, 'Nah, retail's gonna be done. In 10 years, there's going to be no such thing as a retail store. Everything will be bought on the web. What's your web strategy?' I said, 'We don't have a web strategy. We're bricks and mortar. When guys look to buy golf equipment, they like to go to a store. They like to look at (a club). They like to waggle it. They like to hit it.' So they threw us out of the office. A lot of them also didn't want to do startups. That was the market at that time - very difficult."

9. What was your reaction?

"That they didn't know what they were missing. I felt very confident - never got frustrated - that we would raise the money eventually. We knew we were on the right track. Finally, we found ManuLife Financial, who stepped up and became the majority owner. (Golf Town is now owned by OMERS Capital). Thank goodness the bankers at ManuLife are golfers. We flew to Minneapolis to see Golf Galaxy. They loved it. They loved the store. They checked me out - thoroughly - to make sure that they were investing with someone they knew.

I had Marshall Cohen and Robert Foster supporting us. I put my own money in - a substantial part of my net worth. I was about a 10-per-cent owner of the business."

10. Where does the internet side of the business fit in now?

"It's still a store. And it's profitable. We built it slowly. Organically. Internally. We didn't go out and buy fancy packages because, in golf, the people still want to go out and see a golf club. We're a bricks-and-mortar retailer that has a web capability. So we're a store first."

11. Do you play golf?

"Yes. I'm a retailer in the golf business. Not a golfer in the retail business. My expertise is retail and I play golf."

12. What's your handicap?

"My index is 16.2. There's a difference between handicap and index."

13. When did you start?

"When I was at Aikenhead's, Marshall Cohen was an avid golfer and he'd invite me to play golf with his board, because I reported to the board there. I used to go to board retreats and I didn't play golf. He said, 'Look, you've got to learn how to play. That's what we do.' "So I learned how to play. It was frustrating and it was difficult, and I'm still learning, of course. But what was interesting was that it was important because I couldn't find a good store to shop at. It was very frustrating as a consumer to buy golf clothing and equipment in Canada. There was no place, really, that I ever had a great shopping experience. When it came time to (start Golf Town), I said, 'Sure, we've got to do this. Five years ago, I couldn't find a place to shop.' (Nevada Bob's) were going bankrupt at the time. You know, small stores didn't do it for me."

14. What was the expansion strategy?

"The strategy was to open two stores, see how well they did and then go on from there. We had enough funding to open two or three stores. I remember, the night before the first store (in Scarborough, Ont.,) opened, and I said to my wife, 'Gee, I hope someone shows up. I hope we have a customer.' I didn't know. We opened the doors and it was flooded. We were jammed. It was a very successful, powerful launch. Way exceeded our expectations. We went back to our board and said, 'Look, we've got a great idea here. Customers like the store. We're profitable already. We're making money.' They said, 'OK, let's go out and raise more money and let's grow this thing.' That was it."

15. What's the expansion plan now?

"To continue to grow - and we've got about another 20 stores planned over the next few years - and look at opportunities everywhere else. We'll start looking at Europe, Asia (and) North America when the time is right. I think we're a couple of years away (from looking at international expansion). But who knows? It could be tomorrow. It could be two years from now. I'm really not focused on that right now. We talk about it from a strategic point of view. What's next after Canada?

But we've got our hands full right now getting Canada done and making sure we dominate this market and control it. From a market-share perspective, we don't want to leave any stone unturned. Once we feel that we've accomplished that (control), we'll move forward. One of our biggest growth areas is corporate sales. That's where we're focusing our growth capital right now - selling to companies. We sell everything from golf balls to pens to mugs. We have a separate subsidiary called Golf Town Corporate Sales ... It's a $2-billion industry in Canada - promotional goods. So we want a piece of that. Right now, it's about five per cent of our business. We want it to be 25-30 per cent."

16. What's your strategy for growing that corporate side?

"We're going to look at acquisitions. We're going to look at hiring and developing a better sales force, and we're investing in all that. Software. Sales-force training. Developing. We're working on all of that. It's a very fragmented industry. There are about 2,000 dealers in this country that sell corporate stuff - corporate golf, for example - and we want to be the leader in all that, particularly in golf. We want to be able to have the same market share we have in retail in wholesale, as well."

17. What's the key to being successful in the golf business?

"Being surrounded by fabulous people. Smart, hard-working, loyal staff who understand that the customer is the No. 1 priority. We focus everything we do in this company around the customer. Every decision we make, we say: How does this help our interaction with customers? So every decision for (capital expenditures), every decision for improvement is easy to see.

"Does this help us do our job better or does this improve customer service? We have very little turnover in management. I think we're one of the best companies in Canada to work for. We treat people fabulously. We pay them well and it's a fun place to work. We're market leaders and they work in a game that they enjoy."

18. How would you describe your management style?

"I would say 'engaged' - in all facets of the business. I'm not a micro-manager. Even though I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a strategy guy. As long as you deliver results, I stay out of your way. I wouldn't be able to build two companies if I was a micro-manager. I'm not that smart. Not that good. I surround myself with great people and let them do their jobs. If there's a problem - which there is, business is about problem-solving - I get involved and help them with their thinking and their strategy. My job is to make sure our culture is the same from coast to coast. My job is to break down bureaucracy and make sure that we make decisions quickly that are well thought-out with good research - and keep politics out of the business."

19. Do you mean office politics?

"Any kind of politics. We fight it every day."

20. If you weren't running Golf Town anymore, what would you do?

"I'd still be in retail. Either investing in it or consulting. But I would definitely be in retail. Every day, you can get up in the morning and see how well you did yesterday. It's not like you have to wait a year."

Stephen Bebis

* Title: President/CEO, Golf Town..

* Born/raised/age: Danbury, Conn./New Bedford, Mass./55.

* Education: Bebis studied civil engineering and business management at the University of Massachusetts, but left university before obtaining a degree in either discipline.

* Family: Married with five children ranging in age from eight to 30.

* Career: After leaving university, Bebis began his retail career at Sears & Roebuck and then moved on to Grossman's Lumber, Aikenhead's Improvement Warehouse, Reno Depot and Home Depot in Canada and the U.S. After leaving Home Depot, he headed a U.S. sporting goods chain for about two years before launching Golf Town in the late 1990s.

* Moonlighting: Bebis serves on the boards of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Canada, the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada and Branksome Hall, a private all-girls school in the Toronto area.

He has also launched Golf Town charitable events that have raised more than $2 million.

* Awards: 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year * Passions: Skiing, golf and family.

Golf Town

* Brass: Stephen Bebis, president and CEO; Marshall Cohen, chairman.

* Profile: Founded in 1999, Golf Town owns and operates stores across Canada, selling popular brand-name clubs and other equipment, along with clothing items. The company also operates a corporate sales company that sells golf clothing and accessories to companies.

* Stats: Golf Town has about 40 stores with 600 full-time employees and 2,000 seasonal employees. The former publicly traded income fund no longer reports revenues and sales. But Golf Town's second-quarter 2007 financial report showed the company's sales grew 14.9 per cent to $94.3 million from $82.1 million in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) climbed 17.2 per cent to $17 million for the quarter.

* Corporate Structure: Golf Town is a privately controlled firm that is owned by OMERS Capital Partners, a subsidiary of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. It had been a publicly traded income fund before being acquired by OMERS Capital last year for $240 million, including debt.

* Website: www.golftown.com * HQ: First Markham Place, 3265 Hwy. 7 East, Unit 2 Markham, L3R 3P9

* Phone: (905) 479-0343

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)