An Asian grocery store giant continues to expand its footprint in Burnaby by announcing it will open a third store later in 2022 – just days after opening its second store in our city.
Sungiven Foods confirmed to the NOW in an email that it will be taking over the Greystone Village space that will be vacated in the coming months by SuperValu, which operated there for 10 years before its lease wasn’t renewed.
“I would like to let you know that we will expand our business in Burnaby again by taking the site at Greystone Village,” said Sungiven senior vice-president, Terence Fong. “But SuperValu will keep their business (for now). So we will start our work after that and hopefully we will serve this community in the coming fall.”
The renovations will be needed to give it that distinctive Sungiven look and have plenty of space for all of the hot items the company sells to customers.
Sungiven recently opened its second location in South Burnaby, in the Big Bend area at 5771 Marine Way.
The new South Burnaby location will be even bigger than the 6,300 square feet of space it occupies at Hastings and Gilmore in Burnaby. Sungiven has also based its headquarters in Burnaby and operates two stores in Vancouver.
Sungiven recently expanded into North Vancouver and has plans for a south Surrey location.
Fong told the NOW that the company’s name has to do with the sun giving so much nutrition to many of the items the chain sells to customers.
“We want to be more natural,” Fong says. “We offer healthy daily meals that are less processed and at a reasonable price.”
Sungiven is taking on the T&T chain of stores – the company has a store at Metrotown.
The stores feature everything you would expect to find at your favourite market, including specialty items and hot foods, alongside daily fresh bakery items, seafood and meats. They also serve customers the company’s range of high-quality health-conscious private brand products.
The company’s founders came up with the concept while living and going to school in North Burnaby in 2004. They took the concept back to China and opened more than 100 stores there before coming back to Metro Vancouver to open new stores. Plans are also in development to open up to 10 to 15 additional locations in Metro Vancouver in the future.
“We know it is not just what you buy that matters, but who you buy it from,” says Sungiven Foods co-founder Kathy Su. “Our goal is to become the friendly family-orientated grocery store for people across the Lower Mainland. That is why instead of opening a big box store, we are building locations across Metro Vancouver so that we can be a part of the communities that we are serving.
“We have spent a lot of time in Vancouver and have always been inspired by the city’s approach to food. High-quality, healthy, all-natural ingredients are prized on the West Coast and we decided to incorporate that philosophy into our stores. Now we are looking forward to sharing our community-driven Asian grocery store concept with the people and places that helped to inspire it."
