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Innovative Grocery Chain Freson Bros. Discusses Growth Plans

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Freson Bros.

Freson Bros. isn’t just a normal grocery store chain in Alberta.

“We actually don’t want to call ourselves a grocery store,” says Doug Lovsin, president of Freson Bros., which is based in Stony Plain, Alberta.

“Our promise is to deliver a unique Alberta food experience. That’s our promise . . . . We’re a food market. We’re actually trying to create a space that we feel fits what it is that we do.”

“The most successful businesses solve people’s problems and we’re trying to solve time-starved families’ problems by delivering high-quality Alberta meals as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” adds Lovsin.

The company has 15 stores – all in Alberta – and is currently building its 16th in Fort Saskatchewan. It has identified its 17th store which will be its first one in Edmonton.

The Fort Saskatchewan store is expected to open in the spring of 2018 and the Edmonton store will open in the spring of 2020.

“The plan is to grow to 20 stores by 2026. We feel if we can continue to meet the needs of the consumer we will grow and expand in Alberta into larger markets outside of Edmonton metro and of course we will keep an eye on expansion even beyond major Edmonton markets,” says Lovsin.

Perhaps even outside the province.

Lovsin’s brother Mike is the chairman of the company and his other brother Ken is the vice-president of IT.

Freson Market Ltd. began on October 20, 1955 when Frank Lovsin opened a butcher shop with his two partners, Frank Resek and Frank’s father, Leo Resek from Edson, Alberta.

The company says the name Freson was derived from a combination of the letters in the respective partner’s names. The letter “F” in Frank, the letters “RES” in Resek and the “IN” in Lovsin were put together to form the name “FRESIN”.

“The bank manager at the time however, misspelled the name on the company documents, nobody argued the proper spelling, hence the name Freson Market Ltd. was born,” says the company’s website.

“The first butcher shop was in Hinton, Alberta and the cost of the building was $2700. The original building was built on skids and was on a thirty day ground rent policy. It was 24 feet wide and 30 feet long with a power plant in the back.”

Lovsin says Freson Bros. was born in 2008 and over the years it’s re-branded and re-modelled of all its stores.

Freson Bros

“My dad started in the meat business. He saw right away in the first year if he didn’t get into the grocery world he was vulnerable. Within two years he started selling groceries and he partnered with IGA. The growth of our company has been with IGA up until really we opened our first Freson Bros. store in 2009. We recognized that the future of our company depended on us creating some distinction in the market and being different. So we really embarked on looking at what people are looking for. What problems can we solve?,” says Lovsin.

“And people today are time starved. We knew that bringing high-quality, restaurant quality food into our store was what was going to solve a lot of problems. We’ve been working on this for a number of years.”

With that in mind, the company opened its first Freson Bros. Fresh Market store in Stony Plain in March 2013.

The concept has several unique features:

  • A root cellar where root vegetables are kept in a refrigerated room;

  • Banj’s Smokehouse makes a variety of products right in the meat department. Butchers cut all the meat in-house and the store only sells Alberta beef, pork and chicken;

  • Fresh fish is available Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday;

  • The bakery is what is called a “scratch bakery” anchored by a cold fermentation program – the old way of baking. It uses only Alberta flour;

  • The deli and the hot food area serves restaurant quality food cooked in the kitchen. Nothing is ever frozen and just heated up. All the meat is slow cooked;

  • The deli area has a hot buffet with the menu changing daily;

  • Every Friday is all you can eat fish and chips. Every Wednesday there is all you can eat pasta. There’s a 20-foot salad bar with a 75-seat restaurant with a fireplace.

“That makes us different. That’s our brand new Freson Bros. store in Stony Plain and that is to address the changing needs of today’s consumers,” says Lovsin.

The next store in Fort Saskatchewan will be a sister store to the Fresh Market concept.

“We call it version 1.5. Actually our Rabbit Hill (Road) location in Edmonton will be 2.5. It will be advanced from Stony Plain and Fort Saskatchewan,” says Lovsin.

