Alberta’s Sunterra Market has opened its ninth store, this time on the southern edge of Calgary’s downtown core surrounded by glass walled offices and condominium towers.
The store marks 20 years for the company in the retail food business and has been on the drawing boards for three years.
Sunterra markets are part of Sunterra Enterprises, a small food empire owned by the Price family, which includes farming, meat processing and retail food sales.
The new store is the largest of Sunterra’s outlets in Calgary and Edmonton, a 30,000 sq. foot high class market spread over two floors and a mezzanine.
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The store showcases a European style presentation of fresh food and local products.
“We’ve always had quite a bit of European influence in any of our locations. It is inspired by some of what we have seen in Europe,” said Glen Price, manager of Sunterra’s retail operations.
“We referenced Europe because we think the best way of shopping is frequently, opposed to biweekly. Many Albertans tend to buy once every two weeks.… It’s more about the way they merchandize product and the freshness that they deliver.”
The new store is laid out to help customers get in and out quickly.
The main floor is dedicated to grocery items while the other two floors can be used for dining, coffee, conversation, food classes and private functions. There is also an outdoor patio.
The produce section looks like a high-end farmers’ market while the bread is displayed in the open.
“We tried to create a bit of variety throughout the space. We wanted a bit more of a farmers’ market style. We didn’t standardize the finishes throughout the store,” he said.
“We looked at every department and area as unique rather than like the large operators do, who have very consistent design throughout the whole area. We wanted to build a bit more character in each of those areas.”
All the stores have bakeries and kitchens, but most bread is handled and distributed at one of the Calgary stores. The new store produces cakes and French pastries for the other stores.
Fresh pork, beef and lamb come from the Price family’s Sunterra Meats and Trochu Meats. Food that must be bought from outside suppliers is purchased locally as much as possible.
“We go as local as we can when it is practical to do so,” Price said.
“Fresh produce is one example of that. It is impractical for us to source produce when we are in the middle of winter locally.… They (local producers) have to deliver great quality and compete with everybody else in the world.”
He said his family opens new stores when it can afford to build and design outlets that suit the community and the way it wants to sell food.
“We always try to measure ourselves against what we can handle, so it is not so much limited by market opportunity from a consumer point of view, but it is more about picking the best opportunities and having the timing right so we can handle it in a capable way,” Price said.
Stan and Florence Price started farming near Acme, Alta., in the 1940s and had seven children. Today, a Price family member leads each arm of Sunterra Enterprises.
The family’s first big venture came in 1970 when Stan became a founder of Pig Improvement Canada.
The family moved into the meat processing business in 1989 when it bought Trochu Foods to handle its pork processing, which was a response to its growing export business with Japan.
The Prices then bought the federally inspected lamb plant Canada West Foods at Innisfail, Alta., and renamed it Sunterra Meats. That plant processes lamb and beef.
