Chad Mielke is looking forward to the opening of a Contractors First By Rona outlet in Osoyoos. His family has owned and operated the Rona Home Centre in Penticton for 12 years. The Osoyoos outlet, aimed at contractors, is scheduled to open in mid August. (Richard McGuire photo)
Chad Mielke’s father Richard introduced him to the home building supplies business while growing up in Osoyoos and father and son are thrilled to be coming back to town.
The Mielke family has owned and operated the Rona Home Centre in Penticton for 12 years and are proud to be the new owners of the Contractors First By Rona outlet that will be opening in Osoyoos in the middle of August.
The store will be located in the old Hoffman Automotive building on Main Street (Hwy. 3) east of Westminister Equipment Rentals and Sales and directly across from the Rattlesnake Canyon amusement park.
“We are so excited about this opportunity,” said Chad, 41. “I grew up in Osoyoos when my dad owned the older Beaver Lumber store, which was later Castle Home Building and our family has lasting roots in Osoyoos. We moved to Summerland in Grade 8, but I grew up in Osoyoos and I’m thrilled to be coming back.”
While he will continue to work out of the Penticton Rona outlet, Chad said he will be spending the next several weeks getting the Osoyoos store ready for customers.
He has hired Tim Collingwood, a man with 26 years of experience in the home building supplies industry, to be the store manager of the Contractors First store in Osoyoos.
“Tim has managed Rona stores, TimberMarts and other building supply shops for more than 25 years and we’re thrilled to have him on board,” he said. “He lives in Osoyoos and I know he’s absolutely thrilled to be taking over as store manager.”
His family has been looking at opening a Rona outlet in Osoyoos for several years, but was looking for the right location and right time and everything has come together nicely over the past several months, he said.
“Gary Hoffman from Hoffman Automotive is a friend of the family and he told us about this great opportunity (to take over the building) and we jumped at it,” he said. “We’ve been running big trucks from our Penticton store to Osoyoos every week for years and we also run a truck up to Midway, Grand Forks and Rock Creek, so it was kind of a no brainer to look at opening a satellite operation for our Penticton store here in Osoyoos.”
As the name implies, the Osoyoos store won’t be a full retail outlet, but will be geared to providing materials for home building contractors, said Mielke.
“This won’t be a heavy retail outlet like our store in Penticton,” he said. “We’ve got just over 2,000 square feet of space, so we’re limited in what we can offer.
“We will offer what contractors need. We will have rough plumbing supplies, rough electrical, a good selection of tools and tons of lumber in our yard. We won’t be offering things like vanities, sinks and lighting that you would find in our monster store in Penticton.
“The good news is our Osoyoos customers will be able to access anything in our Penticton store and have it shipped up the next day to our new location in Osoyoos.”
Local customers will also be able to benefit from the “box store pricing that is offered at our big store in Penticton,” he said.
Setting an opening date of mid-August is very ambitious, but one he and his family are determined to accomplish, he said.
“If we meet our target of the middle of August, it will be the fastest turnaround to opening a new store in Rona’s history in Canada,” he said. “It will be less than two months from purchasing the building to opening the store and in the world of corporate Canada, that just doesn’t happen.”
Mielke said his father is “getting very close to retirement”, but is thrilled to see the family name be part of Osoyoos once again.
“We’re very excited about this opportunity,” he said. “Our family has strong connections to Osoyoos and we feel this town needs to become more than a tourist town that is only busy for a couple of months in the summer.
“When I was a kid, there were three lumber stores in town and they all did well. We believe there is a great future in the Osoyoos market and we’re glad to be back.”
The store will have 10 or 11 full-time employees and will be hiring yard workers and cashiers in the coming weeks.
Anyone interested can apply online at www.careers.rona.ca.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
A Rona Centre outlet will be opening in Osoyoos opposite Rattlesnake Canyon amusement park. (Keith Lacey photo)
