TEC member Robin Lee is CEO of Lee Valley, TEC member Jason Tasse is COO of Lee Valley
Ottawa-based Lee Valley Tools, known for its tools and gifts for woodworking, crafting and gardening, is expanding its store operations into to province of Quebec. This fall, the company will unveil one of its efficiently laid out ‘new format’ stores in suburban Montreal, and more stores for Quebec are anticipated.
CEO Robin Lee said that the Laval Store will be different than many of Lee Valley’s existing stores, as the retailer adopts a new and more efficient store format which includes more retail space at the front of its stores and less back-of-house/storage than its previous locations. In the company’s older locations, about 1/3 of the store’s square footage is for consumers to view products, while the back 2/3 of the store was dedicated to storage and other back-of-house activities. New stores have inverted the ratio with the majority of selling space being dedicated to shoppers, and less at the back
