K. C. Irving

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K. C. Irving bigraphy, stories - Canadian entrepreneur, industrialist

K. C. Irving : biography

March 14, 1899 – December 13, 1992

Kenneth Colin Irving, OC (March 14, 1899 – December 13, 1992) also known as K. C. Irving was one of Canada’s foremost entrepreneurs of the 20th century and ranked as one of the world’s leading industrialists. K. C. Irving’s business began with a family sawmill in Bouctouche, N.B., in 1881. Ownership and operation of the Irving group of companies ultimately divided among his three sons and their respective children, James, the oldest brother’s two sons, Jim Irving and Robert Irving, took more control of forest products, Arthur the middle brother assumed more autonomy in Irving Oil, which owns Saint John, New Bruswick Irving Oil Refinery, Canada’s largest refinery, and Jack. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Notes

Biography

Early life

Born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, as a youngster Irving was viewed as a tough kid from a rough sawmill town on the Northumberland Strait. There are many accounts of his rough and tumble attitude in schoolyard fights. He began his entrepreneurial streak early, but this was tempered by the dawn of World War I. Irving, along with several friends attempted to enlist but his father put an end to it by enrolling him at Acadia University. Irving left Acadia before graduation and took a cross-country adventure to British Columbia before returning to Bouctouche. His father did not oppose his second attempt to enlist and Irving entered the Royal Flying Corps as a fighter pilot, although he never saw action as the war ended shortly thereafter. Following the war, he returned home to Bouctouche.

J.D. Irving Limited

(See Hunt/Campbell; K.C. Irving: The Art of the Industrialist, 1973)

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. Today JDI is 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, Quebec and Ontario.

Diversification and vertical integration

As the Irving industrial empire expanded during World War II and the post-war era, K.C. Irving 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.

Privately owned

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 northeastern North America. An example can be seen in the fact that Irving Oil undertook significant upgrades and expansions to its refinery in the mid-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).

The conglomerate operates with considerable latitude which the Irving family’s wealth permits—operating somewhat as a maverick to the consternation of many of Central and Western Canada’s business leaders. Irving Oil, J.D. Irving and all subsidiary companies are actively supporting Canada’s ratification and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, since the family has invested considerable funds into environmental controls and alternative energy for its operations and wishes to capitalize on these investments at the expense of its slow-to-respond publicly traded competitors. J.D. Irving’s food processing plants in Prince Edward Island are looking to build one of the largest wind farms in Canada in that province to completely power their operations, and many Irving-owned sawmills and factories in the rest of northeastern North America are rapidly adopting co-generation and solar/wind power to complement current energy usage. The Irving family is also hoping to take advantage of deregulation of utility markets in the region by building natural gas-fired electrical generating stations and is currently building a liquified natural gas terminal near its Saint John refinery.