Brief: Miu Miu at Holts, McArthurGlen Outlets to Expand, Structube Building Massive Warehouse

By
Craig Patterson
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Miu Miu Installs Gigantic Handbag at Yorkdale’s Holts

Luxury brand Miu Miu (under Prada ownership) has just unveiled a playful installation in front of Holt Renfrew at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. It’s part of a promotion for the Miu Lady Bag, which is carried in the recently relocated Miu Miu shop-in-store concession at Holt’s. 

The ‘handbag’ is so large that you can walk right through it — inside are video screens playing a series of short films to promote the story of the Miu Lady bag. More photos can be found here on Yorkdale’s website, and the installation runs until November 15th. 

Miu Miu recently unveiled a new boutique on the ground floor of Holt Renfrew at Yorkdale, sporting a blue interior similar to the Miu Miu boutique at Nordstrom at CF Toronto Eaton Centre that opened last year. Holt Renfrew continues to renovate parts of its Yorkdale store and is adding new boutiques and expanding others, with some big announcements to be made in the the coming weeks. 

Innovative Downtown Oakville Pop-Up Initiative Secures 1st Pop-up

Downtown Oakville has 8 dedicated retail spaces that are being animated with temporary tenants, in an effort to build further buzz in the community’s beautiful downtown core. The partnership between landlord Bentall Kennedy and innovative facilitator pop-up go (spelled lowercase) has announced that two fashion designers will be doing a month-long pop-up. 

Designers Angela Huntington (of brand HUNTINGTON) and Andrew Majtenyi (of brand By Andrew) are known for their Canadian-made brands with British flair. British-born designer, Angela Huntington, aims to create bold yet sophisticated wardrobe essentials in her HUNTINGTON collection. Andrew Majtenyi, as seen in British Vogue, and his collection By Andrew, bring a runway quality to the retail scene of Downtown Oakville. 

With the help of pop-up go, both designers have launched their pop-up to strategically access one of the most affluent locations in the Greater Toronto Area — an impressive 47% of households earning an annual income of over $100,000. The four-week-long activation will help both designers test consumer demand and expand into a new market.

“Brands are turning to pop-ups to create a unique experience for their consumers – and the right location is vital to their success,” said Linda Farha, pop-up go’s Founder and Chief Connector. “We look at the brand holistically, and match our clients with a space that will help achieve their business goals.”

MINISO Opens at Park Royal

Value-priced Chinese retailer MINISO, which positions itself as a Japanese lifestyle brand, has opened its newest Canadian store at West Vancouver’s Park Royal. MINISO is already a hit with consumers in the Vancouver area, after having opened several locations this year. The company has also just opened its first Ontario store at Pickering Town Centre, and MINISO has said that it plans to eventually operate as many as 500 stores across Canada. 

MINISO could potentially take market share away from homegrown retailers like Dollarama and others. There’s an excellent article in Maclean’s discussing MINISO and how it could impact Canadian retail, where Retail Insider’s Craig Patterson is also quoted. 

(Photos below are of the newly opened Park Royal store) 

Bayview Village to Host November Pop-Ups

Toronto’s Bayview Village centre will see the Detox Market and MoRoCo Chocolat open individual pop-up locations in early November. Both will open in the mall’s ‘East Lobby’ adjacent to Pusateri’s Fine Foods, and be open for several months. 

The Detox Market is a Toronto-based retailer that specializes in eco-friendly brands in beauty, wellness and health. MoRoCo Chocolat is a popular Toronto-based artisan chocolate maker, known for its unique designs (its chocolate stilettos have been a hit with shoppers). 

Toronto’s Bayview Village is one of Canada’s most productive malls in terms of sales per square foot, which shouldn’t be a surprise — it’s also located in one of the wealthiest areas in the country, and benefits from convenient highway and transit access. 

NYC designer SAM. Launches TNT Shop-in-Store

Last week, Suzanne Schwartz, Head Designer and Chief Creative Director of SAM. was in Toronto to showcase her line of fashion-forward outerwear for men, women and children. Innovative multi-brand retailer TNT The New Trend has provided SAM. NYC with a dedicated retail space in its Yorkville Village store, with visibility from the centre’s ‘Oval’. 

