Opportunity knocks for Kaleden business

PENTICTON – Two doors have closed, but a new one is opening in a South Okanagan community hit by recent business closures.

JB and Sarav Bansoota of Kaleden see new opportunities as they open a new and expanded convenience store in a community that saw the closure of two businesses in the past year.

Kaleden’s general store closed last year, followed more recently by the closing of the Kaleden Restaurant.

Bansoota, who owns Kaleden Petro Can, recently built a new store on the property, doubling his retail space to 2,000 square feet. The old building was demolished last week and his new store is now in operation.

He plans to sell more groceries as he moves toward providing more of a “community store.”

“I’ll be stocking more groceries – I’m going to see what people say they need,” he says.

Bansoota says he was approached by a couple of franchise operations interested in setting up a satellite outlet in his store, but he says he “doesn’t want to get into it” just yet, although he is planning to offer such things as fresh sandwiches, soft ice cream and slushies.

“I have room for a franchise if things change in the future,” he says.

Bansoota also plans to add an automobile vacuum in his expanded parking lot.

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