The following year they moved the garage to downtown Toronto where they began the conversion to a garage/retail business.
In 1934, Canadian Tire opened its first official associate store in Hamilton, Ontario and over the next twenty years the Billes brothers expanded into a full line of automotive products and then added home and garden supplies.
He died unexpectedly in November 1956 as a result of complications from pernicious anaemia.
He bequeathed his shares in Canadian Tire to twenty-three different charitable organizations.
Following its formation in 1979, William Billes was inducted posthumously into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.