Shefield Group – The Perfect Storm

Date

Mar 12, 2009

The Shefield Group is in the process of a major expansion across Canada to take advantage of new opportunities becoming available as a result of the current economy.

After thirty years of building solid relationships with landlords and developers across Canada, the Shefield Group is receiving offers for prime leasing opportunities in grade “A” shopping centers. These are unprecedented opportunities with landlords offering major incentives, based on Shefield’s strong covenant.

These opportunities are further enhanced by recent developments.  A major chain of lottery kiosks across Canada closed causing increased traffic to Shefield locations. Further traffic increases have been caused by recent changes to the cigarette sale laws in Alberta resulting in pharmacies no longer being able to offer cigarettes and tobacco products.

Finally, the Shefield Group has been evolving its business models with new contemporary graphics, strategies and merchandising initiatives to its Shefield Express and Shefield & Sons Tobacconists brands.

One of the new initiatives currently being beta tested has been extremely well received- an age restricted retail store that openly showcases one of the widest selections of tobacco products.

All of these factors have created the “perfect storm”. Comments Dieter Lehmann, co-founder of the Shefield Group, “Shefield stores across Canada are experiencing strong growth as a result of all these factors. Some Shefield locations have experienced as much as 250% increases in year-over-year sales.”

Lehmann further comments, “While other organizations are cutting back as a result of the current economy we have added more talent to our head office support team.  We are executing a major franchise growth strategy to take advantage of these unprecedented opportunities.” 

ABOUT SHEFIELD GROUP- Shefield Group is a retailer with over 100 locations in major shopping centers across Canada and international operations in United Arab Emirates. The Shefield Group portfolio of brands includes Shefield Express, Shefield & Sons Tobacconists, Shefield Gourmet, Gourmet Cup Beverage Station, Gourmet Cup, Kopio Coffee and Cinnamon City. With over 30 years of retail experience, the Shefield Group provides franchisees with extensive support in securing prime locations, lease administration, merchandising, inventory buying power, technology and marketing.