Business View Magazine | March 2018

120 enzie,were real go-getters in business and politics. Theycontributed a lot to the Sarnia region as far as hospitals,the railway,the tunnel systemunder the river to connect the U.S.and Canada,and theyare attributed to be the first ones to export Canadian oil to England. Therewere no roadways,no railways,at the time,ev- erythingwas done through the Great Lakes system.So, theycatered to the shipping industrywith ship chan- dlery,stoves,and tin smith services.Over the years,the companycontinued to evolve with a focus on being first tomarket with cutting-edge technologyof the times.They introduced the first electric lighting to their region selling fifty1200 candle-power arcstreet lamps to the cityof Sarnia in 1893. “Fast forward to 1979: the store suffered a devastat- ing fire and didn’t recover until 1983whenmyfather, Allan Primmer,and three other partners,bought the companyandmoved it.Allan eventuallybought out the partners and in 1995,I became a partner and store manager.We grewthe annual sales from$300,000 in 1984 to $1.25million in 1998,largelybecause of add- ing‘safety supplies’to our current offering of hand tools andmaterial handling equipment.Having doubled our inventory,a larger storewas needed,and in 1999 wemoved to a brand new,larger facility just down the road.We broke the $2million threshold in sales in 2002,and by2005we were doing $5million.” BVM: Can you describe the corporate culture at MackenzieMilne? Primmer: “MackenzieMilne is a familybusiness,with a real focus on creating a friendlyatmosphere for cus- tomers and employees,alike.Half the staff are family members.Themajorityof our 10 employees have 15 MACKENZIE MILNE