Peace Bridge duty-free shop reopens under new owners
June 28, 2026 at 3:06 AM
A family company from Quebec has taken over the duty-free shop at the Fort Erie end of the Peace Bridge, reopening it on June 1 after the company that ran it before went bankrupt.
The new owner is IGL Duty Free, run by the Guay family. It won the Fort Erie shop through an open bidding process conducted by the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, which owns the bridge and the building.
The shop now goes by the name The Duty Free at Peace Bridge.
The company that ran the shop before, Peace Bridge Duty Free, was placed under court control in April 2025 because it could not pay its bills. The bridge authority said the old store owed $17 million in back rent. The Royal Bank of Canada said it was owed more than $3 million on top of that.
The old store never recovered after the pandemic, when the border closed and almost no one could cross. Business got worse when the number of border crossings dropped in subsequent years.
Canadian trips that included a U.S. visit fell 24 per cent in 2025 from the year before, which is attributed by many to President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war, along with his taunts about making Canada the 51st state.
Researchers at the University of Toronto studied where Canadians travelled and found that visits to American cities dropped by about 42 per cent over a recent one-year stretch.
The former shop once gave jobs to 90 people, which later fell to 25.
Justin Guay, a vice-president of the new company, has worked in Canada’s duty-free shops for more than 25 years. His company already runs three other duty-free shops along the Quebec border with the United States.
The company has filled the shelves back up, and plans to open a restaurant inside the shop, open around the clock, serving food cooked fresh daily.
The new owner plans to fix up the main store over time. It has lined up sales and deals running through to Christmas.
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About The Author
Andrew Hawlitzky
Andrew is a Niagara community journalist who has covered everything from local politics to annual festivals and breaking news. He works to make local news a platform where community voices lead the conversation. "If you don't like the news, go out and make some!"
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