Farm and ranch retailer Peavey Mart has opened its latest location in Steinbach, Manitoba where the brand will launch its first Dog Wash to test that model.
Jest Sidloski, Vice President of Marketing, Customer Experience & eCommerce at Peavey Mart, said the brand is also in the thick of launching the second phase of its retail media network.
“We’re the first retailer in Canada to have a comprehensive platform including digital radio, digital ads, social ads, etc. We’re live with digital radio, and about to launch the next phase of this program. Retail media networks are one of the hottest retail trends in North America,” he said.
The company has 95 locations across Canada.
“We’re also going to be resetting many locations this year to provide a better customer experience to our customers,” he said.
Last year, its first store east of Ontario in Bedford, Nova Scotia experienced significant flooding which took the store off line for several months.
“And we had to almost rebuild it. We were at the epicentre of that flood. Our location was six feet under. So a new location and then all of a sudden we’re off line,” said Sidloski. “We did a brand relaunch last winter in the Bedford location. Other than that we didn’t have any new stores last year.
Steinbach Manitoba opened in early April.
“Our focus this year isn’t going to be on new location openings. It’s going to be a year of refreshes. We’ve got five major refreshes planned for some major markets and then we’ve got 12 minor refreshes planned for other markets.”
Sidloski said a refresh for the brand involves a crew going into a location, resetting and relaying out the store completely.
“A new look and feel. A new experience. It often comes with updated services, updated look and feel. Retraining, etc. So it’s as if we’re reopening a new store in the same building in the same market.
“It’s our focus this year. It’s no secret I think that it’s been a tough couple of years for retail. And certainly 2023 was exceptionally tough in many ways just with consumer spending, inflation, mortgage rate renewals and the weather events, in Western Canada specifically, which prevented a lot of consumer spending.
“We took that as an opportunity to relook at the markets that we are in. Look at the feedback from our customers and then figure out what we need to do a little bit differently. Some of these markets haven’t been touched in a very long time. And it’s a great opportunity for us to get in there, retell the story of who Peavey Mart is and then look to attract existing customers as well as look to open the doors to new customers in those markets.
“And these markets are growing. Saskatoon is one example. It’s our largest sales volume location. The city continues to grow and with that growth we have a lot of new people moving into these markets that traditionally know a Peavey Mart that don’t know a Peavey Mart. So these refreshes come with more marketing and a fresh new take on what story we’re trying to tell and it’s our way to get competitive market share this year.”
Sidloski said the brand’s commitment doesn’t change from its origins in the farm and ranch community.
“Certainly that’s something we want to recommit to. We continue to hear from farm customers about their experience with the farm and ranch channels and we take these to heart and we want to make sure that we are refocusing on that strategy, making sure we’ve got improved inventory positions especially in the higher location items like farm feed, bird seed, animal foods,” he said. “Making sure that customers know we are still that retail store for them.
“The other side of the coin is market growth. We have the opportunity to enhance our position on homesteading and we successfully did this 10 or more years ago. We want to reposition homesteading to be one of our cornerstone categories at Peavey Mart. That of course is gardening, your growing, your yard care, your candle making, your soap making, your DIY. Really capturing that lifestyle which also, based on the data we have, is attracting a younger audience. For us, that’s really important. We want to make sure that those younger people also know that Peavey Mart is a store for them and some of what they’re looking to get into and we want to be a destination, we want to be known for that. So these refreshes in these markets will allow us to do that better, tell more of that story as well along with an increased inventory position on those key areas.”
Sidloski said the company has teams of people that are looking at different markets all the time. There’s nothing officially stated by the company for this year for areas that it is closer to launching new stores.
Most of the locations for stores are about 28,000 square feet. Its flagship Red Deer store is about 50,000 square feet. One of its Winnipeg stores is over 50,000 square feet. Also more than 20 stores are under 24,000 square feet.
“What we look to do going forward is not necessarily standardization but that 28,000 square feet is about the right size for our brand,” he said.
The company launched ChickDays.ca last year in Ontario. It is an online ordering destination for rare and heritage breed chicks as well as meat birds and egg layers. Live chicks are also in stores.
“It was a great success. We’ve rolled it across Canada nationally this year. It’s the first of its kind,” he said.
“The demand is outpacing last year in a very big way. Our customers continue to look for ways to grow their own food, know where their food is coming from, and that is the shift we’re seeing. I think that’s indicative of inflation, mortgage rate renewals, the cost of living. Nobody is hiding from that. It’s impacting everybody. So our consumer is telling us they want items that are necessities. It’s not maybe the wants they would have bought in the past on the consistency of what we would have sold those products for. It’s really the needs items. The stuff they can save some money by doing it at home.
“That’s going to be our focus because that’s where we believe our consumer is telling us we need to be positioned.”
The company’s roots go back to 1967 when it started as National Farmway, a chain of “super farm markets” whose first location opened in Dawson Creek, BC. By 1975, the chain became known as Peavey Mart, a subsidiary of Peavey Company of Minneapolis. In 1984, the company returned to Canadian ownership and to this day remains 100 per cent Canadian-owned and operated. In 2017, Peavey Industries LP acquired the TSC Stores banner, based in London, Ontario with stores operating in Ontario and Manitoba. In spring of 2021, the final conversion of all TSC Stores to Peavey Mart.
While I’m happy for Peavey regaining 100% Canadian Ownership as well as opening new stores, I’m not happy about the closures in Cambridge and Milton Ontario. We frequently shopped at the Cambridge store and while miss our annual ‘Christmas shop’ for gifts for the family. My brother frequented the Milton store. Now we have to drive even further to the next available Peavey Mart.
Progress my a$$