The building that was home to Kawartha Home Hardware in Lakefield is gone, but the entrepreneurial spirit of the business’ three owners is very much intact.
kawarthaNOW has learned that Kawartha Home Hardware will open a pop-up store at 25 Queen Street in Lakefield — the former location of The Cheesy Fromage, and across the street from where an October 9 fire destroyed the business and several upper storey apartments, and damaged Lakefield IDA.
According to Frank Geerslink, general manager of the Kawartha Home Hardware Group of Stores and co-owner with Steve Gynane and Harry Morrison, the plan is to open the pop-up store before Christmas.
“We had about 8,000 square feet,” says Geerlink of the business’ former location at 24 Queen Street. “This is going to be about 1,000 square feet, but there is a garage behind the store that we plan to use for retail. That gives us maybe another 1,000 square feet.”
“One of our primary focuses will be to get a paint department up and running. BeautiTone is our own brand (of paint), so we need to get that back into the market as quickly as we can. Along with that, we’ll have the high-movers — things that our customers look for every day. We’re going to try our best to make sure we have everything people need.”
The relatively quick transition to a pop-up store offers full evidence of something the owners have maintained since the fire.
“We will not leave the Lakefield market,” says Geerlinks.
“We’re a part of the community, number one, and number two, it’s a very good market for us. We can’t leave that. Lakefield is the first store we had, so it’s near and dear to our heart. And based on the way the community has embraced us, we can’t see a situation where we would not be there.”
Before the fire, Kawartha Home Hardware employed 12 full-time staff and 16 part-timers. Geersinks says a number of them have been given work at the trio’s other businesses — holdings that include the Home Building Centre Lakefield, Home Building Centre Lindsay, Lindsay Design Centre, Home Town Rent All in Lindsay, and Home Hardware stores in Lindsay, Bridgenorth, Millbrook, and Coboconk.
As for plans for the Lakefield business beyond the pop-up store, Geerlinks answers without hesitation.
“We will have a store in downtown Lakefield,” he says, adding “Barring anything that might make that not possible, our intent is to build on the site of the former store.”
“Selwyn Township has been very good to us. I have no reason to think that won’t continue. Talking to the mayor and other elected officials, they want us to build something that complements the downtown and, quite honestly, that’s our intent. We both want the same thing, so I can’t imagine that something will come up that will make that not possible.”
“We’re going to do our level best to make sure what goes there, belongs there.”
For all the heartbreak the fire caused the owners and their customers, the apartment tenants, and the community at large, Geerlinks said what has occurred in the fire’s aftermath has re-affirmed something he already well knew.
“Man, there are good people there,” he says of Lakefield, adding “People have been jumping in to help.”
“For example, The Nutty Bean Café across the street (at 33 Queen Street), like a lot of the restaurants in town, offered to help anyone impacted. The Village Inn said whoever has been displaced and needs a place, come there. I was told people were coming to The Nutty Bean and giving money and saying ‘Here, make sure everyone is looked after.'”
“In a world where it’s easy to be negative, there’s a lot of good people around. When we see that and feel it and experience it, we’ve got to tell the world. All is not lost when it comes to human behaviour and how great it can be.”
Geerlinks says that response was extended to the business itself in the form of people wanting to give money.
“We were like ‘No, no, no, no., we don’t need it.’ We’re adequately insured. We looked after our own house to ensure if something like this does happen, we’ve got all our bases covered. There are people that may need it (financial assistance), but certainly not us.”
“If it doesn’t have a heartbeat, it doesn’t matter,” he says of the loss of the store’s inventory. “We can get truckloads of stuff, but the people side of it was the first priority.”
With the initial shock of the fire well in the rear-view mirror, Geerlinks says the owners’ focus has since shifted to something much more positive.
“Now, as we turn the page on an event that wasn’t great, we have a blank sheet of paper. We can now say ‘OK, how do we want this to go?’ As nice as the old building was, it had its drawback as far as limitations. Our hope is to build a cutting-edge store that will be the envy of the Home Hardware chain.”
