Focus on Retail: BRE helps invigorate Middleton retailers

A BRE Success Story from the Annapolis Digby Economic Development Agency

Visit one of Middleton, Nova Scotia’s restaurants early on a Tuesday morning, and you’re likely to find as many as a dozen local retailers eating breakfast and literally talking shop.

“As retailers, we really benefit from sharing ideas and coordinating our efforts,” says Jonathan Archibald, owner of Blue Griffin Books, and chair of the Middleton and Area Business Association. The group, which includes 20 local retail entrepreneurs and managers, holds informal meetings the second Tuesday morning of each month to identify challenges and opportunities facing their sector.

Now almost a year old, Archibald says the Association is playing an important role in uniting local retailers and fostering a spirit of the vibrancy and collaboration in the downtown.

The Association was one major outcome of a series of retail-focused discussions lead by the Annapolis Digby Economic Development Agency’s Business Retention and Expansion Program, or BRE, over the last year. BRE is an internationally-recognized program that helps existing Nova Scotia businesses grow and compete. Delivered by the province’s 13 Regional Development Authorities, including ADEDA, the program connects businesses to resources, capital and new markets, and helps them identify and overcome barriers to growth.

In addition to one-on-one meetings with retailers, Joy O’Neill, a BRE officer with ADEDA, organized a day-long retail seminar with the Bernard Smith, manager of the Spring Garden Area Merchants’ Association, which was offered free of charge to Middleton businesses. In addition to sharing new tricks of the trade, Ms. O’Neill says the local businesspeople identified some common challenges.

“Retailers told us they needed a retail revitalization, and that they needed help encouraging people to buy local.”

Following the seminar, Ms. O’Neill assisted in the creation of the business association. Although only in its first year, the Association is already having an impact. To encourage local shopping during the gift-buying season, the Association created a Holiday Stamp Campaign. Shoppers received stamps for visiting or buying from local merchants. Shoppers with a full card of stamps were automatically entered in a draw for gift baskets featuring locally-sourced products. In addition, the Association has created a newsletter to serve as an inexpensive advertising campaign for local business.

Just as important as the marketing and networking opportunities, says Mr. Archibald, is the new spirit of collaboration, fostered by the Association’s regular meetings. “As retailers, we now have a unified voice, and that has enhanced our working relationships not only with each other, but with the Town Council and community and business groups.”

Gaining the support of local government and grassroots organizations is also improving the bottom line of the Association’s members, Ms. O’Neill notes. “People have the opportunity to collaborate and better understand each other’s businesses,” she says. “The familiarity and partnership is helping to drive local sales as well.”

Mr. Archibald says programs such as BRE can offer an important boost to local business. “BRE helps businesses identify potential weaknesses and strengths, and gives them the support they need to grow,” he says. “That kind of help is vital in rural Nova Scotia.”