Frank Sobey

Frank H. Sobey, OC (May 24 1902 – December 15, 1985) was a Canadian industrialist who was the primary builder of the Sobeys Stores chain.

Born in Lyons Brook, Nova Scotia, to John William (J.W.) Sobey and Eliza Sobey, he was three years old when his family moved from the farming community to the nearby then-booming coal mining town of Stellarton. In 1907 his father purchased a meat retailing business in town and became a butcher, peddling meat products door to door on a horse-drawn wagon. In 1912 J.W. built a 2-storey store in Stellarton's central business district selling mostly meat and vegetables.

In an era where education opportunities were limited in small Maritime towns, Frank Sobey left school after Grade 8. However, he had an entrepreneurial mindset and at age sixteen enrolled in a business college. In 1924 he persuaded his father to expand the store to carry a full range of groceries and the family began expanding, opening stores in the nearby industrial towns of New Glasgow, Trenton and Westville, as well as the university town of Antigonish. In the early 1940s, Frank wished to purchase a building on Archimedes Street in New Glasgow for a supermarket. The property was owned by a company named Empire Company Ltd. and in order to acquire the building, he purchased the company itself; Empire was transformed into the family's holding company and was privatized in 1981.

Through Empire Company Ltd., Frank Sobey purchased a local drive-in theatre (renaming it Empire Theatre) and later built a chain of movie theaters, in addition to substantial commercial and residential real estate holdings. In 1971, while still remaining active in the business, he handed over formal control of the company's operations to his three sons, David, Donald and William Sobey. In the late 1950s Premier Robert Stanfield appointed Frank Sobey as president of Industrial Estates Limited with a salary of $1/year; Sobey is credited with guiding IEL to make investments in the 1960s that significantly expanded and diversified Nova Scotia's economy. Sobey was also one of the investors behind Peter Munk (chairman of Barrick Gold) in founding Clairtone.

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