Nations Fresh Foods opens third store

Nations Fresh Foods has expanded once again in the Greater Toronto Area, with a sleek new Mississauga location.

Frank Ho, Nations’ senior vice-president told Canadian Grocer the new 55,000-sq.-ft. store brings to life the company’s “East meets West philosophy and is focused on “fresh, fresh, fresh.”

Touted as a true multicultural supermarket, the store offers a wide selection of groceries and prepared foods inspired by world cuisines. There are sushi and dim sum stations as well as a “Western Kitchen” and a fresh food to go counter near the entrance that serves up burgers—inspired, Ho said, by California’s In-N-Out Burger chain—fried chicken and fish and chips, which are prepared fresh “nothing frozen.”

Among its other features, the Mississauga store boasts a Chinese barbecue station, an enclosed seafood department, an expansive produce section, an in-house butcher counter, a bakery as well as meticulously stocked aisles packed with an assortment of condiments, spices, noodles, beverages, confectionery and more. Ho said Nations’ goal was to give customers what they’re looking for at affordable prices.

At the grand opening on Thursday, Lilian Kwok, Nations’ director of business development and human resources said finding the right location to open new stores was critical and Mississauga’s “business friendly” environment was appealing (the company also has its headquarters in the city). She also noted the new store had created 150 jobs in the community.

The first Nations Fresh Foods opened in Vaughan, a city north of Toronto in 2012, followed by a second store in downtown Hamilton, Ont., in 2013. Ho said a fourth Nations store is in the works and would open in Toronto, at a former Target location, in September. He said the Toronto location would be considerably larger at 150,000 square feet.

Nations is the second banner under the Oceans Fresh Group, which operates Oceans Fresh Food Markets.