In the last edition of the Orléans Star I wrote about Dereck Sawh, the new owner of the Sobeys store on Trim Road. This week I’m writing about Kory Wang who took over the Sobeys store at Tenth Line Road and Brian Coburn Blvd. in June.

The two men are actually good friends who went through the Sobeys management training program together eight years ago.

Like Dereck, Kory started out as part-time cashier and worked his way up until event-
ually owning and running his own store.

It’s a remarkable achievement consider-ing the fact that he started out as an inter-national student from northern China and very nearly went back if not for a random twist of fate early on in his Sobeys journey.

After graduating from the international business administration program at the University of Toronto in 2009, Kory got a job as a part-time cashier in a Toronto-area store through a friend.

“My English was so bad at the time I couldn’t even pronounce Sobeys properly. I pronounced it Sobuy,” laughs Kory as he retells his story.

After a year working as a cashier, he got his first full-time job working as a receiver and used it to apply for a skilled worker designation on his immigration application.

Unfortunately, his application was denied because it wasn’t skilled enough. Then a month later, with only a month left on his three-year work permit, a front end management position opened up and Kory used it to amend his immigration application which was ultimately accepted meaning he could stay in Canada. He hasn’t looked back since.

Thanks to some excellent mentors who helped him along the way, Kory moved up through the ranks going from receiver to grocery manager, to a lead position at the Sobeys store in Aurora in 2015.

In 2016, Kory entered the management training program which grooms up and coming department managers to become assistant store managers known as ASMs. He, along with Dereck and another friend Dennis, were the only people of colour in the program at the time and the three have remained close friends ever since.

After graduating from the management training program, Kory was given his own store to manage in Mount Pleasant.

After increasing the profitability of that store he was given a bigger store where he remained for a couple of years until the opportunity came up to buy his first franchise at Hazeldean and Terry Fox in Kanata in 2019.

“I didn’t even know where Kanata was,” says Kory, “but it was a great opportunity for me to own my own store.”

Two months after he took over the store in Kanata, the COVID pandemic started.

After successfully navigating the store through the pandemic, Kory started looking for a new challenge. With his five-year franchise agreement about to expire, he was presented with the opportunity to take over the Tenth Line Road store in June when the former store owner, Eric Foget, was moved up to a regional management position.

“I was becoming too comfortable in Kanata. There was no challenge anymore and taking over a new store comes with a whole new set of challenges,” says Kory.

Since taking over the Tenth Line store, Kory has been working closely with his old friend Dereck who bought the Trim Road store last February. The two share the same commitment to given back to the community and supporting local organizations like the Orléans-Cumberland food bank.

Kory was also able to lure his former assistant manager in Kanata, to join him her in Orléans.

“Kim who worked with me for five years in Kanata,” says Kory. “We make such a great team. My weaknesses are her strengths and vice versa.”

Kory also has a very supportive spouse at home who looks after their eight-year-old son Kayden, who plays competitive hockey, and their 11-year-old daughter Kaylee, who is a talented figure skater.

Suffice it to say that Kory is living the Canadian dream – from foreign university student to Sobeys store owner, thanks to a combination of hard work and a desire to constantly raise the bar both in terms of his own abilities and his expectations.