New Produce Shop Takes Over Former Tomavo Location In Fredericton
FREDERICTON – The former home of a defunct produce shop in Fredericton is now the location of a new international grocery store about to stage a soft opening.
Saveway plans to hold a soft opening at 9 Riocan Avenue, in uptown Fredericton, for 10 days in early September.
Ashraf Habib, a partner with Mango Fresh Market Ltd., the P.E.I.-based parent company of the grocery chain, confirmed the plans. He said Saveway is a new concept and that all the grocery stores Mango Fresh Market opens in New Brunswick will be under that name.
Habib told Huddle that Saveway belongs to a family-run business in P.E.I. that owns Freshest Fruits and Vegetables in downtown Charlottetown – a business formerly known as the Mango Fresh Market.
“The concept and product is different but we believe there’s no comparable product in Fredericton, quality and price-wise,” he said. “Because of that, we believe it will be a successful location for us.”
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Habib said the plan was originally to open New Brunswick’s first Saveway in Moncton in 2020 but that plan was scuppered by Covid-19’s financial impacts. When the grocer resumed its work to bring a store to New Brunswick, it pivoted to Fredericton.
But Habib noted that Mango Fresh Market still has plans to bring a Saveway to Moncton as well – potentially next year.
Habib said Saveway will source some of its produce from local farmers, while drawing on an international supply of food from the Middle East, Africa, India, and Mexico.
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Once the store is launched, Saveway’s owners plan to open an online shopping platform with pickup and delivery options. To staff the new Fredericton store, Habib said Saveway will hire between 10 and 15 people.
Former Food Purveyor
Saveway’s takeover of Tomavo’s former Fredericton footprint at the Corbett Centre parallels another grocer taking over a former Tomavo location in New Brunswick.
In Moncton, Allan Hardy, one of many farmers left unpaid by Tomavo, opened his own produce store in February at the same Mountain Road perch where Tomavo had been operating until 2021.
Saveway’s current home was one of several Tomavo locations across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia the now-bankrupt chain closed in the months after it went under creditor protection in 2021.
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At the time, the embattled former grocer was more than $3 million in debt to creditors across Canada and the United States and was under fire for unpaid bills, wages, and taxes. Tomavo had rapidly expanded across the Maritimes in the years leading up to its closure.
In an affidavit filed in 2021, Tomavo owner Mohammedamer Abdualsoud blamed troubled finances borne by the pandemic’s economic pressure as well as negative sentiment toward the business produced by “misleading yet damaging news reporting.”
The affidavit stated that 95 percent of the produce Tomavo was selling came from Montreal-based Courchesne Larose Ltd.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].