The SAM brand launched in 2011 by the original creators of the Andrew Marc Brand, Andrew and Suzanne Schwartz, and its name is derived from the initials of two, Suzanne and Andrew Marc.

Jackets in a variety of colours feature multi-functionality, as well as ample use of fur in some styles. 

Galerie de Bellefeuille Opens at Yorkville Village

On Wednesday night, there was a grand opening for the stunning new Galerie de Bellefeuille at Toronto’s Yorkville Village. It’s the first Toronto location for the Montreal-based gallery, and a fourth for founders Helen and Jacques Bellefeuille, who have over 40 years of experience in the art industry. 

The owners strive to highlight internationally acclaimed artists and the Toronto gallery offers works by artists like Damien Hirst, David Drebin, Jonathan Siliger and more in the 5,000-square foot space. 

Jeff Berkowitz of Aurora Realty Consultants negotiated the deal on behalf of Galerie de Bellefeuille. 

The gallery is sure to be a hit — Yorkville is a high density, affluent area and Yorkville Village and the adjacent area continues to add luxury boutiques. Next week we’ll be announcing a 6,500 square foot flagship location for a luxury brand opening on Yorkville Avenue. 

Structube to Build Massive Warehouse

Montreal-based value-priced furniture retailer Structube is going to be building a massive 650,000 square foot warehouse in Laval, near Montreal, at a cost of $80 million, according to a report in La Presse. When completed, it will be the largest warehouse in all of Laval. 

The La Presse article notes that the building will include a 40,000 square foot retail space as well as offices for administrative employees. The company is growing and ran out of room at its current headquarters. 

Structube is planning to enter the United States in 2018 and as well, it recently launched a new store format that will be 50,000 square feet — considerably larger than its current stores. 

Nespresso gets with the times and installs wi-fi

Some patrons of Canadian Nespresso locations have complained that they lack in-store wi-fi — that’s about to change, with a partnership with Orange Business Services, which will be providing Nespresso with internet and wi-fi in more than 35 countries. 

Nespresso has launched an app that can be downloaded as well, providing immediate connection to Nespresso retail location wi-fi. 

This will provide patrons of Nespresso cafes convenient wi-fi — staff in the massive Toronto  Nespresso flagship on Cumberland Street had said that the cafe’s lack of wi-fi was intentional and ‘European’, though it appears opinions have since changed. 

McArthurGlen Vancouver Outlets to Expand

Vancouver’s McArthurGlen Designer Outlets is going to be growing in size — the popular 243,000 square foot outlet shopping centre opened in the summer of 2015, and it’s planning to add a second phase with 78,000 square feet of retail space that is expected to open in the spring of 2019. 

The centre features a range of upscale retailers, including first-to-market retailer Lipault Paris, which opened its first Canadian location at McArthurGlen in July of 2017. 

The landlord is working with Teresa Spataro of brokerage RKF to fill the space. 

Retail Insider will now be regularly including these briefs as part of our expanding reporting mandate. For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Craig Patterson at: craig@retail-insider.com. 

For more of today’s retail news, visit: Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: November 3, 2017

Leger to Release WOW Customer Experience Index Results at Toronto and Montreal Events

By
Retail Insider
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Leger invites you to attend the annual WOW Customer Experience Index. Be the first to see who the top retailers are in customer experience in Ontario and in Quebec by attending one of Leger’s events.

See who is winning in the changing retail landscape.  Join them to learn how over 15,000 consumers rated their in-store experiences. Learn who is winning the customer’s vote! Learn how your organization ranks vs. key competitors.

Presentations will include:

  • 2017 WOW Index highlights
  • Rank order of retailers by sector
  • Digital profiles of customers

Simply click on the link to be our guest.

Toronto: November 14th at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast at the St. James Cathedral. https://goo.gl/8EnV8R

Montreal: November 22nd at 5:00 p.m. for cocktails at Leger’s head office. https://goo.gl/ABV84t

Job Vacancies a Serious Threat to Canadian Retail Industry

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Image: Yorkville Village

There is a talent crisis in the retail industry and retailers have to start thinking very differently about how they are going to fill their growing vacancies.

