Ste Anne to gain grocery store in 2024

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This article was published 02/03/2023 (884 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Residents in Ste Anne will soon have access to more fresh food and a variety of services much closer to home.

Clearview Co-op has announced the construction of their first new food store, and the third under the Clearview banner, will take root in town next year.

With plans to be located on Traverse Avenue, the food store will be the latest addition to the company’s 20 locations across southeastern Manitoba and sole gas bar in Fort Frances, ON.

“It’s grown to the point where it’s now, you know, a feasible option for us,” said Henry Nickel, general manager of Clearview Co-op.

The construction of the 22,000-sq-ft store, expected to break ground as soon as late spring, will add 40-50 full and part-time jobs to Ste Anne, stimulating economic development in the community, Nickel said.

The grocer will be fully loaded with a pharmacy and full-service bakery, floral and meat departments. Currently, Ste Anne has one grocery store and one pharmacy available to residents in town.

The new food store speaks to the expanding portfolio of the Clearview brand, which acquired its other two food stores through amalgamation with the St Malo and La Broquerie Co-ops, Nickel said.

The construction also speaks to the health of the community, where residents have long been calling for a new grocery store in town.

“Anytime there’s growth, residents moving into an area want services. And so we’re just here to fulfill that need,” Nickel said, adding the town’s population was a deciding factor on if, and when, to expand into the community, which housed the first Clearview Co-op gas bar in 1931.

“That’s our mandate. We are here to provide services for the benefit of the communities.”

Nickel said he’s looking to expand Clearview’s operations significantly in the next few years, with the company looking at other communities to build food stores and “different ways of diversifying the business.”

Clearview Co-op and St Malo Co-op members voted to amalgamate the two entities in 2021, while Clearview acquired the La Broquerie location in 2019 after a 98.9 percent vote in favor of the move at their AGM.

Despite supply chain issues affecting seed, chemical, lubricant and grocery offerings, Clearview’s sales in 2021 topped $145 million, with $6.9 million in patronage allocation for the same fiscal year, up from $4.7 million in 2020.

Nickel said the Ste Anne food store is expected to be complete by mid-to-late 2024.

– with files from Greg Vandermeulen