Trendy multi-brand fast-fashion retailer BESTSELLER opened its first Canadian location last week and by next spring, the company will have five Canadian stores. Remarkably, Canada is only the second country in the world to feature BESTSELLER locations, after opening in its home country of Denmark. We spoke with a company representative for details.

BESTSELLER is a family-owned clothing and accessories company, founded in 1975 in Brande, Denmark. The company provides “fast affordable fashion for women, men, teenagers and children”, according to its website. BESTSELLER is also the name of the parent company for brands including Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Noisy May, Y.A.S., Only, Selected, and others. The company is one of Europe’s largest fashion companies and its products are available in 70 markets across Europe, the Middle East, Canada and India. The company boasts over 3,000 branded stores across 38 markets and as well, its products are sold in approximately 15,000 multi-brand stores worldwide. Canada’s BESTSELLER locations feature clothing for men and women from a variety of the company’s brands, which can be modified based on demand, trend and sales. Two of its brands, ADPT and Studio 75, will be exclusive to BESTSELLER retail locations in North America.

BESTSELLER will open five Canadian stores between now and spring of 2016. Its first Canadian store opened on Friday, September 18 at Montreal’s CF Carrefour Laval (7,375 square feet), with a second location following this Friday, September 25 at Montreal’s CF Galleries d’Anjou. On October 2, locations will open at Place Ste-Foy near Quebec City, as well as at CF Promenades St. Bruno near Montreal. In the spring of 2016 a fifth Canadian location, its first outside the province of Quebec, will open at Winnipeg’s CF Polo Park.

We spoke with Frank Rocchetti, Marketing and Visual Merchandising Manager for BESTSELLER in North America. He revealed that the retailer plans to open approximately a dozen Canadian locations over the next several years, though the company is being careful with its expansion strategy. He explained how retail stores allow BESTSELLER to build awareness for the company’s brands, which wholesale extensively at retailers throughout Canada. Instead of taking sales away from wholesale accounts, he explained that BESTSELLER’s brand assortment will also act to help build awareness of its brands as the retailer expands throughout the country. Furthermore, stores can gage consumer demand and if a particular brand does exceptionally well within a BESTSELLER location, it may warrant opening a free-standing mono-brand location nearby.

BESTSELLER is represented by brokerage Oberfeld Snowcap for its Canadian expansion, and seeks retail space in top malls with an ‘urban feel’, according to Mr. Rocchetti. Stores will be ideally in the 7,200 to 7,500 square foot range, allowing for merchandising a variety of brands and products. Stores feature a clean, Scandinavian aesthetic.

Mr. Rocchetti also revealed that BESTSELLER’s Canadian website will not feature e-commerce — rather, the company is looking to build ‘touch-points’ via its bricks-and-mortar expansion. Its international website, however, features worldwide e-commerce for all of the company’s brands.

Montreal-based activewear brand Lolë (Live Out Loud Everyday) continues to open Canadian store locations as it looks to more than double its Canadian store count and substantially grow sales. The company just opened downtown Montreal and Calgary locations, and it has announced two more locations set to open this fall. 

Founded in 2002 in Longueuil, Quebec, Lolë caters to active, urban women and men. It specializes in apparel for yoga, running, swimming and other activities, as well as casual fashion apparel. All locations offer free exercise meet-ups twice weekly at a local park, as well as lectures given by yoga/pilates specialists, and nutrition experts. Tea and fruit are served daily at each store location.

In July, Lolë opened its first Calgary location at The CORE downtown, measuring 1,350 square feet (Alberta’s fifth Lolë store). This week, Lolë opened a remarkable 2,476 square foot Montreal flagship at 954 Rue Ste-Catherine West in Montreal, located in the restored former Loews theatre. The store features 50-foot ceilings and an ornate dome ceiling. 

This fall, Lolë revealed that it is opening two Toronto-area locations: a 1,800 square foot outlet at Vaughan Mills (the brand’s third outlet location) as well as a 1,500 square foot store at CF Toronto Eaton Centre, which recently created space for 25 retailers in part of the mall’s former Sears space. 

Think Retail is Lolë’s exclusive Canadian real estate broker. Lolë seeks well-located downtown street-front, major-mall and outlet retail space in the 1,250 square foot to 2,000 square foot range. 

Lolë currently operates almost 50 stores worldwide, including 24 stand-alone Canadian locations. It also has 200 international shop-in-shops and is available at 1,600 retail locations worldwide. The company plans to open 75 stores worldwide over the next three years. 

Lolë’s sales have been stellar both in Canada and internationally, and they continue to grow. In 2009, Lole forecasted its 2014 sales to be about $97 million. The company exceeded that number, enjoying sales in excess of $105 million last year. The company’s sales forecasts for 2015 are about $125 million and for 2017-2018, the company predicts revenue of about $210 million. Lolë sees tremendous international growth opportunities, especially in the United States.