Suzanne Sears

“Retailers have lost touch with the job market in the sense of who wants to work in retail, what they need to pay, and what the ground level is asking in terms of career,” says Suzanne Sears, of Toronto-based Best Retail Careers International Inc., which is retained primarily by retailers to do private searches to fill vacancies or key replacements from the CEO to sales clerk level.

“It’s rare to see a retailer that doesn’t have a 20 to 50 per cent vacancy rate in their stores. It’s very rare to see a retailer that doesn’t have 20 to 50 per cent annual turnover. It’s rare to see a job that gets filled even at the lowest level. The lowest level is actually harder to fill in anything under three months.”

Last year, Canadian Press reported on a Conference Board of Canada study saying employment in Canada’s retail sector would hit a 12-year low in 2016 as companies adopt technology and trim costs in response to weak growth in consumer spending. That didn’t happen, however, Sears noted – instead, new retailers continue to open stores with her mentioning recent openings in Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville such as Eleventy, Belstaff, Moncler and, soon, Hermes, among many others.

(LOUIS VUITTON IS AN EXAMPLE OF A SUCCESSFUL RETAILER THAT IS EXPANDING — IN DECEMBER, IT WILL UNVEIL ITS FIRST DEDICATED MEN’S STORE AT HOLT RENFREW IN VANCOUVER. IMAGE IS OF YORKVILLE IN TORONTO, VIA: INSIDERCONDOS.COM)

The Conference Board of Canada said the total number of jobs in grocery, clothing, department, home improvement, furniture and appliance stores was expected to drop to 1.26 million last year, a decrease of 2.6 per cent from the previous year and the lowest it has been since 2004. Again, that didn’t happen, she said.

Sears says retail staffing woes impact sales and productivity and add extra costs for a retailer. But the faster they fill roles the more profitable they become.

“In fact, what companies in retail seem to miss is that the quickest way to improve your sales is to fill your roles faster,” she says, adding that the competitive edge is people and retailers have to invest in retail being a legitimate career and creating an environment where young people want to work.

“It’s all about the people.”

Sears explains that there’s a massive disconnect between what retailers need, what they are getting and how long it’s taking.

Yorkville Village ((IMAGE: KASIAN.COM)

Years ago, retail shifted responsibility for hiring to human resources which was never its function. That department for many stores inherited the position of gatekeeper of who can work for the company. But in most cases they have no financial accountability. They don’t have a seat at the table for results.

Sears says there are 2.5 retail jobs available for every one person that might want one.

“The market is screaming for people,” she says.

“So the net result of having HR running retail hiring for the last 20 or 30 years – even though retail is one of the largest economic engines as a source of employment in all of Canada – we don’t have anyone that wants to join it . . . They’re killing retail from the inside out. The crisis in retail terms of staffing is massive.”

Older people made careers out of retail. But that is no longer the case. Sears says it’s not an attractive career option for younger people. They’ve seen retail strip away pensions. Strip away tenure and longevity.

(ON THE GROW: BELSTAFF LAUNCHED ITS CANADIAN STORE EXPANSION THIS FALL WITH ITS FIRST FREESTANDING STORE AT TORONTO’S YORKVILLE VILLAGE, RUN IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ZAPPACOSTA FAMILY. PHOTO: LOUISE YU)

Young people see what is happening in the landscape and they don’t see retail as a career. Rather, they see it as a temporary thing to do until they get a “real” job.

“Young people don’t want the work that the old people have been shoved out of,” says Sears.

“Retail has to change if it wants any of these younger workers. Retail has to create a real career path. My biggest competition for retail workers is the banks. And why? Because they offer stability and they offer great wages to young people and they really do offer a long-term career path. And retail isn’t doing anything. None of it.”

Connect with Suzanne Sears on LinkedIn. 

*Top Photo: Toronto’s Yorkville Village continued to add new first-to-market retailers, as it nears the completion of a multi-year overhaul. Photo: First Capital Realty. 

Retail Bricks and Mortar Breakfast Forum, November 21 at Downtown Toronto Google Headquarters

By
Retail Insider
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On Tuesday, November 21, Retail Council of Canada is hosting its Bricks and Mortar Forum. It’s part of the Leaders in Retail Breakfast Series, and it’s the only session all year that’s open to all retail, media, and industry partners. 

