Ian Walker could have inherited the family business, but the hands-on entrepreneur wanted to earn things the hard way.
“Anything that you get in this life you have to earn,” said Walker. “I felt like if I was ever going to enter the family business then I would come into it with my own expertise.”
And he definitely has his own expertise.
Walker founded Burnaby-based Left Coast Naturals in 1995, although then it was called Skeet and Ike’s.
Since its inception, the organic and natural-foods manufacturer has developed two food brands sold across Canada, and transformed the company into an enterprise that recorded $10 million in sales last year and employed 20 people.
Although Walker knew from a young age that he wanted to start a business of his own, after university he wasn’t sure what or where that business would be.
“I went and travelled … to Asia and Australia, and stopped over in Vancouver on my way to visit my sister and said, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll try and find work here,’” he said.
Walker didn’t know a lot about eco-friendly industries when he started out, but the universal business skills he learned from his father enabled him to overcome any disadvantage in that area.
“From a young age, my father was good at talking about the business and involving us, and that gave me some good exposure to entrepreneurship.”
Walker is now a board member of his family’s company, Walker Industries Holdings Ltd., a Niagara Falls-based landfill and road-management company.
At 38, Walker isn’t very old, but he said over the years he’s learned some important lessons about business that no one should ever forget.
“Treat people the way you want to be treated do what you say you’re going to do, and if you follow those things, at the end of the day, you’re going to be successful.” •
