MacEwen celebrates official grand opening

A gift to the community
As a sign of good faith to the Chesterville community, the new MacEwen and County Line donated $2,500 to the The Chesterville & District Lions Club. Glover photo

CHESTERVILLE – The new MacEwen in the heart of Chesterville celebrated their official grand opening on Thurs., June 27. Mark Kinnin, vice president of retail convenience, spoke about the rebuild process, and the challenges faced with scheduling. He noted, “we added more fuel capacity, we added more parking, we added a bigger store and we’re next to a river.” “From an environmental standpoint, you work with the town council, you follow all the protocols and rules and sometimes it takes a little longer than you would like but it’s better to do the right thing up front than create a problem down the road.”

According to Kinnin, weather played a large part in the delayed opening but there were also other factors that needed to be tended to before MacEwen could open their doors to the public.

“The one thing we did was make sure we remediated the land. We worked with the environment industry to make sure that it was clean before you redevelop,” he said. “There’s a variety of reasons, one was the weather, plus paving. Everything gets popped, all the construction starts to run behind schedule, the pavers run behind schedule and the landscapers run behind schedule, so we worked as quickly as we could.”

Kinnin remarked that the store was actually ready for business months ago, but the fuel wasn’t complete, and the water management system hadn’t finished construction.

“Mother nature is, right now, on our side,” he said. “Sometimes you have to wait, but we never stop.”

And right he was about mother nature because when MacEwen celebrated its official grand opening the sun was shining over the festivities that included cake, taste-testing different types of energy drinks and free slushies while supplies lasted.

While there was the option to set up a highway location for commuters, that could have potentially brought in more business for the gas station; Kinnin made it clear that the community’s residents were the number one priority.

“Having good access to this store is important for local residents,” he said. “The highway site is great for commuters but not for the local residents, we do have highway locations, but a lot of our smaller town stores are important for people who walk and what we do is support the community.”

Upon opening, MacEwen is offering a variety of food service options, including a take-home meal option with the addition of an M&Ms Express to the business.

“For the County Line concept, you basically have your dry goods, on one side the grocery and things like that. We did add an M&M’s Express to the store, so there’s that take-home meal option,” said Kinnin. “On the other side, there’s the food service, whether it’s hot, cold, frozen, we’ve got every imaginable beverage. All the food is made on site, making all the sandwiches and baking the pizza, it’s a full food service convenience seating.”

As part of the celebration, North Dundas Mayor Tony Fraser presented a certificate to the new owners Eyfon Ghabrial and Robert Banayoti, congratulating them for their success and wishing them luck in the future.

“The opening of the new MacEwen has been long awaited with a lot of anticipation, and people, as you can tell, are glad that you’re here,” said Fraser. “The Township of North Dundas extends sincere congratulations to Fuel Petroleum Inc. and County Line in occasion of your new store and grand re-opening in 2019.”