The morning kicks off with a breakfast and networking, followed by three sessions. The first session discusses Canadian shopping centres, referencing the soon-to-be-released 2017 Retail Council of Canada Canadian Shopping Centre Study. The conversation will revolve around what Canada’s top malls are doing to remain relevant, and Kevin Graff, President of Graff Retail, will host the panel. Panelists will include a handful of retailers and landlords, and Retail Insider’s Craig Patterson will also be speaking about the study’s results. 

The second discussion will revolved around how retailers can leverage their digital influence for bricks & mortar purchases. Google Canada will be joined by Reitmans Canada Ltd. to review an example of how cutting edge location based technologies are enabling retailers to measure the impact of online investments to store traffic and sales, and how retailers can make digital spending decisions to increase store traffic. 

The third session, titled “Why Now? Bricks & Mortar Expansion in the Retail ‘Apocalypse’” will discuss the fact that physical retail is still very much alive and well, with a discussion with innovative retailers that are opening new stores across Canada, and why they have confidence in bricks & mortar retail.

There’s room to sponsor both events, even together — the Retail Council of Canada Shopping Centre Study is used as a tool for many in the industry, and the Forum will be well attended. For sponsorship information, contact Mary Markou at: mmarkou@retailcouncil.org. 

To attend the Bricks & Mortar Forum, REGISTER HERE

Study Identifies 4 Target Segments for Flyer Distribution

By
Craig Patterson
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Canadians love their flyers. This isn’t new news. In fact, 9 in 10 Canadians check some form of flyer or coupon before they hit the stores. But I think it’s easy to assume that everyone who checks those flyers are driven by the same simple desire: to save money. Some new research that our team at Metroland has just completed in collaboration with BrandSpark International shows that it’s a bit more complicated than that.  

Sure, saving money is important. But many Canadians consider flyers a source of inspiration as much as they are a source of information. In fact according to our research, 21% of all flyer and coupon users are “Inspired” shoppers who often look through flyers for new products, ideas and information and often read flyers for sheer enjoyment.

Inspired [21%]: “Inspired” shoppers are one of the four unique consumer segments identified in our research.  As with most Canadians, saving money is important is important to this type of shopper, but they are willing to pay more for better quality products that are more suited to their needs. Other segments include:

Engaged [34%]: Engaged shoppers are “shopaholics” – utilizing all sources of information to save money and find the newest products. These are savvy shoppers that are comfortable using both printed flyers as well as the latest technology and apps to get an “edge” while shopping, and have no problem visiting multiple stores and spending extra time to get the best value wherever they can find it.

Deal-Seeking [19%]: Driven by their need to save money, Deal Seekers target stores and products that will help them stay within a predetermined budget – whether the need comes from lower discretionary income, or a desire to be a “smart shopper.” Flyers and coupons are the means by which they find deals and create a shopping list to prevent impulse buying.

Utilitarian [26%]: Utilitarians are shoppers with little time and attention, and who view shopping largely as a task. While deals and saving money are valued, they are secondary priorities to making shopping trips as fast and simple as possible. They use flyers as a tool to build their shopping list as they search for nearby stores that carry the products they need. 

Our study also revealed that “Engaged” shoppers were more frequent shoppers than any other psychographic segment in the categories studied, except for Home Improvement in which Inspired shoppers came out on top.

This suggests that while flyers and coupons are often targeted to meet the needs of the “Deal- Seeking” shopper, there is a real opportunity for brands and retailers to integrate more inspirational content into their flyer to serve and appeal to the attractive “Engaged” and “Inspired segments. 

On the other hand, brands should also continue to consider how these needs, and the value they can provide, still hinge on the format in which it is offered. Our research revealed that when seeking inspiration, printed flyers are typically at the top of the media hit-list. But when shoppers are looking to compare prices, flyer apps and aggregated sites (such as Save.ca) viewed on mobile devices are often the format of choice.

