Cactus Club bought out by owner of Earls chain years after battle in B.C. court

The Cactus Club on Davie Street is pictured in Vancouver on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021.

The owner of a chain restaurant that began in North Vancouver, B.C., three decades ago has sold his shares in the business, transferring ownership to a family he once fought in court.

The Fuller family announced the sale in a news release Wednesday, saying that founder Richard Jaffray is stepping down as president.

The Fullers, who've been silent partners since Cactus Club was founded in 1988, now own 100 per cent of the business, they said.

The first Cactus Club opened in North Vancouver, the Fullers' statement said. Since that time, it's spread across Canada, and there are now 32 locations and about 5,000 staff.

Jaffray said in the statement that he's "incredibly proud of the team" behind his chain of restaurants, and that he believes the Fullers will "carry the Cactus Club brand on to continued success in the future."

For their part, the Fullers promised to preserve Jaffray's work.

Stan Fuller was quoted on behalf of the family as saying he has "enormous respect for what (Jaffray) has built," and that Cactus Club will stay independent despite his family's takeover.

The Fuller family also owns the Canadian restaurant chain Earls Kitchen and Bar, which was founded by Stan and his father six years before Cactus Club opened. The family has lived in West Vancouver since the 1970s, according to a post on the Earls website.

The Fuller family also owns the chain of restaurants called Joey. That chain began in the early 1990s under the leadership of Stan's brother, Jeff.

Jeff, Stan and their brothers, Clayton and Stewart, are all directors of Earls and Joey.

While the Fullers and Jaffray were friendly and supportive of each other in Wednesday's news release announcing the sale, that hasn't always been the case with the families.

In 2019 the Fullers and Jaffray faced off in a B.C. courtroom, with the then-owner of Cactus Club describing Joey as a "direct and active" competitor.

The case heard in Vancouver three years ago was for an order that would prohibit audited financial statements from Cactus Club to Jeff Fuller because of his role at Joey, and would impose restrictions on the use of information obtained by other members of the Fuller family, among other things.

Jaffray's legal team suggested there had been breaches of a confidentiality clause already in place, and that disclosing financial statements gave Joey a competitive advantage over Cactus Club.

The family, according to court documents from the judge's ruling on June 6, 2019, "strongly" opposed the order, and denied any information in those shared documents would assist Joey or Earls as competitors.

The full ruling can be read online, but ultimately, the judge dismissed the application, saying it was not demonstrated in court that the cost or harm of sharing those documents outweighed the benefit to shareholders.