The new owner of Canadian Tire in Minden started working with the company as a 17-year-old part-timer in high school. He never left.
Forty-one years later, Scott English is looking forward to taking over a small-town store once again with a focus on connecting with employees and community.
The changeover will take place Feb. 26 with current owner, Terry Gregorini, retiring.
English will be transitioning from Canadian Tire in Ancaster, a 47,000 sq. ft. behemoth in a Hamilton area that features multiple franchises. However, his first dealership was in Deep River, with a population smaller than Minden Hills, and he has owned in Caledonia.
He told The Highlander, “you lose connection with the community in a bigger store. You lose connection with your staff. I’ve always enjoyed the smaller stores.”
After Deep River, English went to Kitchener, then Caledonia, then Ancaster.
He and wife, Carrie English, grew up in Mississauga and the couple has a daughter living in Toronto and a son who billets to play hockey with the Cobourg Cougars. “We’re empty nesters for the most part,” English said in a telephone interview from Ancaster this week. The couple are looking for a home, preferably on a lake or river in Haliburton County.
Not yet ready to retire, English added, “Carrie and I looked at this as an opportunity to get back to a single-store market where everything we do can be a positive and Canadian Tire can mean something to the community.”
He said in multi-store markets, even if you sponsor sporting teams or community events, “you’re just another retailer… no one really cares” other than those being sponsored.
He noted Gregorini and his franchise have always been community-minded and he would like to keep that tradition alive.
Changes
English said customers will notice changes fairly soon after they take over the store. His Ancaster operations manager, Amanda Walker, will be on the ground while he continues to oversee both Minden and Ancaster until the new franchisee is set up there.
“We’re going to make some really neat changes as soon as we get in.” For example, they will add electronic sales labels.
Next January they plan to “climatize” the external portion adjacent to the main building with heat for winter and air conditioning in summer.
They’ll also be remerchandising. “We are going to merchandise to the market. That store, as small as it is, does extremely well in certain product classes, such as marine and fishing. We’ll merchandise accordingly.”
He is also planning new décor and colour schemes and new signage.
“It will turn the store into a much better shopping experience, and we’ll be able to elevate our product selection, which is a challenge in the small stores,” English said.
“Myself and Amanda are going to have to learn a lot as well because staff have been there a long time and they’ve operated within those four walls for a long time, and it’s entirely different how you operate there than how you operate in a 47,000 sq. ft. store. There are far more challenges, but you can always make change for the better and that’s what we plan on doing.”
Gregorini says goodbye
Gregorini has been a Canadian Tire dealer for 18 years. When he started, he spent three weeks with English training at his Kitchener store, so the two know each other. He feels he is leaving the store in good hands. “He’s a good operator. He’ll be good for here.”
He said there are aspects of the job he will miss, and others he won’t, but “it was time to call it a career after nearly 40 years working.”
He is proud of what he accomplished in his time at the helm. “We grew the business quite a bit. I really feel I have some of the best staff in the County. I’m glad the team here was so good and I’m handing it over in good shape. I’m really thankful to the community for supporting us for all this time.”
They, too, have supported the community, such as with Jumpstart, in which “hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone back into the community,” via food banks and other causes.
Gregorini and his wife welcomed a new grandchild Jan. 1 and plan to travel. “More golf in the summer and get back into the winter sports I used to play.”
