HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1991-06-05, Page 5'YQIIR��TAT 5
Gielen Des�n addsGrandBend a
market
: pl
aee
ly upper end, the Grand Bend lora- sign samples in the area. dealing she begins to While he was
uon offers much more of a mix to with both commercial and resider- away fora week, she opened in
hopefully appeal to everyone. It tial. Grand Bend.
features furniture not quite as ex- Gielen is married to Peter Cuddy. 1 think 1 drive him crazy," said
pensive as London, and .deals in who handles the overseas sales for Gielen. "He didn't want me to
other areas such as laminating. The Cuddy Internadonal. Asked what work any longer hours. but he's
firm offers the largest display of de- his thoughts of her business are, been really supportive."
mit
By Ray Lewis
GRAND BEND -
In hope of capturing
a lucrative market,
Gicien Design has
set. up shop in Grand
Bend, and Kathleen Gielen-Cuddy
has returned home.
"I think there's a lot of potential
in Grand Bend," said Gielen.
"And there area lot of people who
are now looking to live here year
round."
Originally from Crediton, the
young entrepreneur opened her
doors two weeks ago on Highway
21, in the building formerly occu-
pied by Prints Charming,
After studying interior design at
Fanshawe College for three years, actually show the customers furni-
Giclen spent a year at Parsons of Lure rather than just pictures."
New York. Upon graduating, she Rather than run around Toronto,
went to work for other stores until Gicien Design opened a show -
she started her own business in ' room of their own' and are now
1980. She began with design buying from everywhere. At
work for Greek restaurants, pco- present time, the Grand Bend shop
pies homes and virtually anything is filled with casual summer furru-
she could get her hands on. ture, featuring Mexican pot,
After conducting business from Victorian rocking horses, Chinese
a rented building, Gielcn decided screens and East Indian wall hang -
to expand. Wanting to move into ings.
the furniture end, she hired more Gielen Design also imports aru'-
staff, bought a building in London cles direct from Spain, Japan, the
two years ago, and hasn't looked United States and acts as•a Canadi-
back since. an distributor for a German art line
"1 was always recommending on the side.
furniture, said Gielen. "And kept "Italy is my favourite," said Gie-
thinking it might be nice if I could len.' "The culture and art are beau-
tiful."
Gielen's idea in opening was to
get rid of the middle people. Now
they are going direct to the source
and have been successful enough,
that other designers are using the
shop as their own outlet.
Although they carry furniture,
they are basically a design firm
which is very different from the
usual furniture store. They basical-
ly travel all over in an attempt to
find something different.
Gielen Design employs seven de-
signers, all graduates who do sam-
ples and drawings to add a whole
different concept to the furniture
business. Gielen is fussy about this
aspect, making sure to hire only
qualified 5ersonnel. Like her mer-
chandise, she is careful to offer her
customers only the best. In Grand
Bend, managerial duties are being
shared by graduates Wendy Ballan-
tyne and Lisa Gielen.
In Grand Bend, Gielen is target-
ing her clientele as new home
builders or those renovating.
"We already have a lot of cus-
tomers in areas such as Southcott
Pines," said Gielen. "They don't
want to be driving to London to go
shopping. They want to stay in
Grand Bend."
She believes the area is a great
place for an outlet and has gone to
great lengths to market her business
properly. In addition to the store,
she has opened a model suite to the
public, showcasing her designs.
Located behind the store, in one of
the Northwood Property condomin-
ium suites, is a sample of her work.
Said Gielen, "there are always
condos going up along the river, so
Grand opening - Wendy Ballantyne displays some of the exquisite ar- is their a better way to market."
tides available at the new Grand Bend location of Gielen Design. Where her London outlet is most -
re
'Z
World of art - Kathleen Gielen-Cuddy's new store in Grand Bend
Wendy Ballantyne shows off some of the extraordinary pieces.
is designed to suit everyone's tastes.
No repairs to OPP building
GRAND BEND - The building its ratepayers taxes jump 17 per- However, his idea was not met
rented by the Ontario Provincial cent. with laughter from his fellow coun-
Police in Grand Bend will not be The municipal portion in the tax- cil members.
getting the major repairs it needs. es is only up less than five percent Deputy -reeve Shirley Mitchell
The village's works su rinten- but educational, countyand the said the village shouldn't be doing
dent Bud Markham recently told levy from the Conservatn Author- major repairs to the building tie -
council the Main Street located ity has seen the local taxes skyrock- cause of boundary negotiations.
building, is in need of repairs in- et. She thought the OPP station could
eluding replacing rotting wood. '`-
Council told Markham there is
simply no money in their budget to
do the repairs. Instead he was in-
structed to paint a small portion pf
the building.
"We can't afford to rent
folding. We can't affo
the wood I d
money i
reeve
scar= be moving.
replace "It might move to the liquor
't ficrtow where the store, there's been talk about that
'ng to come from," said for years," said Mitchell.
Druce Woodley. Woodley said the building could
e OPP have a lease which ex- belong to U1e village for the next 50
Even renting scaffolding to paint , pires at the end of next summer. yes•
the entire building is not possible "Tear it down," suggested coun-
for the village which has had seen calor John McDowell jokingly.,
r�I
4 •.'f.32
:t •�aY:.: .. -..3::>,: is >o .. r........
to .: ... -:
... _... a o7- you why
' I
New Idea is known as the hay equipment leader.
Date: Thursday June 6 (Raindate June 11)
Time: 10:30 - 5:00
Location: Mac McEwan Farm
god
Drive
Exeter Firefighters
were surrounded
with the donations
of the town Monday
evening as they
prepared the good
for transport to the
Ailsa Craig Food
Bank.
Story on page 1.
We're Fully Equipped
for Any Job
Our Soot of truck*.
CUSTOM CRUSHING AND
SCREENING OF GRAVEL
•Supplying you with various aggregate
materials in gravel and stone.
In conjunction with:
Hyde Bros. Farm Equipment Ltd., Hensall
Carter's Farm Equipment Sales and Service, Ltd., Hensall
out or rw„totw Scr.n,.r ow*** .e our p.
Jack Lavender
Jack Lavender of Jack's
Small Engine Repair Ser-
vice in Hensall wishes to
thank his many custom-
ers for their business
loyalty over the past 20
years.
Acting on the repeated
advise of his doctors,
it's time to stop
Once again, a sincere
thank you
Our emit of memo,. - loaders • bulldozers.
*TRUCKING *GRAVEL, SAND & STONE
•BULLDOZING *EXCAVATING •TOPSOIL •SEPTIC SYSTEMS
". • Job too big or tod smell"
R.R. 3 Clinton 4
OFFICE
& SHOP...
erner
CONTRACTING LTD.
82-9
Res.
482-9212
BY WHiTE-NEW IDEA
INN