Name: Canadian Tire

Products: Automotive, tools, housewares, sporting goods

Headquartered in: Toronto, Ontario

Where to Buy: Over 1,700 retail locations across Canada

Website: canadiantire.ca

Canadian Owned: Publicly traded, but the controlling/voting share is owned by AJ Billes’s daughter Martha

Canadian Tire Corporation has been in business for just over a hundred years. The company was launched by the brothers John William and Alfred Jackson Billes in 1922 when they purchased a tire and garage company in Toronto. The pair saw that the automotive market was growing and at the time, Canada had the third-highest per capita ownership in the world.

During its hundred years in business, the company has grown from a single site in Toronto into a network of over 1,700 retail locations across Canada. The company has received several awards, including Best Managed Companies, Canada’s Top 100 Employers, and Best 50 Corporate Citizens.