Sharbot Lake To Be The New Location Of A Mike Dean's Superstore

Jeff Green | Apr 11, 2013

It's official. Loblaws has sold their Sharbot Lake Freshmart store to Mike Dean's Super Food Stores, a company based in Winchester, Ontario. A press release confirming the long anticipated purchase was released late on Monday.

“Mike Dean’s Super Food Stores is pleased to announce the purchase of the existing grocery store property, grocery store operation, and valued staff members located at 1039 Elizabeth Street, Sharbot Lake to now operate as Sharbot Lake Market” the release says.

In an accompanying note, Gordon Dean, the son and partner of company founder Mike Dean, said, “We anticipate a two week outright closure followed by a re-opening of the remodelled fresh department only area within 14 days. A full update, remodel, and reopening of the complete store is expected by May 24th.

It has been less than a secret that something was happening to the Freshmart store in Sharbot Lake. Since January 1st the store had been cutting down on its stock. By mid-February banks of freezers had been emptied out and even the shelves of canned goods were thinning out, amid reports that an offer to buy the store had been made in mid-December and was awaiting final sign off by both parties.

Although it was run as a franchise store by Chuck Belcher of Crow Lake, the Sharbot Lake Freshmart did not have the same corporate structure of other grocery stores in the region, such as the Northbrook, Verona, and Sydenham Foodland stores and the Plevna Freshmart. In those cases the franchisees own the building where the store is located, and operate them under buying agreements with large grocery corporations. Upgrades and rebuilds of those stores have taken place in recent years, undertaken by the franchise owners.

In Sharbot Lake, Loblaws Inc. owned the building, and two successive franchise owners had been unable to convince the company to invest in, upgrade or modernize the facility. The business has suffered as a result.

That will all change with the purchase of the property by Mike Dean’s Supestore. Plans are already underway to expand the store to the rear of the property.

The Deans are not affiliated with any of the national chains. They do all their purchasing directly from producers, and also do some private labelling through the Nancy's Fancy trademark.

There are Mike Dean's Superstores in Winchester, Chesterville, Vankleek Hill, Bourget, and a recently opened store in Almonte. They have a warehouse in Winchester that supplies the entire store network.

The Dean family will be bringing a rural Ontario family- run business sensibility to Sharbot Lake, with a focus on competitive pricing. Opening a store in Sharbot Lake is part of a north and westward expansion of Mike Dean’s Superstores, after opening their Almonte store just last month.

This latest purchase marks a further evolution of the grocery business that goes back several decades in the same location.

The store was at one time affiliated with IGA, and then M&M. John and Erlene Lee, who owned a competing Red and White store in the building that is now occupied by the St. Lawrence College Employment Centre, bought the store in 1980 and moved their food store to the larger building a few months later.

The Lees were affiliated with National Grocers, the parent company of Loblaws, and they ran the store as a Valumart until they sold the building and the business to National Grocers in 1993.

It was run as a Valumart and then a Freshmart under Brett Harvey for 12 years, before Chuck Belcher took over eight years ago.