The key takeaway from these few examples is that it’s not enough to target your customers by medium; instead, brands and CPG retailers should customize the content of their flyers both for the customer they’re targeting, and the format through which they’re receiving it. Leveraging a variety of flyer and coupon formats with content targeted to these different shoppers based on their unique needs – whether they are deal-hunting or seeking inspiration – will set you up for success!     

To access the full report, A Consumer’s Path to Savings: The Role of Flyers in Today’s Digital World, go to: metroland.com/path-to-savings

Lisa Orpen is Vice President, National & Multi-Market Sales for Metroland Media Group. 

First-of-its-Kind Experiential Fragrance Concept Launches at Hudson’s Bay

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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(HUDSON'S BAY, YORKDALE. PHOTO: ALEX REBANKS ARCHITECTS. INC.)

COTY Canada is revolutionizing the fragrance shopping experience launching a new fūme scent lounge at the Hudson’s Bay in Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre.

The first-of-its-kind initiative is a multi-sensory experience redefining the way men and women discover fragrance as the space is aimed at reaching millennials in a category where the shopping experience has remained largely consistent over the years.

Amaury de Vallois, General Manager at COTY Canada, says the company recognized an opportunity to reinvent and elevate the art of perfume in a modern way.

“Millennials have different shopping habits from the generations before them, and this new experience is visually interesting – an innovative and interactive way to try different scents.”

The new shop-in-a-shop retail outlet is a pilot project after officials realized some interesting things from research about millennials. First, shopping is an experience for them as they look to interact with brands before buying. Second, 75 per cent of them still want to buy in a bricks and mortar location. And third, memorable, entertaining experiences allowing for the discovery of something new are important to them.

The new fūme scent lounge was designed for that with sight, sound, touch and smell part of the sensory journey to discover fragrance with a modern approach.

Diane Sonnenberg, vice-president, marketing, luxury with COTY Canada, says the concept is the company’s re-invention and re-imagination of the fragrance shopping experience.

“It’s really bringing fragrance shopping back to an art form,” she says. “If you think about fragrance, everything about it is art from the creation of the fragrance itself from a master perfumer to the artisan that creates the bottle, the art directors that create the campaigns whether they be the photography or the video. It’s all art. We really wanted to elevate the experience to an art form in a very modern way . . .  A completely different experience for the modern consumer.”

“We felt we had an obligation to help modernize the fragrance selling experience and make it fun and experiential. This is a pilot project . . . We’re testing this one and we’re hoping for great success and we’ll see where things go from there.”

Here are some of the key features of the lounge:

  • It is framed below a curling fabric canopy designed to resemble perfume mist;
  • There are large-format screens across a series of sculptural digital pillars;
  • The latest videos from fashion icons such as Gucci and Marc Jacobs will be played to music;
  • Non-spray inhalers allow consumers to explore the different fragrances;
  • Each inhaler is RFID-tagged, so it can be scanned on the interactive table, displaying information about the brand, the fragrance notes, selection and price; and
  • A playful quiz provides consumers with custom scent suggestions.

“This concept aligns with our vision to offer our customers new and unique experiences,” says Alison Coville, President, Hudson’s Bay. “We believe it will excite our customers and enhance their shopping experience, allowing them to discover the perfect fragrance in a new and playful way.”

The space was designed by dkstudio architects with principals Dmytriy Pereklita and Karen Mak. ICON Digital Productions partnered to coordinate technology for the installation. 

“When we started working on it, I knew immediately this could not be a normal fragrance counter,” says Pereklita.

“We’re leading the customer on a journey of discovery . . . It’s really quite a different experience than the traditional department store way of buying perfume.”

COTY is the third largest beauty company in the world with approximately $9 billion in pro forma revenue. It operates three divisions – Consumer Beauty, which is focused on mass colour cosmetics, mass retail hair colouring and styling products, body care and mass fragrances with brands such as COVERGIRL, Max Factor and Rimmel; Luxury, which is focused on prestige fragrances and skincare with brands such as Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Hugo Boss, Gucci and philosophy; and Professional Beauty, which is focused on servicing salon owners and professionals in both hair and nail, with brands such as Wella Professionals, Sebastian Professional, OPI and ghd.

