Sleepy time Charlottetown

Sleep Country will move into Buchanan Drive plaza

A Canadian franchise specializing in mattress sales is coming to Charlottetown.

Plazacorp Retail REIT, the developer that owns a number of properties in Charlottetown and Summerside, is now listing Sleep Country as one of its customers on Buchanan Drive in Charlottetown.

Laura Baker, vice-president of marketing for Sleep County Canada, tells The Guardian they expect to open in Charlottetown early this summer, but a specific date is not yet available.

Baker said the store will occupy 6,500 square feet of space in a stand-alone building next to Sunlife Financial as part of the second phase of the Buchanan Drive Plaza project. It will employ three to four sales associates the company calls sleep experts.

“Our sleep experts are highly trained and ask the right questions to help match people to the mattress and pillows that are right for their sleep needs. No two people are the same, so it’s important to get the right sleep products for your needs,’’ she said.

Sleep Country opened in Halifax in 2013 and was a success. Stores followed in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton, N.B., last year.

“The Maritimes have provided Sleep Country with a very warm welcome and we’re very excited to bring better sleep to P. E. I.,’’ Baker said.

It’s the same plaza that currently boasts tenants such as HomeSense (17,825 square feet), Mark’s (20,000 square feet) and Sunlife (4,044 square feet).

There is one vacancy left in the plaza, next to the Mark’s Work Wearhouse location. It features up to 19,601 square feet of retail space.

Sleep Country boasts that it is the No. 1 mattress retailer in Canada, carrying a wide selection of pillows, linens, headboards and other sleep accessories. There are 170 corporate-owned stores across Canada.

Caterpillar says it plans to close five plants and trim about 670 jobs in Illinois and several other states, in the latest phase of a larger cost-cutting campaign announced last year.

The mining and construction equipment company will cut about 230 jobs for office and production workers at a major manufacturing campus in East Peoria, Illinois, where Caterpillar says it's consolidating some manufacturing and transferring some work to outside contractors.