Last year, a U.S. trade magazine published a complimentary piece on Calgary’s John Forzani, aptly dubbing him The Player.

But now the ex-Canadian Football League lineman is drifting toward the sidelines, after bowing out as CEO of this country’s largest sporting goods retailer.

Still, he’s only 55. Forzani’s not ready to hang up the cleats for good. Not yet.

In fact, the burly, just- plain-folks Forzani couldn’t understand what the fuss was about when he abdicated his CEO post in favour of chartered accountant Bob Sartor, who’ll temporarily continue as chief financial officer of The Forzani Group Ltd. (FGL-TSX).

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Forrzani thinks his sporting goods business is a logical choice for a takeover bid.

“It’s the right thing for the business and I prefer to do it on my own terms,” said the founder, who remains under contract as Forzani Group chairman for two more years.

“A small part of me wishes you could continue things as they were forever. But that’s not realistic,” added Forzani, who initiated the transition process 18 months ago.

“It’s been on my mind for years to step back from day-to-day operations,” he said.“To me, this is what successful companies do – or should do. It’s called succession planning.”

Both Sartor and Bill Gregson, another CA who becomes FGL’s president and chief operating officer, joined the company in 1997. Both number crunchers were instrumental in helping the Forzani Group regain its corporate footing – and its reputation – after an outfit known for aggressive growth bit off more than it could chew.

Always candid, Forzani is at his most forthright when he talks about the near-disastrous takeover of Montreal-based Sports Experts in 1994.

“It was death-defying,” Forzani gulped. “We were a regional player, and we got ourselves in a pickle by buying a company four times bigger than we were.

“They (Sartor and Gregson) came aboard when it was kinda dark,” Forzani understated. “We got into a jackpot, and a lot of it was inexperience. I’ll take the blame for that.”

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge


As Forzani put it, the two corporate cultures were “miles apart,” and the process of integration devolved into a nightmare.

Three years after the deal was closed, the Forzani Group was submerged in red ink and the share price (the company went public in ’93) had drooped to $1.20, down from $12.87 three years before.

But sympathetic suppliers and landlords allowed the company important grace room on money owing. A major restructuring followed. On its heels came a semi-miraculous resurrection.

On Friday, the outgoing CEO said his initial projection of $1 billion in sales will be achieved by the end of the current fiscal year. And that share price, which hovered near $14 last January, closed at a healthy $19.10 the day of the announcement.

Any way you figure it, it’s been a hell of a run for John Forzani.

On Aug. 5, 1974, a kid walked into the first Forzani’s Locker Room and walked out with a gaudy pair of Puma Impalas.

“We weren’t even open yet,” he grinned. “I put the $20 in my pocket because we didn’t have a till.”

That first year, Forzani and partners made a $10,000 profit. They notched their first million in sales revenue three years later.

Check the updated boxscore: 365 stores, almost five million square feet of retail space and 10,000 employees.

Forzani was still active with the Calgary Stampeders when he got into the business because he and his football-playing brothers couldn’t find a decent athletic shoe in Canada.

“We got into an exploding industry at exactly the right time,” he reminisced.

“The whole sports leisure industry has had 30 years of growth without a retraction. It’s not like the oil business,” said Forzani, meaning it’s virtually recession-proof.

Apparently. Forzani’s best-ever year for profits (as a percentage of sales) was a black year for the rest of us: 1981, when the energy business collapsed and the Calgary office vacancy rate climbed beyond 20 per cent.

What’s next? Forzani continues to suspect the company is a logical target for a takeover bid. In the meantime, he says FGL will concentrate on “operating excellence.”

Personally, Forzani plans to work closely with a Forzani Group partner – Intersport International Corp. of Switzerland, which recently elected him chairman.

One Intersport strategy is the production of “private label products,” a.k.a. knockoffs, to be stocked alongside the big brand names in FGL stores.

“Consumer products we create and design ourselves, excellent quality, but maybe more cost effective” than internationally known brands, Forzani said.

He also plans to keep an eye on the new boss: “I’m still a very serious shareholder,” Forzani winked.