The attention and rumours are a bit strange to owner D. Jay Fournier, but with the business launching in less than two weeks he is ready to talk. He’s also hoping people will soon refer to the building by a new name.
The building will soon be home to “Euphoria Fashions”, a trade name company selling street wear and accessories in a mid to high-end range. The clothing is all adult sizes, but he says extra smalls will fit down to children 12-14 years old.
The store will carry a full line of clothing with accessories, like boots, belts, and handbags.
Fournier points out though it’s not a shoe store competing with Veniot’s Footwear down the street. The footwear is to accessorize the clothing found within the store.
He says a clothing store in the mid to high-end range was lacking in Liverpool, and the clothing is different than what is at The Bargain! Shop or Value Plus.
“There are stores that sell clothing, but no clothing stores and there’s a big difference.”
His example is like at Irving gas stations, which sell clothing but are not a clothing store.
Fournier has other business ventures as well. He also runs Armour Construction, and Coastal Coatings, which specializes in polyurethane spray foam insulation in homes.
The building with Euphoria Fashions has a second floor, which will eventually be developed into a different business as well. In the short term it will house the offices for his construction company, but they are in the process of finding a larger space. One a new space is found Fournier says the space will be converted into another business, but for right now he isn’t ready to discuss it.
Fournier and his family are from Grand Prairie Alberta originally. In Alberta he had business ventures all in the oil industry, except for clothing business in Calgary. That, he says, was still dictated by the oil and gas industry anyway.
What brought him to Nova Scotia was the economy. Fournier says when you look at land value vs. wages vs. revenue potential, the numbers are very attractive.
“Nova Scotia as a whole has a higher profitability ratio then any other province.”
Fournier says the cost of a home is half of elsewhere in the country, but the wages are about only about a quarter less. Add that with cheaper electricity, heating and surprisingly food costs, it just makes good business sense.
Queens Co. wasn’t Fournier’s first choice to settle when he came to Nova Scotia. They had actually almost settled in Shelburne Co. However when travelling back and forth along the highway, they kept seeing the waterfront with it’s churches, and decided to investigate.
“We kept saying ‘we have to go in and look at that’.”
Fournier says he met with the Mayor, who warmly welcomed him and his family to the area.
“From the council’s point of view, we were very warmly welcomed, but nothing actually drew us to Queens Co.”
What he saw later though was potential.
“This specific town has the second most potential of all towns we looked at.”
The first, he says, is Shelburne because it is pretty much a ghost town. That can work for a business though
“(With Liverpool) It’s good and bad. It means you almost have the town with the least amenities. But it also means it has the second most potential for growth.”
Fournier is surprised though that from Halifax to here, Liverpool is not well promoted. He figures are just a couple of provincial signs that show how far until you reach Liverpool, and the small cluster of signs from private businesses between Bridgewater and Liverpool.
“This is a serious issue for this town,” he says.
Fournier says places like Shelburne and Bridgewater and even Italy Cross have more provincial signage than Liverpool.
“This was a community that the province didn’t seem considering stopping in, so we didn’t originally.”
That is something he hopes to see change.
nmoase@theadvance.ca