**Images provided by COTY via MSL Group. 

UNIQLO Announces 2nd Vancouver-Area Store

By
Craig Patterson
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Popular Japanese retailer UNIQLO has announced that it will open a second Vancouver-Area location at Guildford Town Centre in Surrey in the spring of 2018. UNIQLO opened its first store in British Columbia in early October at Metropolis at Metrotown, in Burnaby.  

Guildford Town Centre and Metropolis at Metrotown are both owned and operated by Ivanhoé Cambridge. 

The Guildford Town Centre UNIQLO will span 18,000 square feet on the mall’s second level. The corner retail space is partly contained within an expansion corridor, with the store being next to the GAP on one side and across from Old Navy on the other. 

The Metrotown UNIQLO opened to massive crowds, and occupies two levels and 20,630 square feet in the mall. 

Jeff Berkowitz of Aurora Realty Consultants represents UNIQLO as broker in Canada. 

Uniqlo entered the Canadian market with two stores in Toronto in the fall of 2016. In September of 2016, UNIQLO opened its first Canadian flagship, spanning 33,400 square feet,  at CF Toronto Eaton Centre. A 30,000+ square foot Yorkdale Shopping Centre UNIQLO store subsequently opened in October of 2016, in the mall’s new Nordstrom-anchored expansion wing. 

In September of 2016, UNIQLO Founder and CEO Tadashi Yanai told Marina Strauss of the Globe & Mail that UNIQLO could eventually operate as many as 100 stores in Canada. 

UNIQLO now operates approximately 1,900 stores in 19 countries worldwide, including Japan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, U.K. and the United States.

MEC CEO Discusses Expansion Plans

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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(RENDERING OF THE NEW VANCOUVER OLYMPIC VILLAGE STORE)

Outdoor gear retailer MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) is building new flagship stores in Vancouver and Toronto as it eyes further expansion in the future across the country.

David Labistour, CEO of MEC, told Retail Insider that the company’s website is by far its fastest growing store and its single biggest store.

“But we also know we have to have convenient locations for our customers,” he says. “I think we have to put in more stores. Ontario. We’re under-stored in Ontario. The whole GTA region. If the right opportunity presents itself we’ll go into Saskatchewan.”

“Retail is shifting incredibly quickly. I think we have to be adaptable and make sure that we respond to the changes that are happening.”

(MASSIVE WOOD CANOPY IN THE KELOWNA STORE, BUILT BY VANCOUVER-BASED PEREGRINE.BUILD) 

MEC has 22 stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.

It is Canada’s largest consumer co-operative with about five million members across the country. A lifetime membership is available for $5.

“We’ve always been very focused on having a very strong customer focus,” says Labistour. “We’ve had a very clear idea the purpose of the organization to be. We want to get people active and get people outdoors. A lot of what we do is aimed at the purpose of getting people off the couch and out the door. We’ve really tried to build a brand that is consistent with that and I think we’ve managed to build a very authentic brand that does resonate with people.”

He says the company is moving its Toronto store from King Street to Queen Street.

“King Street has become very congested. We know that it’s becoming very difficult for people to access that store. So we’re moving the store to an area where it’s more of a shopping precinct and has better access. I think in retail you need to continue to assess whether you can improve your locations,” says Labistour.

The new build will be about 40,000 square feet.

“It will be a much nicer store we believe because it gives us the opportunity to freshen up the way we build stores now. And our new store builds are quite different. They’re much more open and light. Have better flows,” he says.

There is no firm date on the opening of the new store but it will be within the next year.

(NEW TORONTO QUEEN STREET STORE. RENDERING: MEC)

Recently, MEC also announced it was building a new 60,000-square-foot flagship store in Vancouver with the three-storey building to be located at the eastern gateway to Olympic Village.

MEC’s Olympic Village location will replace its store at 130 West Broadway, which the Vancouver-based retailer has occupied since 1995.

Labistore says the current store in Vancouver on West Broadway is leased. The lease is coming due and the landlord wants to redevelop that site.

