For the past 17 years, the Foget name has been synonymous with the Sobeys stores at Trim and Innes Road and Tenth Line and Brian Coburn Blvd.

Alan Forget opened the very first Sobeys store at Trim and Innes in 2007. Ten years later his son Eric opened a Sobeys franchise at Tenth Line Road and Brian Coburn Blvd. Together they put the Sobeys brand on the map in Orléans.

Alan retired three years ago and Eric was given a position at Sobeys regional headquarters in 2023.

Taking their place are two dynamic individuals who are following in the footsteps of Alan and Eric Foget by putting the community first and giving back when-ever they can.

Over the next two weeks we will be intro-ducing the new owners to our readers and the Orléans community at large.

First up is Dereck Sawh, the new owner of the Trim Road store.

Dereck’s is a true success story. He has worked his way up from being a part-time clerk as a 15-yeat-old at the Sobey’s store in East York in 2007, to eventually becoming an assistant manager at the busiest store in the province in 2023, and now owning his own franchise at the ripe old age of 33.

His rise to success was a combination of hard work, merit and having a number of people who believed in him and mentored him along the way.

“I’ve had some pretty good leaders in my career who I’m thankful for and helped guide me down the right path” says Dereck.

But owning his own Sobey’s store was not his first career choice. When he first began studying business management in university, he didn’t even think of it as a remote possibility.

Even after he was hired as a full-time receiver the day after he graduated from university, he thought of the job as a way to continue his education while padding his resume. But then one thing led to another on his meteoric rise through the ranks.

“Every time I’ve moved up the rank, I thought that was it,” says Dereck. “It was like, ‘Check mark done and I’ll still find my dream job.’”

During his time as a receiver his boss suggested he go into the Sobey’s manage-ment training program.

After graduating from the program, he was promoted to grocery manager and eventually assistant store manager at the number one store in Ontario located in Etobicoke.

Throughout his Sobey’s journey, Sawh has developed a passion for not only run-ning a grocery store, but the ability it gave him to help his community.

“I enjoy people. I enjoy the staff. It’s something I’ve fallen in love with. I just love coming to work,” says Sawh.

But when he found out that the Trim Road store was available, Sawh didn’t know where Orléans was. He had to Google it first. In fact, he had never been to Ottawa before. The only thing he knew is that the store was regularly among the top 10 in sales in the province whenever the corporate sales reports came out.

After talking the opportunity over with his wife, he accepted the offer within 24 hours and they immediately put their house up for rent and made plans to move to Orléans. At the time, Dereck’s wife was six months pregnant with their second child.

They moved to Orléans in February and his daughter was born in May. The couple also has a two-year-old son.

Since taking over the Trim Road store, Dereck has helped the Orléans Cumberland food bank, the Orléans Legion and food drives organized by several area schools including Avalon Elementary School. He also accepts co-op students from nearby École secondaire Gisèle-Lalonde.

“Any small thing we can assist with, we help out,” says Dereck. “The challenge is always to maintain and elevate.”