Twenty-five
years ago Brian Holowaychuk, a carpenter busy framing houses,
launched a little side business manufacturing speaker boxes for
all the would-be “Sergeant Peppers” around Edmonton.
“As a drummer, I was interested in music. As a
carpenter, I was building my own PA boxes,” recalls Holowaychuk.
Manufacturing speaker cabinets was just the beginning. Today,
Brian is the president of Axe Music, one of the largest
audio/visual retail chains in Canada and a nominee of the
Edmonton Chamber of Commerce Small Business Owner of the Year
Award.
In a dusty garage with a dirt floor just outside
Edmonton, Brian and brother Darrell officially initiated Axe
Music in 1980, converting the garage into a retail store. With a
meager inventory of “six guitars on the wall and a wood-burning
stove for heat, each and every sale was very important,”
remembers Brian.
Soon the City of Edmonton called insisting Axe
relocate to a proper retail outlet. Subsequently, with inventory
in hand, Axe Music moved to its current location one block east
of what was then the Edmonton Coliseum, now Rexall Place.
Ten years later Axe opened a second store, which now
parallels the success of its predecessor, in Calgary. Visiting
either outlet, it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer size
of these almost 14,000 square foot retail giants.
In addition to a successful retail trade, Axe’s
Commercial Installation Division is actively involved in
equipping prominent schools, churches, hospitals, airports,
racetracks, nightclubs, and hockey arenas in Western Canada.
Their clients include the Edmonton Oilers-having recently
engineered and installed audio, score clock and ribbon LED
systems in Rexall Place.
“The commercial operation is a multi-million dollar
part of our business,” says Darrell proudly, “and it is growing
daily!”
Axe also saw the advantages of investing in cutting
edge point-of-sales systems, second only to Wal Mart in Canada.
“We price aggressively and guarantee those prices,” says Brian.
“Our POS systems are instrumental in running the organization
without excess staff. That keeps our prices down.”
Every year Axe counts the City of Edmonton, the
Edmonton Police Service, and the City of Calgary, among their
civic partners in helping foster creative arts in Alberta.
Axetremefest, Molson’s Rock Search, the St. Alphonsus Discover
Music program, Calgary’s Youth Week and the Children’s Wish
Foundation are just a few of the annual initiatives Axe supports
in thanking their communities for their loyalty in over
twenty-five years.
Looking ahead, the Holowaychuk brothers’ are
determined to make Axe Music the leading music retailer in
Canada. “There was a time early on,” Brian recalls, “when we ran
into a cash flow crunch, had to borrow money from the bank and
get our dad to co-sign the loan. I didn’t sleep well for three
months, but I learned the importance of running a tight
financial ship.”
Brian says the early lessons taught them to conduct
themselves professionally in all aspects of business. “It goes a
long way in developing good relationships with our suppliers and
customers,” he says, “relationships crucial to our longevity.”
In its first quarter-century, Axe Music has emerged
from a dirt floor on the edge of town, to a mega-million dollar
national success story. Even Sergeant Pepper would have been
proud.
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