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Kenn Harper ready to sell Arctic Ventures
Credits long-term employees with 27 years of success in Iqaluit

Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Published Friday, April 20, 2012

IQALUIT
After 27 years of operation in Iqaluit, Arctic Ventures owner Kenn Harper is ready to sell the business that has enriched his life.

NNSL photo/graphic

Food manager Matthew Skarrup joins Arctic Ventures' Kenn Harper for a photo in a produce section that Harper says has grown in reputation since the Nutrition North Canada program changes. Harper is now looking to sell the business, after 27 years of success. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

"One of the things this business does is allow me to live my life the way I want, which involves a lot of travelling, a second home in Ottawa, and I write," Harper said. "It's for sale, but it's not sold yet. If it doesn't sell, I'll just have to keep running it and making money. If I sell, I'll write more and I might travel more. I don't anticipate leaving Iqaluit permanently. I love it here. It's home."

Harper came North in 1966 as a teacher after teaching three years in Toronto.

"I taught from 1966 to 1974 in Qikiqtarjuaq, Padloping Island, Pangnirtung and Arctic Bay," he said. "I arrived in 1971 as the school principal and quit teaching in 1974. I needed some income to fuel my writing habit. I started a small (convenience store and pool room) business in Arctic Bay – kind of like this but smaller."

In 1985, he and his store manager John Bens moved to Iqaluit to take over Ventures.

"Once I got here, I knew it would be a long-term business enterprise. I could see that Iqaluit was under-retailed at the time. There was just Arctic Ventures and NorthMart. We bought it just at about the same time that negotiations were going on over an eventual splitting of the NWT. We thought, Iqaluit will be the capital of Nunavut if the division of the territory ever takes place, and we thought division of the territory was a sure thing, eventually, and that this town would grow. Once I was here, I also worked hard to ensure that it (the capital) would be here."

That involved a three-year term as municipal councillor, during which time he was involved in the Iqaluit for Capital campaign.

A mainstay of life in Iqaluit, Arctic Ventures consists of the grocery store, gift shop, video store, furniture store and The Source franchise. Ventures also has the contract to operate a shop at the Iqaluit airport. Prospective owners would be buying these businesses, but not the buildings.

The main store occupies 25,000 square feet of retail and warehouse space in a building that is five times the size of the store Harper bought from Bryan Pearson in 1985. In that transaction, Harper bought the 5,000-square-foot store, two warehouses and a building housing an arcade and restaurant where the Igluvut building now stands.

Many of his key staff from those early days, including Bens, Paul Chouinard, and Don Jackson, are still with the business. They and the many other long-term employees have helped create an environment where other employees and customers feel comfortable, he said.

"I think we're a good employer. People get paid on payday. The working conditions are pretty good. We try to have satisfied employees. The senior management works hard at making this a good place to work and to shop. If you have good employees, you'll have satisfied customers, generally."

Long opening hours, and a commitment to be open every day of the year, including holidays, are important to his customers.

"We are open long hours, until 10 o'clock every night. People have come to expect that and appreciate that. Sure there's competition down the street, but the community I think appreciates the fact that we are here."

Not everything is easy, though, as can be expected for any such business in the North. Transportation is a challenge, he said, and his staff have had to master the art of managing an inventory of perishable goods. Costs are high for rent, utilities, staff housing, and providing senior management with trips south each year – but that's life for his business and his competition.

"If you have experience, these are just the way you do business," he said. "They're the realities of life in the North."

The challenges may become greater, as the co-operatives movement continues to work to gain a foothold in the capital. A group has been working to set up a store in Iqaluit, Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. president Bill Lyall said, but Harper rebuffed its attempts to buy Ventures in the 1990s.

"They've been trying to get a co-op there for quite a while," Lyall said. "We did talk to Kenn Harper, and it didn't go to a stage where we wanted to go, so we dropped it. I thought it was getting close to where he would say 'Make me an offer.' It didn't get to that stage."

A lot of time has passed, and now finding land in Iqaluit for a grocery store is a challenge, Lyall said.

It's something for both the co-operatives movement and for other potential buyers to consider now that Harper is open to a deal. Harper did not wish to disclose his asking price.

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