Kenneth Colin Irving, (14 March 1899 – 13 December 1992) was a Canadian billionaire and businessman who founded a family empire spread across energy, logging and media interests, with an immense generations-long impact on the Canadian province of New Brunswick, leading the New Brunswick journalist John Edward Belliveau to assert that “No individual in any single Canadian province has ever held so much raw economic power” as Irving did. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Biography Early life Irving was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick to local businessman James Dergavel Irving (colloquially known by his initials "J.D."), and Mary Elizabeth Irving (), both descendants of Scottish immigrants. In his early years, K. C. Irving was viewed as a tough kid from a rough sawmill town on the Northumberland Strait. He began his entrepreneurial streak early, but this was tempered by the dawn of World War I. Irving attempted to enlist while being underage, but his father disapproved of it and sent him to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. When he tried enlisting in Halifax, his father put an end to it by enrolling him at Acadia University in Wolfville. In 1918, Irving enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps and took pilot training in Britain, though he would return to Bouctouche without returning to university. Irving took a cross-country adventure to British Columbia before returning to Bouctouche.
The 1920s While back in Bouctouche, Irving dabbled in the merchant trade, working as a Ford automobile salesman for a dealer in Richibucto at the age of 22. Within two years, the sales territory of southern Kent County was his. In 1924, he opened a petrol (gasoline) station under the Imperial Oil logo. He was unceremoniously dumped from that franchise within the year, whereupon he contacted Samuel Lloyd Noble in order to purchase a supply from him. By 1925 he opened a second service station in nearby Shediac. He would eventually transform what became known as Irving Oil into a 3,000 franchise distributor across the Maritimes.
At the age of 26, Irving was invited by the representative of Ford to take over the franchise in Saint John, the city he would make his home for the next 46 years. Early on, he switched his business to the Bank of Nova Scotia as the result of a fortuitous visit which acquainted him with the future president of the bank, Horace L. Enman. In 1926, he was awarded a Ford franchise in Halifax, and the concession for Ford tractors in the whole of the Maritimes. In 1929, he formed K. C. Irving Gas and Oil Ltd, in order to distribute the Noble supply. Haymarket Square Service Stations was formed in the late 1920s as a partnership with two others, one of whom he bought out after the first year. By 1930, Irving was selling petrol in Saint John, Bouctouche, Shediac, Moncton, Sussex, Campbellton, St. Stephen, Westville, Weymouth, Amherst and Truro. Also by 1930, his petrol business expanded into Prince Edward Island and Quebec's Magdalen Islands. In 1930, he sold 8,000,000 gallons, when one of his average service stations sold 70,000 gallons; that year, he employed 212 people in Saint John and 482 elsewhere. Irving saw that the petrol business was also an opportunity to purchase land, and in 1931 erected as his headquarters the Golden Ball Building at the corner of Sydney and Union streets.
The 1930s Canada Veneers had been established in 1933 by Robert McMillan, chiefly to produce orange crates for another local company. In 1936, Irving underwrote $100,000 in Canada Veneer preferred shares with Frank Brennan as partners in Irving-Brennan Co. Ltd. Then in the same year, the veneer plant, which had occupied a defunct local horse race-track, burnt down. It revived, but in early January 1938 a shareholder withdrew his guarantee of a $17,000 bank loan, and in exchange for his guarantee of a $10,000 bank loan Irving gained control of the veneer firm. Irving later hired C.A. Kessler to teach his staff, in particular Art McNair, to cut thin and uniform plies, which would become a specialty of the firm.
By 1939, Irving had developed an ulcer, and tipped the scales at 215 pounds; the Lahey Clinic in Boston would in 1941 cure the ulcer.
WW2 Irving obtained the contract from Ottawa or London to build wooden landing barges for D-Day in Bouctouche. He set up the production facilities near the familial grist mill, and built bunkhouses on the family farm for the scores of workers.
1963 Irving refinery strike After joining the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union in 1960, 145 Saint John Irving oil refinery workers pushed for the prevailing wage rate at Canadian oil refineries. The Irving refinery had high productivity but relatively low wages for the sector. Irving's counter-offer was below the wage-rate, leading to a strike in September 1963. The strikers called for a boycott of Irving gas stations, which gained some public support. Irving secured a court injunction against pickets at the gas stations and other secondary pickets. At least a dozen Irving truck driver depots in Quebec struck in sympathy with the refinery workers. On one march through downtown Saint John, refinery workers also burned K. C. Irving in effigy.
The strike became a national issue. The union appealed for donations from across the country, asking Canadians "Are you going to allow that a group of workers be slaughtered by an employer whose trade union notions are those of feudalism?" In addition to court injunctions limiting pickets at the refinery as well as banning secondary pickets at other Irving facilities, Irving also hired replacement workers or scabs. When a settlement was finally achieved in March 1964, Irving conceded wage increases masquerading as "merit pay" while a judge ruled the union pay Irving $2,000 for damaging his reputation.
