HMS Office Supplies, owned by Henri and Gloria Gallant and located on Water St. in downtown Summerside, was nominated for the retail recognition along with businesses from British Colombia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario. The win marks the first time a company from P.E.I. has won a regular Lauriers de la PME award, which were established to highlight Francophone entrepreneurial excellence throughout Canada.
The banquet presented awards in five categories, for which 29 businesses had been nominated, including three other Island enterprises.
“I wanted to tell everyone, but I wasn’t allowed to; I was ready to explode,” Henri Gallant revealed about his reaction when he was informed a few weeks before the presentation.
HMS Office Supplies began with Gallant’s partnership with Paul Arsenault in 1982. They drew upon Gallant's ten years of experience with furniture sales, evolved the company’s products and services, and expanded its retail floor space. In 1999, Arsenault sold his shares to the Gallants.
The company fared well against other competition that set up in Summerside before a multinational installed a big-box office supplies specialty store about a decade ago. HMS decided to continue, relying on their commitment to high standards of customer service to weather the impact, as well as refining their niche in the marketplace.
Gallant did share the news with his staff ahead of the banquet.
“They helped us so much to survive and therefore to win this award,” he praised.
RDÉE Canada (Réseau de développement économique et d’employabilité) is the national organization engaged in economic development in Francophone and Acadian communities. RDÉE Î.-P.-É. is the Island incarnation of the national organization, incorporated in 2010 as an independent, non-profit organization, which has since revived the Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of P.E.I., and in 2013 began managing the Wellington Rural Action Centre.
