Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is excited to announce that they have entered into an agreement with the new owners of the former Ten Thousand Villages (TTV) distribution centre to lease space in the building located in New Hamburg.
June 18 - New Hamburg, Ontario In January of this year, with much regret, MCC Canada announced the closure of the corporate operations of Ten Thousand Villages Canada, its fair-trade social enterprise, including the head office and distribution centre in New Hamburg. MCC Ontario is excited to announce that an agreement has been reached with the new owners of the former Ten Thousand Villages distribution centre to lease approximately 37,000 square feet of the building. The new owners are business partners in other ventures and real estate investors with an interest in helping support local businesses and give back to the community.
MCC Ontario’s plans for the former TTV distribution centre are three-fold:
The MCC rePurpose Centre in Elmira will be relocating its by-the-pound retail store and processing operations to the former TTV facility. It is anticipated the move will be completed in stages with the rePurpose store opening in mid-August and the donation processing and warehousing following later in the fall. Karla Richards, MCC's Social Enterprise Operations Manager, and the team lead at the MCC rePurpose Centre, is looking forward to continuing to repurpose, recycle, reuse and resell over 3 million pounds of donated products and merchandise at their new location. “This new location and modern warehousing will provide MCC Social Enterprise with more opportunity for growth. The facility will have additional process handling capability in support of MCC’s expanding social enterprise network.”
The MCC New Hamburg Thrift Centre (NHTC) will be moving part of its donation processing to the former TTV building allowing for a 5000 square foot expansion of their retail space. The timelines for this expansion have not been established, but Mark Patfield, General Manager of NHTC, is hoping to move forward with the development quickly. The NHTC is MCC’s highest sales volume thrift shop in Canada and this expansion provides a great opportunity to broaden our selection of quality used goods to our loyal customers. When complete, the larger and improved NHTC will be able to expand key departments such as fashion, furniture and housewares, feature over 13,000 square feet of selling space and remain a shopping destination in Waterloo region.
The MCC Material Resources warehouse currently located at 50 Kent in Kitchener will be moving much of its processing and storage facilities to the former TTV building to allow for increasing demand from partners around the globe for material support, as well as giving MCC Thrift on Kent shop additional retail and processing capacity. The sewing room, a smaller supply processing space, and education area, will remain at the Kitchener site. “We are very excited to be able to announce that we will now be storing MCC canned meat here in Ontario instead of shipping it to the Manitoba distribution centre,” said Jon Lebold, MCC Ontario’s Material Resources Coordinator. “This will allow us to much more efficiently distribute and store canned meat,” he continued. The supplies that MCC sends around the world offer comfort to families facing disaster or crisis. They are also a tangible way to remind people around the world that their needs are not forgotten.
“Despite the present uncertainties of COVID-19, this opportunity for additional warehouse space in the former TTV building will continue the social enterprise legacy and will increase capacity for relief, development and peace initiatives around the world,” said John Head, Executive Director of MCC Ontario.
One hundred years ago, MCC was formed by people of faith working together to help others in crisis. For the last century, we've continued to work through challenges together by providing life-changing support to our neighbours in Ontario and around the world.