Offshore holdings Irving fought many battles with the federal government over income tax, business tax and inheritance tax policies. On 23 December 1971, following a particularly tough series of battles, he left Canada and re-settled in Nassau, Bahamas, ostensibly because of the estate tax situation:Belliveau, John Edward. “Litttle Louis and the Giant K.C. 1980 the Federal government planned to abolish estate taxes while the government of Premier Richard Hatfield (along with the other Maritime governments) planned to introduce an estate tax in its place.
Although he remained as majority shareholder, his sons controlled the daily operations of the conglomerate. From 1972 until his death, Irving would visit New Brunswick for "6 months, less a day" each year. In 2018, Forbes magazine estimated that the Irvings' net worth was $US12 billion.
Later life and death Irving died at home in Saint John and was buried alongside his first wife in Bermuda. Later, his body was exhumed, along with his wife's. They were re-buried outside the Scottish-style church on the Irving Manor in Bouctouche. Their graves were only marked as "Grammy and Grampy".unavailable Times Transcript article
Legacy In 1927, Irving married Harriet McNairn (1899–1976), a boyhood sweetheart, and the following year his first son was born. He was the father of, in 1928 James Kenneth, in 1930 Arthur Lee, and in 1932 John Ernest; the family attended St John's and St Stephen's Presbyterian Church. Irving would, after his sons all had graduated, provide for a new building at Rothesay Collegiate School.
Ownership and operation of the Irving group of companies ultimately divided among his three sons and their respective children, James, the oldest brother and his (James') two sons, Jim and Robert, took more control of forest products and several other divisions, Arthur the middle brother assumed more autonomy in Irving Oil, which owns the Saint John, New Brunswick Irving Oil Refinery, Canada's largest refinery, and Jack who looked after much of the construction, engineering and Radio & Television stations.
Corporate Landmarks Acquisitions are listed in italic print.
Name Start End Ref, notes K. C. Irving Oil and Gas Ltd 1929 Haymarket Square Service Stations 1929 Commercial Equipment Irving Equipment Maritime Tire Canada Veneers 1938 Eastern Timbers Ltd. 1940 D'Auteuil Lumber Co. 1941 Dexter Sulphite 1942 Shore Motor Transportin New Brunswick 1935? SMT (Eastern) Ltd Scotia Motor Transportin Nova Scotia 1935? SMT (Eastern) Ltd Island Motor Transportin Prince Edward Island 1935? Steel and Engine Products 2004 Liverpool, NS Ocean Steel Construction Ltd. Strescon Ltd. Thorne's Hardware 1942 Chinic Hardware Lewis Brothers Montreal, hardware Universal Sales Ltd. 1925? Ford dealership, bus bodies New Brunswick Publishing Co. Ltd. Moncton Publishing Co. Ltd. New Brunswick Broadcasting Co. Ltd. University Press of New Brunswick Ltd. Harbor Development Ltd. Saint John Drydock Co. Ltd. Irving Chandler Sales Kent Line shipping (oil tankers) Atlantic Towing Ltd. tugboats Canaport Road and Sea Transport trucking (oil) Port Royal Pulp and Paper Co. 1946 Saint John Sulphite Co. Ltd. Midland Trucking
Criticism J.D. Irving Limited
It was the growth of Irving Oil which largely financed K. C. Irving's other endeavours. Several years after starting Irving Oil, Irving took over his father's sawmill company in Bouctouche, J.D. Irving Limited, which was subsequently expanded many times. JDI was in the 1970s the largest single landowner in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine. JDI has also been identified as being one of the four largest private land-owners in the United States. These forest lands feed several pulp and paper plants and sawmills which in turn feed the company's paper, tissue, and diaper factories throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maine, New York, Georgia, Quebec and Ontario.
Diversification and vertical integration As the Irving industrial empire expanded during World War II and the post-war era, K. C. purchased shipyards and started various food processing, media, hardware, building supplies, transportation, engineering and construction companies - all of which are vertically integrated, meaning that each Irving company purchases the services of other Irving companies, keeping profits wholly within the conglomerate.
Irving companies are completely privately owned, and therefore all major business decisions are made by the family-members/owners. This has traditionally been a weakness among many family-owned empires. However, the Irvings have proven their ability to react to market situations much more quickly than their publicly traded competitors , a primary reason for their maintaining market share in so many industries throughout eastern North America. An example can be seen in the fact that Irving Oil undertook significant upgrades and expansions to its refinery in the late mid to late 1990s to produce low-sulphur gasoline, fully a decade ahead of the rest of the North American oil industry. As a result, Irving has been able to capitalize on the growing need for low-emission fuel in California and other U.S. markets (delivered by its own ships).