The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday December 6, 2003 - 3 P r o o f p o s it iv e g o o d c o m e BY CRAIG MACBRIDE t h in g s in th re e s Chris Tymstra enjoys watching the growth of his three local businesses and three small children OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 'I worked here part-time when I went through high school and helped out when I was in university." - Corbett's owner Chris Tymstra Chris Tymstra and I are sitting in the basement of Corbett's Ski and Sport on Speers Road. 1 have clear memories of trying on hockey equipment, prior to the beginning o f another season, in this basement over 15 years ago. The basement is where the overstock is kept now. The skates have been moved next door, to Corbett's Source for Sports, along with all the other hockey equipment. Witnessing the evolution of the Corbett's sales floor gives one a good idea of the evolution of winter sports in Canada. Over a decade ago, skiing became more popular and prof itable, and skiing equipment crept in and then took over much of Corbett's. Then came snowboarding, which contin ues to grow, converting many people who had been skiers and getting many young people to skip skiing entirely, and go right into the more youthful sport. Now, the main floor of Corbett's is all helmets, bindings, skis and snowboards, and toques and gloves made out of unpronounceable hyper-micro-fibres. Tymstra witnessed the change firsthand. Though he's only 42 years old, and has only owned Corbett's for 10 years, buy ing it off his father-in-law, he has worked in Corbett's, on and off, for 27 years. "Corbett's has been around for 60 years," Tymstra says. "1 worked here part-time when I went through high school and helped out when I was in university." He added, "I think everyone knew I intended on taking over." One of the first things Tymstra did when he took over Corbett's was close it down during the summers. The amount of money they were spending to stay open for a few cus tomers didn't make sense, and with closing down. Corbett's saved a fair amount o f money. Tymstra is the third owner of the store. The store's name sake founded the establishment, sold it to Ken Brown, Tymstra's father-in-law, who in turn sold it to Tymstra. Not only did Tymstra take over Corbett's a decade ago, but he has also opened two more ventures in the past year. Eight months ago, he opened the Kelsey's location on Trafalgar Road in north Oakville, and just last weekend Action Sports Outlet (ASO), on South Service Road, between Dorval Drive and Fourth Line, opened. He now signs about 200 cheques every payday for his employees. Though Kelsey's is in its infancy, and ASO's a newborn. Tymstra considers both successful. With Kelsey's, "immediately, we were 30 per cent over our medium projection, which exceeded our best projec tions," he said. Likewise, ASO has been giving great early signs o f suc cess. An outlet store that is buying out extra stock from Corbett's suppliers, he's selling "Grade-A" products for low prices. "No one's leaving without buying something," he said. In his modest empire, Kelsey's is the piece that seems out o f place. In fact, Tymstra and his wife. Kim Brown, were looking to open another ski and snowboard shop, somewhere nearer Ontario's large ski runs, like Collingwood. It was with the money they saved from closing Corbett's in the summer that allowed them to think about opening a new store. (See 'Family' page 5) BARRIE ERSKINE O a k ville Beaver CALIFORNIA & PLANTATION SHUTTERS v in y lb ilr W ood 8c vinyl sh u tters s u p p lie d & in sta lle d . H igh Q uality at A fford able Prices. W e a ls o c a r r y a f u ll lin e o f Hlintei HunterDouglas Platinum Winner in "Best Shutters" category SHUTTERS ETC. S e w i n g O a k v ille w ith S h o p a t H o m e S e r v ic e I * Authorized \ in\lhilt dealer w w w . si n i t t e r s e t c .c a