Frank H. Sobey

Frank H. Sobey, (May 24 1902 – December 15, 1985) was a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur who was the primary builder of the Sobeys Retail Store chain.

Frank H. Sobey was Born in Lyons Brook, Nova Scotia. His father was John William (J.W.) Sobey and his mothers name was Eliza Sobey. Frank H. Sobey was three years old when his family moved from the farming community to the nearby then-booming coal mining town of Stellarton. In 1907 his father, John Williams, purchased a meat retailing business in town and became a the local butcher, peddling meat products door to door on a horse-drawn wagon. In 1912 John Williams built a 2-storey store in Stellarton's central business district selling mostly meat and vegetables.

 Frank Sobey left school after Grade 8. He had a goal of entrepreneur, and with that goal set in mind , at age sixteen enrolled in a business college, In 1924 he persuaded his father to expand the store to carry a full range of groceries and the family began expanding, opening stores in the nearby industrial towns of  New Glasgow, Trenron and Westville,  In the early 1940s, Frank wished to purchase a building on Archimedes Street in New Glasgow for a supermarket. But the problem was that the property was owned by a different company named Empire Company Ltd. and in order to acquire the building for himself, Frank H. Sobey purchased the company whole, and the Empire was transformed into the family's holding company and was privatized in 1981.

Sobeys Inc. is now a $17.6 billion company with more than 1,500 corporate and franchised stores across the
country.




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