MINISO is bringing its SUPER MINISO concept to Canada for the first time, with a location set to open October 10 at Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga and another planned for CF Polo Park in Winnipeg.
The format adds another layer to the Chinese retailer’s Canadian expansion as MINISO moves beyond the relatively small lifestyle stores that established the brand in the market. Canada is already home to MINISO LAND, a separate and more heavily IP-driven concept that opened at West Edmonton Mall last year, with another planned for CF Toronto Eaton Centre.
Together, the concepts point to a more segmented approach to Canadian real estate, with MINISO deploying different store formats and merchandise mixes across major shopping centres.
What is SUPER MINISO?
MINISO founder and CEO Ye Guofu described SUPER MINISO during the company’s August earnings call as its “most important innovation of 2026.”
The concept is designed to bring the company’s growing intellectual-property business to a broader mass-market customer while retaining the general merchandise and value positioning associated with MINISO. SUPER MINISO stores generally span about 600 to 1,000 square metres, or roughly 6,500 to 10,800 square feet, with approximately half of the assortment devoted to IP merchandise and the other half to general lifestyle products.
The merchandise mix differentiates SUPER MINISO from some of the company’s more IP-intensive concepts. MINISO has spent the past several years developing a portfolio of formats, including MINISO LAND and MINISO FRIENDS, as characters, collaborations and collectibles become a larger part of its business.
“The store is a space. IP is a soul to fill it,” Ye told investors.
The strategy behind the phrase is straightforward. Larger stores provide more room to showcase IP merchandise, while a steady flow of characters and collaborations gives customers more reasons to visit.
Square One Becomes Canadian Launch Market
The Square One store will become Canada’s first SUPER MINISO when it opens October 10. MINISO is promoting Naruto and Stitch for the opening alongside YOYO, a proprietary MINISO character that forms part of the company’s effort to develop IP it owns alongside licensed properties.
The location arrives amid a broader change in Square One’s tenant mix. POP MART and LEGO are also opening stores at the Mississauga shopping centre, creating a notable concentration of retailers selling toys, collectibles and merchandise tied to established characters and fan communities.
A second SUPER MINISO is planned for CF Polo Park in Winnipeg, where MINISO already operates a conventional store. MINISO’s verified corporate account lists November 7 as the next Winnipeg stop on its YOYO “Wish Journey” campaign. Having a second Canadian store in the pipeline indicates MINISO sees applications for the format beyond its initial Square One launch.
SUPER MINISO Joins MINISO LAND in Canada
SUPER MINISO is one of several larger MINISO formats now appearing in major Canadian malls. The retailer opened Canada’s first MINISO LAND at West Edmonton Mall in November 2025, bringing a significantly larger and more IP-intensive version of the brand to the market.
At approximately 12,000 square feet, the West Edmonton Mall store was far larger than MINISO’s traditional Canadian locations and was designed around a heavy concentration of licensed characters, collectibles and other IP merchandise. MINISO said the location achieved record opening sales and later described its performance as a North American single-day sales record.
A second Canadian MINISO LAND, spanning approximately 8,100 square feet, is planned for CF Toronto Eaton Centre. LAND and SUPER MINISO serve somewhat different roles: MINISO LAND pushes further into the IP-led destination-store model, while SUPER MINISO maintains a roughly even split between IP merchandise and the general lifestyle products that built MINISO’s original value proposition.
MINISO is consequently developing a portfolio of formats that can be matched with different shopping centres, customers and real estate opportunities. Canada has already seen other variations on the conventional model, including an IP Collection Store at CF Toronto Eaton Centre and a larger-format location at CF Shops at Don Mills, while LAND and SUPER MINISO take the strategy considerably further.
Larger Stores Have an Economic Rationale
MINISO’s interest in larger stores is backed by what management says are better economics. During the August earnings call, Ye said the company’s broader family of large-format stores was generating approximately twice the sales per square metre of conventional MINISO locations.
Management also said stores opened in 2026 were significantly larger while maintaining sales productivity per square metre and improving their rent-to-sales ratios. Ye told analysts that large-format locations had initially achieved investment payback in as little as six months and were now averaging around one year, compared with substantially longer periods for regular stores.
He argued that the performance had persisted beyond the initial opening period instead of reflecting a temporary novelty effect. The figures apply to MINISO’s larger-format business generally and are not forecasts for Square One or Polo Park, but they explain why the company is prepared to take considerably more space than a conventional MINISO requires.
There is a real estate argument as well. Management says its newer large stores can become traffic generators for shopping centres, potentially strengthening the case for landlords to accommodate larger footprints at major regional malls.
IP Merchandise Drives Higher Spending
The other side of the strategy is merchandise. MINISO works with globally recognized properties including Disney, Sanrio and Harry Potter, while increasingly developing characters of its own.
YOYO, its first proprietary IP, had expanded into 53 countries within roughly a year and generated nearly RMB 500 million in related revenue during the first half of 2026, according to management. The company says customers engaged with IP merchandise are particularly valuable, reporting average transaction values among IP-oriented members at more than three times those of non-IP members, along with higher purchase frequency and retention.
Larger stores give MINISO room for deeper assortments and product launches, while frequently changing IP merchandise can encourage repeat visits. The approach also creates an operational dependency: MINISO needs a consistent pipeline of desirable new products if IP is going to remain a reliable traffic driver.
The company saw that risk emerge in North America during the second quarter. MINISO acknowledged that same-store performance moderated after the company failed to maintain a sufficiently consistent cadence of new IP launches, while stock shortages involving popular products also affected sales.
For a retailer putting greater weight on characters and collectibles, merchandise freshness becomes part of the store economics. More space is useful only if MINISO can keep filling it with products customers want to come back for.
Canadian Expansion Comes as MINISO Becomes More Selective
The arrival of SUPER MINISO comes as MINISO reassesses how it expands internationally. Management acknowledged in August that parts of its overseas business had placed too much emphasis on scale and said the company was shifting its international strategy from “scale first” toward “quality first,” with greater attention to the performance of individual stores.
North America remains one of MINISO’s stronger international markets. Revenue in the region increased 37% during the first half of 2026 to nearly RMB 1.8 billion, although same-store sales increased at a more moderate mid-single-digit rate and softened during the second quarter.
The Canadian activity is notable against that backdrop. MINISO is becoming more selective internationally while putting some of its newer and more ambitious formats into Square One, West Edmonton Mall, CF Toronto Eaton Centre and CF Polo Park.
The company that entered Canada primarily through relatively small value-oriented lifestyle stores is becoming harder to describe with a single store prototype. Conventional MINISO locations remain part of the network, while larger concepts built around IP, collectibles and higher-volume mall locations are taking a more prominent role.
SUPER MINISO is the latest addition to that strategy. Its debut at Square One, followed by the planned Polo Park location, adds another format to a Canadian network that is becoming larger, more varied and increasingly central to MINISO’s IP-led retail model.
