Janzen’s Paint and Decorating, under the leadership of Doug Janzen, has always been one of those businesses. This year they celebrate thirty years in the community. And while the person most deserving of recognition will not be present, his legacy lives on through the store and the community he has so tangibly invested in.
Doug was many things. A husband, father, motorcycle enthusiast, legendary store owner and a rockstar in the paint world. He grew up working in his father’s store, the Janzens’s Variety Store in Winkler. It was a place with a little bit of everything. Hardware, paint, crafts, games, toys and hobbies bulged from the narrow aisles. Doug loved the store and the work that came with it, while dreaming of owning the place one day. This dream would be crushed at age fifteen when they could no longer compete with the bigger hardware stores moving to town and decided to close their doors. It appeared to be the sad ending of a long line of Janzen family stores that dated all the way back to the 1800s in the Ukraine.
Doug found work with Winkler Building Supply for the rest of high school and proved to be a valuable and versatile employee. Along with his hard-working attitude, he thrived doing just about any role that was given to him. By the time he graduated, he was working in the lumber yard, doing everything from forklift driving to deliveries.
When the lumber yard manager left, Doug was given the chance to run the yard at just twenty years old. It wasn’t a big space, nor was it even a yard in the typical sense, more of a grungy hole in the wall retail space that sold odds and ends of wood and paint. But it was the place where Doug’s leadership skills would be sharpened and the old fire of running his own retail space was re-kindled.
WBS knew that the lumber yard’s days were numbered. While they made good profit on their construction jobs, the lumber yard always just broke even. A year later, during May of 1992, the yard closed down. Following this, Doug was given job offers, with many seeing the potential of Doug’s knowledge, skill, and work ethic. He had learned how to run the lumber yard well and knew the Benjamin Moore Paint line that had been sold. Benjamin Moore sales reps had come to enjoy working with Doug and suggested he open his own paint store. While the idea was exciting, the challenges to make this happen would be enormous. The banks did not want to back a young kid whose only assets were passion and a dream. Eventually he would get a small business loan that would be enough to buy some cans of paint and a few rolls of discount wallpaper.
His big break came when WBS allowed him to use the vacant space where the lumber yard had been. He was given a rent-free year as a kind of transition period to see if he could make something of the place.
Doug opened his own store on June 15 of 1992, Janzen’s Paint and Decorating.
The first year, Doug was a one-man show, determined to make it work. Without a proper loan, he was forced to do it the hard way. He got some help from the weather when a memorable hail storm came through the area, just before opening day. Of course, this was back when people still painted their siding, and Doug was there to supply it.
Needing someone on the books, he reached out to his previous co-worker at WBS, Sandy, asking if she would join him. “He told me he didn’t have a lot of money, but that we have to try to make it work.” That was enough for Sandy, who found that they worked well together and was excited to watch the store grow from its very humble beginnings. “There was no guessing with Doug” said Sandy, “he was very genuine and knew what he wanted. If there was something that needed to be said, he just said it.”
A year later, Doug hired his first employee in the store, his little brother. Darryl had missed the retail atmosphere that he too was raised in, and was looking for a change. “I had just graduated and was working nights at Valley Bakery when I asked Doug if I could work for him. He said the max hours he could give me was 35 hours a week.” By the end of the summer, Darryl was working over 60 hour weeks. They had learned how much more they could do with the store having two people, and the store quickly grew. Doug was now afforded time to go on sales calls and market his product to other companies, a huge turning point for the store. “The sales picked up and eventually Doug had enough money to pay me in money instead of paint” joked Darryl, remembering the sacrifices and difficult early days.
Doug never doubted that the store would succeed and always put in the work to make sure of this. He was never home early, and as long as guys were in their shop, Doug was doing sales calls. “Doug was just a very determined person,” said Daryl, “he would never allow himself to fail.”
On top of this, he was a man of many talents and proved time and again that there was no problem he couldn’t solve or a task that was too big for him. “I couldn’t figure out how Doug was as good as he was at so many different things” said Daryl, “it never made sense to me.”
By 1994, the team of two had doubled, giving everyone the time to do a proper job and offer the customer service they would become known for. Doug had success building relationships with cabinet and metal shops in the area, and would soon become one of the chief suppliers in finishing lacquers and industrial paint. He had also made connections with Hutterite Colonies in the area who were happy to give him their business. These relationships that Doug was good at building would be a key to their success.
While the store had started out with some cans of paint and some old wallpaper, it only took until Christmas of that first year for people to start reminding Doug of his Dad’s old store and the amount of games, puzzles, toys and hobbies that they carried. Doug had bought out some of this stock when the store closed, and decided to put it out for Christmas, just to see what would happen. The demand was immediate, and within a year, an entire hobby section had been born.
