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Record 1 of 1 in CBCA Fulltext Business 1998 Annual

TI:  Canada is in their Roots: since founding Roots in 1973, Michael Budman and Don Green now head a clothing empire with more than 130 stores and annual sales of $150m. Not bad for two boys from Detroit, who spent their childhood summers together camping in Ontario.
AU:  Olijnyk-Zena
PN:  Financial-Post-National-Post
SO:  Financial Post (National Post), v.1(14) N 11'98 pg C4.
Illustrations
FA:  Fulltext: 966 words
CI:  Roots-Canada-Ltd
CZ:  Roots Canada Ltd
PT:  Most-Recent-Update; Corporate-profile; Journal-article
SF:  Illustrations
PD:  981111
PY:  1998
AN:  4348688
LN:  SHORT
FT:  A telephone conversation with Michael Budman, the co-founder of Roots
Canada, comes with many interruptions. 

Mr Budman is working at a frenetic pace that will only get more hectic as
Roots embarks on its most ambitious expansion. Plans are to double the
Roots business, which now stands at 130 stores and annual sales of
$150-million, in the next few years by stepping into the heady markets of
the U.S. and Western Europe. 

"Darlene, I just love that on you, you look good," Mr. Budman says to
someone who walks into the room wearing the prototype of what will likely
end up in the stores of one of Canada's most successful retailers. The
interruption is only one of several times he excuses himself to deal with
business matters in Roots' Toronto-based headquarters. 

Returning to the question of why Roots courts celebrities ranging from
Prince Charles to Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson Lee - often simply by
giving them free Roots clothing - Mr. Budman replies: "It's not that we're
running around buying people, in a lot of cases they simply like the
clothes we make." 

Call it fashion retailing, Hollywood-style. Mr. Budman and fellow Roots
co-founder Don Green have adopted a schmoozy, high-powered demeanor in
taking Roots from its hippie beginnings to a multi-million dollar casual
clothing empire. It's built on fuzzy feelings of Canada as the great
hinterland and the ringing endorsement of all those celebrities sporting
Roots clothes. 

This week, Roots will launch its first home furnishings store, trying to
expand on the strong affinity loyal Roots customers have for Roots as a
brand and "lifestyle." 

And coming off a failed attempt in the early 1990s to build a Roots hotel
in Colorado, the company recently took a less-risky approach by licensing
its name to a lodge development in British Columbia. 

When it opens in 1999, the lodge will be a showcase for everything from
Roots sheets and towels to Roots leather and wood furniture. 

Later this month, they'll be preoccupied with the opening of their largest
store, in Toronto's Eaton Centre, along with celebrations marking 25 years
in business. 

Then there is the potential to further capitalize on the company's
tremendous success at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. 

Those games saw the Roots logo on Team Canada's uniforms in such prominent
display that it rivaled the country's name. 

It was also where those ubiquitous red-and-white "poor boy" caps caught on
and became so successful many stores had trouble keeping them in stock. 

"We're obviously working our plans for all the Olympics, but if Toronto is
successful in its bid for the games in 2008, you can believe it will be
incredible for Canada and for us," Mr. Budman says. 

"It's all just part of expanding Roots as a brand," he says. "We're not
putting an exact dollar figure on it yet, but we want to double our
business steadily over the next few years." 

But Mr. Budman also insists there are no plans anytime soon to take the
company public. 

"Right now, it's not in the cards," he says. "As long as we can remain
competitive and profitable, its in our best interests to remain private." 

He adds there has only been one year Roots has not made money, when it had
to deal with the losses resulting from the Colorado real estate deal. 

"Over the long run, we want to answer to our employees and our customers
first, we don't want to be managing to the tune of quarterly results." 

Mr. Budman also points out that given the strong link between the company
and its founders, he can't see himself or Mr. Green giving up total
control anytime soon. "We're having too much fun to stop." 

For two boys from Detroit, Mich. - who spent their summers together at camp
in Ontario's Algonquin Park - Roots' success has been a remarkable
accomplishment since they started it in 1973, says Geoff Pevere, who
recently wrote a book on the company. 

"They managed to take an outmoded image of Canada and revive it in a way
that not only appealed to Canadians, but is now very successfully being
marketed around the world," says Mr. Pevere, an observer of Canadian pop
culture. 

He also points out Roots' ability to pick up on an emerging trend and "move
it from the counter-culture to the suburban mainstream." 

The company started business with the "negative heel" shoe, originally
aimed at hippies, and made them more stylish and accessible. 

In the 1980s, an era obsessed with fitness, Roots managed to take
sweatshirts out of the gyms and locker rooms and onto the streets. 

Mr. Pevere also says the idea of using celebrities wasn't in itself
revolutionary, "but they recognized you could get far more advertising
mileage by famous people wearing the clothes casually rather than
appearing in paid ads." 

Mr. Budman says he and Mr. Green were blessed with "knowing a lot of people
before they were even famous." 

Among that group are the late Gilda Radner and Dan Ackroyd. 

Mr. Pevere says the pair helped out in the first Roots store in Toronto
before hitting it big on Saturday Night Live. 

Can Roots expand into new frontiers? 

"They have been on a tremendous roll," says Richard Talbot, a retail
consultant. 

"If anyone can, it will be the Roots boys." 

Copyright 1998, Financial Post from National Post (formerly the Financial
Post Company). All rights reserved.

                                                    
FC:  Copyright 1999. All rights reserved by original publisher and copyright
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YC:  1999
UD:  981200