A large auto parts supplier that features a huge warehouse is now officially open for business.
While the new PartSource location actually opened Sept. 16, it welcomed former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Wendel Clark to sign autographs to celebrate the store’s grand opening Saturday.
“This is what we call a hub store, so we supply all other PartSource stores in the area,” store manager Chad McKnight said.
Located in West Ridge, McKnight said the 20,000-square-foot outlet features lots of warehouse space and will transport inventory to other area locations and will likely eventually supply sister Canadian Tire stores.
“Right now, everything has been shipped through Vaughan,” he said.
At the moment, the Orillia location has 15 employees, including 12 full-time staff, working in both the front-of-house retail outlet and the warehouse that features two loading docks in the back to handle transport deliveries.
McKnight, who previously managed a Newmarket PartSource store, said creating a hub in Orillia made a lot of business sense.
“This location has a close proximity to the highway and there’s a growing community in the area,” he said.
While there is a PartSource location in Midland, the company doesn’t have anything further north until one hits either Sudbury or North Bay.
“We’re branching out as far away as Huntsville,” McKnight said of potential expansion plans.
McKnight said PartSource not only offers retail help for do-it-yourselfers, but also supplies parts to commercial entities.
“We’ll supply garages in town as well as some of the outlying garages that are on our route,” he said. “Commercial is just as important to us as our retail business and we’re very, very heavily focused on retail.”
PartSource Inc. was formed in 1999 and is a Canadian automotive parts chain owned by Canadian Tire. Its specialty automotive stores provide customers with access to more than 300,000 unique parts.
