Super-Lite moving to city's south

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image 

Super-Lite president Simon Simkin says the Waverley Street location will be a better location for retailing.

AFTER more than half a century on Logan Avenue, one of Winnipeg's oldest lighting stores is migrating south.

Super-Lite Lighting Ltd. is moving later this month to new leased quarters at 1040 Waverley St. after its landlord -- The Pal Group -- declined to renew its lease at 1901 Logan Ave.

Super-Lite president and co-owner Simon Simkin said in an interview Tuesday The Pal Group wants the space for its own operations. And although Super-Lite has been at the Logan Avenue location for more than 50 years, he and his business partners -- Stuart Pudavick and Allan Hochman -- say they think the pending move will be good for the company.

"The reason we like the (new) location is it's in the south end (of the city) and a lot of the new construction in Winnipeg is happening in the southwest," Simkin said.

"It's also a much better area for us to do retailing than the northwest and Logan," Simkin said, noting it's close to a number of large residential areas such as Lindenwoods, Whyte Ridge, River Heights, Fort Garry and Charleswood.

Although only about 15 per cent of Super-Lite's revenues come from direct sales to the public -- the rest come from sales to homebuilders and other commercial customers -- Simkin said "that's an area we could certainly grow just by being in this area."

He noted the new location is also only a three-minute drive from the booming retail hub of Kenaston and McGillivray. So that gives it good exposure to shoppers, "but we're not paying Kenaston's rents and we don't have Kenaston's traffic problems," he said.

The new store is to open on April 27. Although Super-Lite will start off with a little less space than it has at its current site -- about 24,000 square feet compared to 26,000 on Logan-- Simkin said that will jump to 44,000 square feet within the next three years. And it may happen sooner than that if the tenant leasing that other portion of the building -- a commercial printing firm -- decides to move before its lease runs out.

"Whatever we don't need we'll sublet (to someone else)," he said.

Simkin, who became part owner of Super-Lite in the late 1970s or early 1980s, said The Pal Group didn't want to renew its lease because it has a number of companies operating out of different locations in the city and wants to consolidate them at the Logan Avenue site.

He said The Pal Group bought the building from Super-Lite in the late 1980s when Super-Lite stopped manufacturing its own lighting products, and has been using the other two-thirds that wasn't being leased to Super-Lite. The Pal Group has a number of divisions specializing in a wide range of products including packaging supplies, plastics, foam packing and barcode technologies.

Once the Waverley Street store opens, the Logan Avenue location will be converted to a temporary clearance centre that will remain open until Super-Lite sells off the stock that isn't being transferred to the new store.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 15, 2009 B7