VANCOUVER – Mountain Equipment Co-op announced plans Tuesday to open two new stores in Calgary within the next three years.

The company says it will open a 30,000-square foot location in the Seton Urban District of southeast Calgary in the fall of 2018, followed six months later by a 27,000-square foot store in west Calgary’s Medicine Hill community in 2019.

The Vancouver-based retailer says the stores will provide about 160 jobs through a mix of senior staff, full-time, part-time and casual positions.

The two new Calgary stores would deepen MEC’s recent investments in Alberta.

MEC’s South Edmonton Common location is scheduled to open this fall and the capital’s downtown store will be relocated to the Edmonton Brewery district next spring.

The store developments are part of an unprecedented period of growth for MEC.

Its sales topped $350 million for the first time last year, while membership grew by more than 225,000.

New stores are also set to open later this year in Laval, Que., and the Toronto suburb of North York.