When his parents, Jim and Sandi, began their London, Ontario-based distributor, McCabe Promotional Advertising Inc. (asi/264901) in 1981, Jamie McCabe was only six years old. “I started by sharpening pencils and emptying wastepaper baskets,” he says. “I’d work for the company in some capacity most summers and became full-time in 1999 after university.”

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ASI's Andy Cohen interviews Jamie McCabe of McCabe Promotional Advertising, Inc., the 2019 Distributor Family Business of the Year.

Now 44, Jamie is the CEO and leading the Facilis-affiliated company to sales of nearly $20 million a year. “When I took over, everyone was so old through the eyes of someone who was 24,” he recalls, laughing. “Everyone had massive desks and there was so much paper. We had one computer for the whole company as well as a fax machine, a dot matrix printer and a soda machine. Now, we’re almost paperless, we have stand-up desks and have changed our articles of incorporation to be stakeholder-focused versus shareholder-focused.”

With 20 employees when the company started, Jamie McCabe now oversees a team of 50 in the company’s four Canadian offices – London, Toronto, Ottawa and Clinton – and is acutely aware of what it takes to be in a family business, as so many are in the promo marketplace.

“You have to consider that there’s an added dimension of communication and relationship management,” he says, pointing out that there have been many more harmonious than difficult times. “There were disagreements and sometimes stalemates, but it never changed holiday plans and family milestones. At the time, I thought we were unique because we were dysfunctional, but once I started growing up I realized every family is to some degree; we just got to bring our baggage from work to home and vice versa. We definitely have a stronger and closer relationship because we had the opportunity to work together.”

Jamie McCabe (left) and his business partner, Colin Rous.

Chuck Fandos, the CEO of Facilisgroup and Counselor’s 2016 Person of the Year, met Jamie McCabe when the company became a Facilis partner in 2011. “Back then, McCabe Promotional Advertising was well known in Canada and Jamie was beginning to take over the company,” Fandos says. “He was great at four things: vision, hard work, relationships and closing bars. In the past eight years I’ve watched Jamie grow, McCabe Promotional Advertising grow and Facilisgroup’s stature grow in Canada in large part because of Jamie’s success. Today McCabe Promotional Advertising is the largest Facilis partner in Canada and Jamie is the face of the company, representing rapid expansion, fearlessness and fun. He’s done it with a great team lead by Colin Rous, and it’s been an amazing transformation to watch – I’m very proud of what Jamie and McCabe Promo have accomplished. And although Jamie doesn’t close the bar every night anymore, he hasn’t lost his fastball. The scion has become a visionary leader with unlimited potential in front of him.”

The McCabe Promo team celebrates at last year’s Pride Parade in London, Ontario, where the company is based.

Sandi McCabe admits that she and her husband never really expected their son to have a career at McCabe. “A summer job, yes. But it felt good to have him around all the time, so we kept offering him new experiences within the company with the hope that he’d stay for a while, gaining knowledge. He moved from shipping and receiving to order entry to sales support to sales. Jamie is great with people, so it was a natural fit. Eventually, we left the business and he stayed.”

The upside of working in a family business, Sandi says, was sharing common goals with her husband and son and working with them through every type of situation imaginable. She also acknowledges that as times change, the way she and her husband operated the company wouldn’t work as well today. “That’s why it’s been gratifying to witness how Jamie and his team have changed things up in so many ways and run our business better than we ever did.”

Looking forward to the company’s future in the next 10-20 years, Jamie McCabe says his goals are consistent: “We’re about putting 12 months together better than the previous 12. The world is changing so quickly and we’re trying to adapt and stay relevant. I had a front-row seat to watch my parents build an incredible company founded on grit, high morals and service within the community. It was a unique opportunity and one I cherish. I got to see it all – the highs and lows and what you do from there. What mattered most of all was the journey.”