It's under the same ownership and management, but Nickel City Motors has moved from 7 Station Rd. to 84 Severn Cres.
The brother and sister team of Wendy and Steven Grandbois are the owners of the business, which has been in the family for over 40 years. Their father, Dennis Grandbois, started up the business in Thompson when the family moved to the community from Winnipeg in 1969.
"He knew about the mine starting up here, and he knew that there wasn't a recreation dealer here so he came up with that," says Steven. "Our dad was really smart when he came out here because he knew it was wintry and there are lots of lakes for fishing and all that stuff, so he went from selling hearing aids to snowmobiles."
Steven and Wendy's father died in 2001, and the 40th anniversary of Nickel City Motors as Thompsonites know it now will be happening in 2012.
The pair says their father bought the current building on Severn Crescent back in 1992 and rented it out to Old Dutch Foods. The brother and sister decided to move from their old location and worked on the new building from last June, finally moving in and opening up shop there on Feb. 16. The showroom is where the original building was, but the Grandbois' have added a clothing loft and a parts and service centre.
They originally decided to change over because they were running out of room at their old location.
"Boats are getting bigger and bigger and we couldn't get any higher anymore with how we were stacking our snowmobiles," Steven explains.
Wendy says customers have been very surprised with what has been done to the buildings. Steven echoes her sentiments, saying he's heard nothing but good things about the new space from customers.
"People keep coming in and saying this is really good for Thompson, and that this should be down in Winnipeg or somewhere in a bigger city. So we're pretty happy about that."
Unfortunately for Nickel City Motors, the recession of 2009 hit right when they were in the middle of their move - something they certainly hadn't counted on.
"The recession scared the shit out of us," Steven laughs. "But we'd committed to it before and we were already too committed. We wanted to do it."
The thing that unifies this brother-sister pair of businesspeople is a united belief that customer service is what keeps them afloat in the business world.
"We have to remember that we only do as well as we treat our customers," Steven says. "If you come here and see smiling faces and everything is happening, it's a cool place to be at. We're responsible for making it that way and we have to keep it that way and hire the right people that are going to fit in."
Both Steven and Wendy also agree that it's important to reach out to other surrounding communities and make them feel welcome in Thompson and at their business.
