Article Excerpt:
TWST: We would like to begin with a brief historical sketch of Hart Stores and a picture of the things you are doing at the present time.Mr. Hart: Hart Stores is a chain across eastern Canada. We started with the first store in 1960, when we opened our stores in rural Quebec markets. Today, we have expanded right across eastern Canada. We have 76 stores, both in rural and urban markets. We have entered larger markets where we might see some of the big boxes, whether they are Wal-Mart or Zellers or Canadian Tire. Our strategy is to continue to expand in both markets. Recently, we made a major expansion, opening about seven to eight stores each year over the last couple of years. This year, we have already opened three, we have another three planned, and we should have 80 stores by the end of the year. And during those expansion years, we also outgrew our distribution complex. So we recently moved from a 65,000-square foot distribution center to a state-of-the-art 220,000 square-foot distribution complex to accommodate our growth and make sure we have the infrastructure to continue growing the business at the rate we are planning to. That has made a big change already in our existing framework of stores, and going forward, we have the ability to expand to over 160 stores from the existing 80. Things are looking good; we are finding new locations. We are currently working on new ones into fiscal 2007. We have three opening for the fall, one in a larger urban market, in Hamilton, Ontario, which is out in the Toronto area, as well as two smaller markets. In terms of future expansion, we are going to continue that way. We are looking forward to that, and our growth strategy and plan has been working well. And I think we are following a very well thought-out plan and at the same time, it's adding to both our top-line and bottom-line growth.
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