Jim Pattison Group

• 1. One Man, One Empire

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  Jim Pattison borrowed $40,000 from the Royal Bank of Canada on the 8th of May, 1961, pledging his home and his life insurance policy as collateral. With that loan, he purchased a General Motors automobile dealership in Vancouver. Six decades later, the Jim Pattison Group stands as Canada's second-largest privately held company, with annual sales exceeding $10 billion and more than 45,000 employees spread across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Europe, Asia, and Australia. How a single car lot became a conglomerate spanning food, media, entertainment, packaging, forestry, and financial services is a story about relentless accumulation and a very particular kind of ambition.

• 2. The First Acquisitions

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  Within four years of buying that GM dealership, Pattison moved into broadcasting. In 1965, the group received a licence to operate Vancouver AM radio station CJOR. Outdoor advertising came next, with the acquisition of Neon Products and Seaboard Outdoor Advertising in 1967. Groceries followed in 1968 with Overwaitea Foods in Vancouver, and magazine distribution arrived with Provincial News in Edmonton in 1969. The real estate arm was created in 1980. By 1984, the group had added British Columbia Magazine and the Canadian Fishing Company; in 1985, it acquired Ripley's Believe It or Not!, planting the seed of what would become a substantial entertainment division.

• 3. Packaging and Logistics Push

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  In 1990, the group made a major move into industrial packaging by acquiring Foodservice Packaging Group, Flexible Packaging Group, Coroplast, and Montebello Packaging in a single year. The financial services division launched in 1991. Westshore Terminals, a coal-export facility that would grow into the largest dry bulk terminal on the West Coast of the Americas, was added in 1994. Buy-Low Foods arrived in 1995. By 2005, with 28,000 employees and $6.1 billion in sales, the group had turned packaging and food distribution into two of its most durable revenue pillars. Icicle Seafoods, Spartech Corporation's corrugated plastic sheet business, and a Vancouver edition of 24 Hours all joined in 2005, the last in partnership with Quebecor Media.

• 4. Media and Entertainment Reach

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  Pattison Outdoor Advertising grew to command a 41% market share of all traditional out-of-home advertising displays in Canada, making it the largest domestic operator in that category. In 2006, the group expanded its radio portfolio by acquiring six FM stations from Island Radio Ltd. on Vancouver Island and two FM stations from OK Radio Group in Victoria, BC. Two years later, in 2008, it purchased Guinness World Records from HIT Entertainment, pairing that brand with its existing Ripley Entertainment holdings. By the early 2020s, Pattison Media's radio footprint stretched from Brandon, Manitoba, to Grande Prairie, Alberta, and across British Columbia and Saskatchewan, with television stations in Kamloops and Prince George operating as Citytv affiliates. The News Group, held within the periodical division, became North America's largest newspaper and magazine distributor; in November 2018 the group agreed to sell its United States magazine distribution to American News Company, LLC, though the Canadian periodicals division stayed in-house.

• 5. Food Group Expansion

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  Grocery became one of the group's most visible businesses over time. The Overwaitea Food Group umbrella eventually included Save-On-Foods, PriceSmart Foods, Urban Fare, Bulkley Valley Wholesale, and Everything Wine, among others. Choices Markets was added in 2017, acquired from the Lockhart family to run as a division of Buy-Low Foods LP. Quality Foods, with 13 locations across Vancouver Island, came under controlling interest on the 23rd of March, 2017. The group sold Sun-Rype to Lassonde Industries in 2019 for C$80 million in an all-cash deal; at the time of that sale, Sun-Rype had C$164 million in gross sales for the fiscal year ended the 30th of September, 2019, and C$9 million in EBITDA. In 2024, the group acquired Save Mart Companies, a Northern California-based grocer whose banners include Save Mart, Lucky, FoodMaxx, and Yosemite Wholesale.

• 6. The Owner at the Center

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  As of early 2022, Jim Pattison was 93 years old and still working full-time as chairman, CEO, and sole owner of the group. Forbes placed his net worth at $5.7 billion at that point, a substantial increase from the $2.1 billion the magazine reported in March 2009. In September 2020, the group was reported to have $10.9 billion in revenue and 48,000 employees. In October 2013, Pattison became an insider of Just Energy Group, a publicly traded corporation on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange, by taking possession of more than 14 million shares, representing over 10% of the company's shares outstanding. The group's headquarters, based in Vancouver, moved into the Shaw Tower; that building was later renamed the Rogers Tower in May 2023 after Shaw Communications merged into Rogers Communications. In January 2026, the US Department of Homeland Security announced it would purchase a warehouse in Hanover County, Virginia owned by the group for use as a potential holding and processing facility. Following public outcry, the Jim Pattison Group stated on the 30th of January, 2026, that it would not proceed with the sale.