GROWTH CONTINUES YEAR AFTER YEAR: A DISCIPLINED ORGANIC PROCESS

In 1954, a young man named David Shiller left his job at a local houseware store in Montreal to pursue a entrepreneurial dream. He began by selling housegoods door to door. Today, the company he founded, Blinds To Go, is a vertically integrated business with 120 retail stores and two manufacturing facilities in Lakewood, N.J., and Montreal -- and plans to keep growing at a rate of some 15% to 20% annually.


"That's a combination of growth in some of the markets we're in such as Toronto, where we're very successful, but also opening up another half a dozen showrooms in the GTA, as well as in the New York market, and to continue to expand into some of our newer markets such as Florida, where we have a toehold and the opportunity to keep growing," says Nkere Udofia, vice-chairman of the company, which has become the leading retailer and manufacturer of window blinds and shades in North America.


"We have a tremendous amount of diversity in our company -- but in metropolitan areas like New York and Toronto, we also have diverse customers. And we are constantly getting offers from people telling us that Blinds To Go would do well in any number of different countries as well as business proposals from people who want to franchise it."


But the company, which has a strong and confident vision and mission and focuses on growing by sticking to its knitting and its culture and values, turns the offers down.


"All our showrooms are company owned and we work hard to maintain our culture, which we couldn't do without complete control, so we're not rushing to go anywhere until we have the human capital to do it right," Mr. Udofia says.


"When we go into a new market, we literally move existing managers -- whom we've trained and who share our vision and have the skill sets to lead and motivate -- into that market to open it up. We'd love to be elsewhere in the world as well but for the next four or five years, we have plenty of opportunity to grow here. And North America is a big continent."


National Post
February 7, 2011