‘A sad day in retail’: Peavey Mart closing all stores, obtains creditor protection

Peavey Mart in east Regina on Jan. 27, 2025.

Peavey Mart has confirmed it will close all of its locations in Canada, a development one analyst called “a sad day in retail.”

After nearly 60 years in business, the Canadian retailer based in Red Deer, Alta., said it’s closing all 90 Peavey Mart stores and six MainStreet Hardware locations.

Peavey Industries LP, the owner of what it describes as Canada’s biggest farm and ranch retail chain, made the announcement Monday night.

It said in a press release that it has obtained creditor protection and begun closing sales.

“The closures and liquidation efforts will commence immediately,” it wrote in the press release.

The company said it made the decision after “thorough evaluation of available options.”

“This was a profoundly difficult decision, but one that allows us to explore the best possible alternatives for the future of the Company,” Peavey Industries president and CEO Doug Anderson said in a statement.

Peavey said it faced “unprecedented challenges” in an industry experiencing record-low consumer confidence, inflationary pressures, rising operating costs, supply disruptions and a tough regulatory environment.

“The Company’s immediate priority is to generate liquidity through the closure process while continuing to work with funders, partners, and stakeholders to explore potential opportunities to preserve the brand,” the company wrote.

It didn’t provide details about its plans for the future.

The company previously said in another press release last week that it was closing 22 stores in Ontario and Nova Scotia before May, saying it is positioning itself for “future sustainability.”

However, staff at stores that weren’t initially included in the closures began to hear their locations would be shuttered, as well.

Bruce Winder, a retail analyst in Toronto, said he was surprised about the news of all the stores closing, which was first reported by online industry publication Retail Insider on Sunday.

As a medium-sized retailer, Peavey paid more for products than bigger stores that buy larger quantities of items, Winder said.

He wondered if the company experienced growing pains when it acquired TSC Stores in 2017 and stopped its collaboration with Ace Hardware at the end of 2024.

“Perhaps the farm industry is under a lot of pressure right now, price-wise, and folks started to look online or look at other big box stores that may carry similar assortments,” Winder said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Monday. “So that may have been an issue in terms of why they bowed out … their pricing may have been a little high.”

Winder expects Home Hardware, Home Depot and Amazon will likely pick up the business, though he said consumers appeared to be sad about the news on social media.

The retailer was formed in 1967, then known as National Farmway, with its first location in Dawson Creek, B.C. It became Peavey Mart, a unit of Peavey Company of Minneapolis, in 1975 before it returned to Canadian ownership in 1984.