Pumping up business partnership

More than four years ago, Louise Dupuis and Pierre Pelletier were presented with an opportunity to take over a business in their community.
In the time that has passed, the siblings have turned a modest gas bar on the Lake Helen Reserve near Nipigon, Ont., into a thriving business with eight employees.
Now dubbed Pelletier’s Gas Bar and Native Art Gallery, the business earned its owners a Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund Business Award Oct. 20. The pair was presented with partnership of the year.
“We did a lot of work to the gas bar,” said Pelletier, who is also chief of the community.
“We totally updated the business ... and cleaned it up,” Dupuis said.
While business is good – sales are up 80 per cent from 2005 to 2009 – neither owner wants to take much of the credit.
“We have the best staff,” Dupuis said. “There is barely any turnover. People enjoy working for us.”
Having such a quality staff – six full-time and two part-time – has allowed Dupuis and Pelletier to maintain employment outside the business.
“We still have full lives outside (of the gas bar and gallery),” Dupuis said.
When they first took over the gas bar, they didn’t change much.
But two years ago, they added the art gallery, which draws its own clients.
“People definitely come in and love what we have to offer,” Dupuis said. “But there are also a lot of people who stop for gas and then look around at the fantastic local art and have to buy something.
“People come back because there is always something new.”