It had always been a fast-paced store, where Doug lived in a state of perpetual chaos. But he thrived in it.
After five years, the little store was at its maximum capacity and Doug decided to build on. He was able to double in size, enough room to fit his expanding line of products and many other things that would catch his eye.
“Doug was a spender” said Sandy, remembering the arguments over how much stuff Doug could buy.
“If a customer wanted a gallon of paint that we didn’t have, Doug would buy twenty, just in case the customer came back needing more.” Doug always went big. The risks he was willing to take would be a big reason for their quickened growth. “When stores were closing down, they would call Doug to see if he would buy out their stock” said Sandy. “He would always buy everything, whether it was something we actually sold or not.”
This would add to the chaos in the warehouse and would be the cause for their famous tent sales, a huge yearly event that Doug found ways to make fun and memorable. “We all looked forward to them” said Daryl, who remembers a festive atmosphere and the BBQ that Doug would have going. “He was always feeding people and he liked to give, even if people were just using us for the food, he didn’t care.”
With the success of the store, negotiations had started with Benjamin Moore about opening a second location in Steinbach. Darryl was the one to make the move, and opened up a new store from scratch in May of 1999. There were growing pains in both locations, as Doug had lost his most experienced employee. Despite this, Doug and Darryl were able to make it work and would go on to expand in both locations.
Winkler and Steinbach had become hot spots for growth in Manitoba and the two locations were able to ride the wave of expansion along with them. “Doug had it worked out that Winkler always increased before Steinbach’’ said Darryl, ‘’ it was a little bit of a brotherly rivalry, even though it was all his business.”
Doug was ambitious and always saw opportunities to grow. In 2001 he took over an existing Benjamin Moore store in Brandon. He added a few product lines and put his own personal touch on the store.
During this time different product lines were brought in while others would get phased out. They brought in an artist line of canvases and drawing pencils, along with a selection of blinds and drapery, while crafts and wall-paper had run its course. Central vacuums have also been a constant in the store, as they have partnered with the brands Sebo, Beam, and Cyclovac.
“At our core, we’ve always been a paint store, selling Benjamin Moore paint,” said Darryl. “They are a brand that keeps re-inventing themselves while rolling out new, unique lines that other brands often follow suit.”
2018 marked a final expansion in Winkler and Steinbach as well as the acquisition of an existing Portage location. In 2019, Doug was convinced to finally open a Winnipeg location, Janzen’s Commercial, which stayed as a commercial supplier and distributor.
“We’re not the most organized company, but our combination of building strong relationships on top of good products and service made us successful,” said Darryl. Doug’s motto was always customer service. “Sale’s reps learned that if Doug had customers in the store, they would have to wait for a chance to talk” Sometimes a couple hours. The customers always came first.
When it came to hiring staff, Doug had a big heart and wanted to give everyone an opportunity. He never wrote anyone off. “We’ve had a colorful staff over the years” said Darryl, as Janzen’s has been a consistent participant with community work programs such as Segue.
Doug was also very generous with his staff and the legendary Janzen’s Christmas parties became a thing of lore. “He loved being Santa Claus” said Darryl, as the parties were often weekend getaways with great food, games, and amazing gifts. This is the way Doug showed his heart for people.
As the owner and boss, Doug was never above anyone. If something needed to be done, he would do it. Nothing was beneath him. This meant his hands and shirt were always dirty, often covered in paint, but Doug never minded the mess. Leading by example had a profound effect on his staff, as they would become loyal to him as their leader. At Janzen’s, everyone was family and on the same level. He would fight for his staff and in return they would fight for him and genuinely wanted Doug to succeed.
In the summer of 2021, Doug’s motorcycle accident was felt by the whole community. It also left the store without its heart and soul, the person who previously had all the answers to the many questions that would come up. The challenges continued into this last summer when the Steinbach location was completely destroyed in a fire and the task of rebuilding has just begun. “This last year has been a transition that no one wants to go through” said Darryl “but we want to keep his legacy going.”
Doug loved his community and found many ways to give back every year. Teen Challenge, Eden Mental Health, and The Bunker were three organizations Doug was especially loyal to, and would support them every year.
“He would never say no if someone asked him for help” said Daryl, “whoever it was, he would always give them something. And if my kids were selling chocolates, he’d tell me to bring him a whole case.”
This way he could hand them out to his staff. He was just that kind of guy.
With this year’s thirtieth anniversary of Janzen’s Paint and Decorating, it’s a time to look back and remember the hard work and perseverance that took them this far, and to cheer on a business that is proven to be worth celebrating.