It was a celebration two years in the making as staff, customers and dignitaries gathered Saturday to cut the ribbon on a 6,000 square foot expansion to Sunny Day Products in Winkler.

The addition not only expands warehouse space at the facility located on Manitoba Road, but also roughly triples the size of the former storefront, which now boasts added refrigeration units to further ensure product quality, and nearly triple the number of bulk bins. The goal, to further improve customer service while meeting a growth in demand for healthy snacks, like a variety of raw and roasted nuts, and authentic Mexican food, and drinks.

"We want to make sure that customers feel they are being taken care of when they come here," said company president, Dick Plett. "If they have questions we are there to answer them, we try to have our staff well-informed so they know what product is where and what they may potentially may be looking for, or something similar that may serve them as well."

Plett says they first started thinking about adding on to the current facility a few years ago and finally embarked on the project last fall. However, the effort got off to a rough start thanks to some untimely weather which led to an overall delay in completion.

Plett explained the ground had just been dug for the foundation when about 4 inches of rain flooded the hole. Once that was cleaned up and the rebar was laid in preparation for the slab to be poured, a winter storm hit and dropped 6 inches of snow on the spot. He says progress moved along pretty well after that until their order of cooler doors was delayed because COVID-19 forced the temporary shutdown of the Montreal company they were coming from.

"All in all, here were are. We're glad to be here, we're glad it still worked out and we're glad the store is meeting the needs of the people," he added.

Plett thanks the community for their support over the 20 years that Sunny Day has been in business, and is grateful for a staff that goes above and beyond every day.

The 6,000 square foot expansion added warehouse space and nearly tripled the storefront.