Founders of an iconic Canadian brand : CCM
On a recent walk through Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, I visited the graves of three founders of the iconic Canadian company Canadian Cycle & Motor, better known as CCM. For much of the 20th century, CCM bicycles were a fixture in garages and on streets and sidewalks across Canada.
The story begins with Walter Massey, son of Hart Massey, co-founder of Massey-Harris, one of the British Empire’s leading manufacturers of farm equipment. Walter recognized the “bicycle craze” of the 1890s, when cycling became one of the most popular forms of transportation and recreation in North America, and he wanted a piece of the action. Walter began manufacturing bicycles but soon faced a great deal of competition.
As competition increased, Walter looked for financial partners to strengthen the business. He found several wealthy businessmen willing to invest, including George Cox and Joseph Flavelle.
Together, the three men decided to buy up the four largest Canadian bicycle companies and merge them with Massey-Harris’s bicycle operation. The new company, launched in 1899, was called Canada Cycle & Motor Company—CCM.
Despite their business success in other sectors, the founders didn’t truly understand the bicycle industry. Facing public relations problems and struggling for credibility, the company’s leadership realized they needed someone who actually knew the business.
That person was Thomas Russell.
Russell was a farm boy from Exeter, Ontario, who understood machinery, knew how to repair it, and rode bicycles himself—qualities that helped build trust with both workers and customers. He consolidated the company’s scattered bicycle plants and even expanded production into automobiles.
Russell would manage CCM for more than forty years. By the mid-1920s, under his leadership, CCM produced about 85% of all bicycles made in Canada—an extraordinary Canadian business success story.
Although best known for bicycles in its early decades, CCM would eventually become closely associated with another Canadian passion—hockey.
Some of CCM’s memorable bikes over the years.
See my related site and the man who expanded CCM from bikes to automobiles to skates.
