Dufresne expanding to Ottawa

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This article was published 24/09/2009 (5854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dufresne Furniture & Appliances has shed its regional-player status with its first big-city foray east of Manitoba.

The Winnipeg-based retailer has opened two new franchise outlets in the nation’s capital — Ottawa.

That marks the first time the Dufresne banner has appeared outside the Manitoba-northwestern Ontario region, and a company official said Wednesday the plan is to add more franchises in other parts of the country over the next few years.

The only things that haven’t been determined is where and how many.

"We’re very confident that we’ll be bringing on more," Mark Dufresne, chief executive of the firm’s parent company — The Dufresne Group — said in an interview. "We’re going to go at it with control, but aggressively."

The parent company set the stage for its Dufresne Furniture division to become more of a national player when it created a new division three years ago to supply furniture, appliances and advertising services to independently owned mom-and-pop furniture stores across Canada.

It’s Retail Solutions Group now suppliers products and services to 54 independent stores located in every region of the country. And while it’s just a supplier/customer relationship at this point, Dufresne said some of those stores are keen on becoming Dufresne franchisees like the two new outlets in Ottawa.

He said the Ottawa franchisee used to operate two furniture stores under a different retail banner, and when that banner went out of business recently, he opted to become a Dufresne franchisee.

Dufresne said the move not only gives Dufresne Furniture a presence in a major eastern Canadian city, but the franchisee is someone who is already familiar with that market. "Ottawa is also a very good market for us because it’s got many of the same demographic characteristics as the Winnipeg market," he said, and the company has been very successful here.

"Having a French name doesn’t hurt, either (in the Ottawa market)," he said.

With Canada still feeling the effects of the recession, Dufresne said it might seem like an odd time to be expanding into a new market. But Dufresne Furniture & Appliances has done well in spite of the economic downturn, he said, so it was well positioned to take advantage of this new opportunity when it appeared.

In addition to adding more Dufresne franchises, the parent company also expects to continue expanding its Retail Solutions Group’s operations over the next few years.

"We’re very selective about who we bring into the fold," Dufresne said. "But we definitely have room to grow that some more."

He said one of the benefits to supplying product to all of those independent stores is The Dufresne Group is now one of the largest furniture buyers in the country.

And that added buying clout enables it to negotiate better deals with its suppliers.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Quick look at The Dufresne Group

Founded by Doug and Eva Dufresne with the opening of their first furniture first store in 1986 in Kenora, Ont.

Now headquartered in Winnipeg, the Group owns and operates 11 stores under its own Dufresne Furniture & Appliances banner, including six in Manitoba, three in northwestern Ontario, and two in Ottawa.

It also owns the franchise rights in the three Prairie provinces to the U.S.-based Ashley Furniture Home Stores brand. It now has 12 stores under that banner, including two in Manitoba.

Another division within the Group — Dufresne Retail Solutions Group — supplies furniture, appliances and advertising services to 54 independently owned furniture stores in Canada.