International home furnishing franchise, Budget Blinds is opening a new location and showroom in Ladysmith.
The grand opening is August 15 at 19 High Street, right across from Beantime Cafe. Budget Blinds owner David Anderson made the move to open a store in Ladysmith out of a desire to return to Island life. Anderson grew up in the Comox Valley, and has been operating a store in Courtenay along with locations in Delta, Surrey, and White Rock.
“I love Ladysmith, it’s such a cute little down,” Anderson said. “I thought it was a great spot, nice and central. It’s a very neat, cool looking community. I really like it there.”
The new Ladysmith location will service customers from Nanoose Bay to Shawnigan Lake. The existing location in Courtenay services from Port Hardy to Shawnigan Lake, so the new location will cut down on the amount of drive time for the company.
Anderson has brought an employee from the mainland with him. That employee has been living in the area over the last six months building the showroom. He also hired three other employees, a woman from Lake Cowichan to do sales, a woman from Ladysmith who will run the show room, and an installer from Nanaimo who is a red seal electrician as well.
“We try to hire locally as much as we can. We’re going to wait and see how it goes, and then we’ll probably bring on one or two people here in the next two months,” Anderson said.
Budget Blinds began in Orange County, California in 1992. Since then it has expanded to nearly 10,000 cities throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. Anderson has owned Budget Blinds franchises with his wife for over 10 years. He explained that the company provides more than just blinds.
“We do all kinds of blinds, shutters, drapery, roman shades, some bedding and pillows… and then we have a few other cool things we do as well. We do a lot of motorization and we’re starting to get into some home automation. We have access to Lutron lighting, and we have access to Sonos as well which is a WiFi speaker system. You can do a fully automated home for a fraction of the cost of what it used to be,” Anderson said.
Each work order is customized. Budget Blinds employees visit homes and are trained to provide home furnishings that suit the home. They offer a variety of options for customers to get blinds that are made to suit their lifestyle and home needs.
To celebrate their opening, Budget Blinds will be hosting a barbecue and will be giving out prizes on August 15 at their store. They will also have a draw for a $1,000 window covering package. Staff will be on hand to answer questions that anyone may have.