CCWC mag Sept-Oct 2020_web

A recipe for Success:
Ure’s
Country
Kitchen
By Tania Moffat
If you combine keen business sense with hard work, add in the
ability to adapt to a rapidly changing retail landscape, one genuinely
innovative idea and a full helping of fun, you have the ingredients for
Ure’s Country Kitchen’s recipe for success.
Located in the heart of Southern
Ontario’s lake country between
Harrow and Amherstburg, Ure’s
Country Kitchen caters to the local
communities, cottagers and tourists.
When Laurie and Randy Ure purchased
the business 32 years ago, it consisted of
a 30-seat restaurant, convenience store,
gas bar, an ice cream scoop parlour and
a home that extended behind and above
the business.
Their three children, Michael, David
and Christina, now adults, grew up with
the store as their playground, and later it
became their first taste at employment.
“I saw how hard my parents worked growing
up, and they instilled that work ethic
within us through their example. They
are why the three of us have gone on to
university and have great careers,” says
daughter Christina.
A taste of history
In addition to their family memories,
the location itself has a history in the
community. “The building we are in
now was erected in 1929 to replace the
previous store, but there has been a
business on this corner for much longer
than that,” says Laurie.
Back in 1988, there were eight small
gas stations located along the lake
over a 15-mile stretch. Today, Ure’s is
the only original business left. “I think
businesses like ours in small communities
are dying out. Gas, lottery tickets
and cigarette sales don’t pay the bills
anymore. Gas margins are tighter, cigarette
sales are declining, and the retail
landscape is changing with the arrival of
big-box stores,” says Randy, who now has
a Walmart, Tim Horton’s and two drug
stores located nearby.
CONVENIENCE & CARWASH CANADA / 49