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'The Brick Group Income Fund' opened its first store in Edmonton, Alberta in 1971, and has grown to become one of Canada's largest volume retailers of furniture, mattresses, appliances and home electronics. The company was founded as 'The Brick Warehouse LP' in Edmonton, Alberta with the first warehouse opening in September 1 1971. Its first expansion was to Fort McMurray, Alberta in the 1970s and later acquired a competitor in the city of Calgary.
Over the past 35 years, the Brick Group Income Fund has strategically executed its expansion across Canada and now operates 194 retail stores (including 20 franchise locations) in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the Yukon Territory. In addition, the Brick Group Income Fund operates distribution centres in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal.
The Brick Group Income Fund was founded by the Comrie brothers, John, Fred, and Bill. Bill and Fred were ice hockey players and Fred was once part of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. Bill's son, Mike Comrie, is a hockey player in the NHL.

Contents

Operations

Brands

Other Divisions

Competition

External links

Operations

The Brick Stores are found in:

★ Alberta

★ British Columbia

★ Manitoba

★ Nova Scotia

★ New Brunswick (Moncton store under construction)

★ Ontario

★ Prince Edward Island

★ Quebec

★ Saskatchewan
All store locations
United Furniture Warehouse - recently acquired with 80 stores across Canada:

★ Alberta

★ British Columbia

★ Manitoba

★ Ontario

★ Quebec

★ Saskatchewan

★ Yukon
All store locations
The Company originally started under the name of "Bill Comrie's Furniture Clearance Centre" and as it grew, moved to occupy the only "Brick Warehouse" in Edmonton (where most buildings are constructed of wood).
Immediately after the company went public, Bill Comrie used a portion of the proceeds that he received from the sale of part of his ownership of the company to pay a bonus to all of its employees using the following formula for employees employed greater than one year as of July 1, 2004: 5% of current earnings times Years of service, to a maximum of 20 years. Even those employees that were employed for less than one year at the time of payout of the bonus received a bonus, generally averaging a couple hundred dollars. Note that in total, Bill Comrie paid out over $40 million of his own money to cover these bonuses.

Brands

The Brick carries a wide variety of consumer brands, including:

★ General Electric

★ Jenn Air

★ Kitchenaid

★ La-Z-Boy

★ LG

★ Maytag

★ Natuzzi

★ Palliser

★ Sony

★ Whirlpool

Other Divisions

The Brick's 168 stores (14 franchised) are operated under 'The Brick Group' banner. Besides the Brick stores, the firm also sells furniture through other affiliates:

★ www.bid.com - linked with Brick's main website


★ 'Home Show Canada' - 3 locations in Toronto, Ontario area in 2001 - re-branded The Brick Superstores in 2006

★ 'Mid-Northern Appliances Industries' - division of the Brick in Toronto, Ontario

★ 'United Furniture Warehouse'

★ 'Sleep Better' (first group of stores opened in the Toronto, Ontario area on August 11, 2005)- re-branded The Brick Mattress Store in 2006

★ Trans Global Warranty Corporation

★ Trans Global Insurance Company (TGI)

★ Trans Global Life Insurance Company (TGLI)

★ The Brick Group Income Fund

★ The Second Foundry Holding Corporation

Competition

Current competitors of the Brick include:

★ Leon's

★ Lastman's Bad Boy Furniture

★ Sears@Home

★ Goemans Appliances[1]

External links

★ The Brick Official Corporate site (Powered by www.bid.com)

★ Investor Information Site

★ United Furniture Warehouse