Aubrey's Meats is Proud to be the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Bronze Winner for Ottawa SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR for 2008

ISN’T THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH A WONDERFUL THING!

First let us thank you for your support and truly apologize for all the ill feeling this has created.

We understand the frustration. It was not the intention of anyone at Aubrey’s, past or present, to have this happen. To all our clients old and new, we are doing everything we can to make sure you do not lose money.

The store is not going to go bankrupt. The only way Aubrey’s will close is if we are not given a permanent lease by the City of Ottawa. We have too much of our own hard earned dollars invested.

The interview with the TV stations did not say what we had wanted them to. This is apparent by the amount of comments which are all over the internet. However, some good came of it. Clients whom had been loyal to the store returned for the great service to which they had become accustomed and they knew there would be product available. Thank you for that.

The original KAHOOT coupon was the root of this problem. We had requested it to be posted after March break 2011 to give us time to figure out how we would manage it. KAHOOT did not put any limitations (fine print) on their coupon. We were assured by the sales representative from KAHOOT not to worry; they would support us if we ran into a cash flow problem. We all know how that went. We were told the second coupon with KAHOOT was for charity, (SENS foundation). We have requested a statement of that transaction. However, we are still waiting.

The funds from the original deal (KAHOOT) were indeed used to pay the city (Bad call? Maybe). If we did not, the store would have closed. Mr. Kennelly did not want that to happen, so out of love and respect for him, we struggled to keep his passion alive. Now we are paying the price. All other coupons were used for the daily supplies required to maintain the inventory to meet your demand.

By May, the rent was paid up to date and the store was to be sold to Catherine, at which time a lease would have been obtained, and proper financing (not coupons) would have been put into place. Banks need some guarantee as we all know. Unfortunately, Brian passed away before terms could be agreed upon. The store is on a month-to-month lease, but it has no ownership. We love the store and want it to be there for years to come. In order for this to happen, we need an owner. A proper valuation of the store is required, so at this time all coupons/gift cards are suspended until May 1st 2012.

With positive support we will make that happen; we have investors waiting to invest.

At the end of the day coupons are not the way to go in this industry. No matter how hard we tried, we always came up short. We were assured by the coupon companies that if we put a limit on how much could be redeemed on a daily basis, each client would spend an extra $10-$20, giving us the required cash flow for the next order. That was not always the case; we have had to take two chicken wings out of a bag to make the total under $50.00. For those of you that did help us with that, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We have met some wonderful people that we would not have met otherwise.

It is our intention to make sure you do not lose any money. With that being said, if you don’t want to wait until May, most of the coupon companies are issuing refunds. We have records of all transactions; the company will be confirming the balance remaining on your coupon/gift card with us.

See you in May.

The staff at Aubrey’s