Passion is key to success for The Scottish and Irish Store’s Michael Cox

With a passion for Scottish and Irish history, and an ability to transform failing businesses into successes, Michael Cox quit a lucrative career fixing businesses around the world to create his own: The Scottish and Irish Store.

Born in Montreal to Scottish immigrants, Cox's father was a voracious reader and successful businessman, buying planes for what was then Trans-Canada Airlines — now Air Canada — who would take his family to Scotland every year, mesmerizing young Cox with stories of the clans and the history of the region.

In Gaelic culture, every surname tells a story. Cox, he explains, is an Anglicization of the original Gaelic adjective for a cocky kid.

“Your name Armstrong,” he adds, “comes from a Scottish clan of reivers, border raiders, much feared for their ferocity.”

Not surprisingly, Scottish and Gaelic history soon became a passion for Cox. After graduating from Loyola College, he took jobs as a supply teacher and later, started working for the Bank of Montreal in Toronto, eventually becoming one of it's most skilled corporate bankers and business advisors.

Looking for new challenges, in 1997, he moved his family to Ottawa to work remotely as a business analyst for a Chicago-based consulting firm, fixing ailing firms. He was travelling the world, making huge money and living the American Dream.

That is until it wasn't the life Cox wanted.

“I was tired of making money for someone else. I wanted to do something for myself,” he recalls. “I knew that 61 per cent of the population of the capital region identified as Scottish Irish or Welsh. I knew that a store serving a large Gaelic market would work if we did it right.”

He test-marketed his idea by selling Scottish mousepads at the Stittsville Flea Market. Surprisingly, he sold out.

It was Cox's epiphany, and whetted his appetite to open a store specializing in products from the U.K.

First opened on Robertson Road in 2001, The Scottish and Irish Store was originally intended as a place to go for heritage items and ceremonial clothes; kilts, Harris Tweed jackets, heraldry, jewellery and art.

“I love talking to people. The thing about Gaelic culture is all about stories, the history of the clans and county legends, the tartans and the heraldry. Every product here has a history and a story.”

The store's evolved over the years. In 2004, he opened his second location on St. Laurent Boulevard, and has recently doubled in size, while the Robertson Road shop now occupies three storefronts. Half the floor space is for food, crisps, jams, scones, pasties, steak and kidney pies, tea, biscuits — the list goes on. And Cox has two Scottish ladies to thank.

Shortly after opening, the two ladies came into the store, asking Cox if he sold Scottish sausages.

“We're not a grocery store,” Cox sniffed with some disdain.

Twenty years later, he's happily eating his words as the store has evolved to become one of the largest retailers of grocery items and foodstuffs from the British Isles in eastern Ontario. Sales of food items from the U.K. now account for more than 72 per cent of the store's revenues.

“It's worked out very well for us,” Cox understates. “During COVID, we expanded our mail-order business and now ship all across Canada and the U.S. Thirty per cent of our business for food now comes from the Greater Toronto Area. COVID was a terrible time, but it was also a transformative experience for us because I was determined to keep it going.”

“When I was an analyst, I spoke to 168 business owners in trouble,” he adds. “The thing I needed to know was if they have a passion for the business. Of the 168 businesses I consulted, four of five were in it for the money. Everyone else was in it for the passion. They had a vision. If you're in it for the money, it's very temporary. You're more likely to ditch it because you have no commitment. But if you have the passion for the business, you have a belief in the good of the business. That's the key. When I got into this business, I had a passion. I grew up with this history. It was more than a commercial transaction. When you come into this store, it's more personal. A customer is here for a reason. So have a passion and never quit.”

“There's never a bad time to start a business. There are always opportunities. Every adversity creates an opportunity.”