“In moving, it gives us a chance to really build a great flagship store in Vancouver because our oldest and possibly, arguably, least attractive store we have is our Vancouver downtown store. So it gives us a chance to really build a beautiful new building while moving to a new site to avoid disruption,” says Labistour.

Beedie Development has owned the site of the new MEC store to be built at 2nd Avenue and Quebec Street since 2007. When construction of the new store is complete in mid-2019, MEC will operate the purpose-built, high-performance green building on a leasehold basis from Beedie for at least 20 years.

MEC was established in 1971.

Edmonton-Based ‘The Running Room’ Sees Ballooning E-commerce Growth

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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(THE RUNNING ROOM, BAY STREET IN TORONTO. PHOTO: CRAIG PATTERSON)

Two or three years ago e-commerce was barely 1.5 per cent of the Running Room’s overall business.

After a significant investment that percentage has ballooned to near 10 per cent for the Edmonton-based retailer, which has stores across the country and into the United States.

“I really hope we’re going to hit that number by the end of the year. We’ve got an aggressive program. We want to have it 20 per cent in the next two years. That’s our goal,” says Jason Stanton, a partner and CMO of the company. 

Stanton’s father, John, founded the family business in 1984 with its first store in a small room of an old house in Edmonton. Today, the retailer has 107 stores in Canada and nine in the United States.

(JASON STANTON)

“We started to take a look at our competitors,” explains Stanton of the company’s e-commerce push. “Certainly because of the landscape, borders aren’t as relevant. We started to look at some of our U.S. counterparts and what was going on and just realized that we needed to up our game and we made a really good investment a couple of years ago just to get our shopping platform more friendly and certainly catching up to what the consumers’ expectations were with it.”

That resulted in a much smoother process in how customers buy and pick up their merchandise.

“In the last six months, we’ve been seeing such a strong growth rate that we decided to really kind of double down and make sure that we are where our consumers want to purchase and how they want to purchase,” adds Stanton. “What we’re finding is they love shopping online but they really still love visiting retail. So we’re sitting at about 53 per cent of our online purchases are picked up at our retail stores which is quite unique.”

Six months ago the Running Room decided to add on another 5,500 square feet of dedicated dot.com space for its customer service group which is continuing to grow. Right now, it’s growing at a 25 to 32 per cent rate in the last six months and the company is really happy about that.

(SCREEN SHOT OF RUNNING ROOM’S ECOMMERCE SITE)

“Having a facility and a dedicated inventory for the dot.com has been a really big investment that’s been going on for us over the last six months,” says Stanton.

While there is joy in being and growing in the dot.com space, there’s no question the Running Room remains a very customer service-oriented company for products it sells.

“Overall we still feel there are opportunities (for expansion),” says Stanton. “We just had a store move in Victoria which we feel there’s lots of those type of opportunities, of stores that have done well for us.”

They will be strategic moves for existing stores but also the company will keep its eyes open for expansion as well.

“If there’s any oddities we see come up . . . then we’re for sure looking for that,” says Stanton. “We’re still committed to the U.S. as well but they have some pretty strong headwinds there with sporting goods and the run specialty (retail industry). So we’re letting those waters kind of calm down and making sure our stores are up to standard. And for sure the U.S. is a place we’re going to look to expand. We’re talking a bit of a 10-year plan.”

(JOHN STANTON JR., JOHN STANTON SR.[FOUNDER], JASON STANTON)

According to Statistics Canada, Canadian retail sales in June rose for the fourth consecutive month, edging up 0.1 per cent to $49 billion. That’s also a 7.3 per cent hike from a year ago.

Stanton says there have been some pretty strong headwinds for the business in the last couple of years but it is somewhat insulated because of what it does and what it offers. The Running Room is more than just a retail operation because it has running clubs and clinics and it is involved in many different events.

“Despite some economic ups and downs in retail that go on we still have our run clubs and clinics that are thriving and doing quite well . . . On the retail side, though, we’ve been fighting that plus minus two, three per cent for the last couple of years. We’re excited because the last six months we’ve seen some really positive numbers. Certainly out of Ontario. And Alberta has actually really weathered the storm quite well and is starting to breathe again quite nicely.”

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