A Succession Story in Toronto

This month's Re-Tales takes us to Toronto again—though it's quite a different story than the one we told last month, in a different part of Toronto.

- BY JULIE MULLINS

As we've reported previously, several successful, longstanding brick-and-mortar hi-fi dealerships in major cities have shuttered in recent years. Others, including some with aging owners, don't have succession plans in place. New blood is essential, for these dealerships as for the industry as a whole. But how many young people are interested in running a hi-fi store?¹ One such young person is 22-year-old Blair Babineau, who, alongside his father, recently took over Executive Stereo on Avenue Road in Toronto's North York area.²

Ed Stone, the store's previous owner, spent 25 years as a recording engineer. He told me that Executive Stereo opened in 1969 under a different owner, who had a few locations. He said his wife "basically talked me into buying it," so he did despite having no retail experience. Twenty-eight years later, he put the business up for sale.

Meanwhile, Blair Babineau and his father Mike were looking to buy a business together—something Mike could do to stay busy during semiretirement that could also provide a career path for Blair, setting him up for the future. Mike is an audiophile of course—he likes McIntosh—but he's not as immersed as his son. Blair told me in a recent Zoom call that they came across an ad online for a high-end audio store for sale: Ed Stone's Executive Stereo. Blair had never visited the store, but he knew it from online.