On Friday, September 18, Nordstrom opened its first Canadian flagship location. The 230,000 square foot Vancouver CF Pacific Centre store features substantially more luxury brands and amenities than its first two Canadian locations. Experts are now saying that Nordstrom’s heightened luxury experience in Canada could result in a meaningful shift in Vancouver luxury market share to Nordstorm, and we discussed the topic with two of Canada’s top retail experts.

Nordstrom’s flagship brand selection is particularly strong in the categories of women’s ready-to-wear, women’s handbags, and women’s footwear. The store carries an exceptional selection of luxury brands and in some instances, has opened individually branded hard-shops, placing it squarely in competition with nearby Holt Renfrew and to a lesser extent, Hudson’s Bay diagonally across the street. In fact, most luxury brands carried at Nordstrom are also carried at Holt’s and in some instances, Hudson’s Bay’s luxury department The Room. For reference, we recently provided a full list of brands carried at Vancouver’s Nordstrom, as well as a full list of services and amenities (which are also exceptional). 

We discussed Nordstrom’s new flagship with both the President and the CEO of leading retail consultancy HRC Advisory, who both attended last Wednesday’s Vancouver opening gala with a team of their consultants. They described the store as “an incredible addition” to the Canadian retail scene.

 
Antony Karabus, HRC Advisory’s CEO said that he believes this store will quickly become “a real and serious luxury competitor in Vancouver”, pointing out that Nordstrom’s CF Pacific Centre flagship features a meaningful broadening of its focus to include a serious luxury component including key amenities and customer service which will be attractive to luxury shoppers who currently have few comparable alternatives. He noted that the store’s personal shopping suites will be attractive to affluent shoppers, as are services such as a concierge, personal shopping, stylists and delivery services. The coffee shop, restaurant and bar area will also draw a wider variety of shoppers with its bright, upbeat environment and exceptional customer service, signalling a “game changer” for Vancouver’s retail scene. Mr. Karabus concluded by saying that he wouldn’t be surprised if Nordstrom’s Vancouver store became one of the chain’s top locations within a short period of time. 

Farla Efros, President of HRC Advisory, went on to explain how Nordstrom has created a compelling roster of brands at its new Vancouver flagship, and how its lighting, shelving, displays and shops-in-stores creates an appealing environment for a variety of demographics. She expressed how Nordstrom’s gala fashion show provided an introduction to the company’s increased focus on luxury brands, and how the new Vancouver flagship is evidence that Nordstrom is in Canada for the long-term.

In the Vancouver Nordstrom store, handbag shop-in-stores feature brands Céline, Saint Laurent Paris, Valentino, Balenciaga, Delvaux, Burberry, Loewe and Chloé. Other pricey handbag lines include MCM, Jimmy Choo, WANT Les Essentials de la Vie and Stella McCartney. This selection is remarkable and considerably broader than what’s available at Nordstrom’s Calgary and Ottawa stores. Furthermore, Holt Renfrew carries several of these brands, including Valentino, Balenciaga, Burberry, Chloé, MCM and Stella McCartney — with only Burberry featuring an in-Holt’s shop-in-store. Nordstrom’s brand exclusive Delvaux (a luxe Belgian brand) is an exceptional score and it’s remarkable that Holt Renfrew didn’t secure the brand when it had the chance. 

Nordstrom Vancouver’s selection of women’s designer ready-to-wear brands is also exceptional, as is its lineup of six shop-in-stores. Boutiques for Balenciaga, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Burberry, Céline and Valentino line the perimeter of the store’s upscale Collectors designer department, which also features luxury brands Loewe, Milly, Missoni, Prabal Gurung, Anthony Vaccarello, Carolina Herrera, Carven, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta, Proenza Schouler, St. John Knits and Zac Posen. Of the boutiques listed above, all designers are carried at Holt Renfrew and none in shop-in-stores. Holt’s also carries Carven, Marc Jacobs and Oscar de la Renta in its Vancouver store and furthermore, Vancouver’s Hudson’s Bay’s ‘The Room’ features Prabal Gurung, Carven, Jason Wu, and Proenza Schouler. Despite the crossover, Holt Renfrew and Hudson’s Bay carry a variety of top brands not carried at Nordstrom, making one question if Vancouver could soon become oversatured with luxury brands. 

Nordstrom Vancouver’s women’s footwear selection is exceptional, with its Salon Shoes department anchored by a Christian Louboutin boutique — Canada’s second. Holt Renfrew also carries Louboutin and some speculate that it intended to open separate men’s and women’s Louboutin shop-in-stores, as Holts plans to do in its Yorkdale Shopping Centre store in Toronto. Nordstrom also carries top brands including Alexander McQueen, Alexander Wang, Balenciaga, Charlotte Olympia, Fendi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Jimmy Choo, Lanvin, Manolo Blahnik, Miu Miu, Prada and Valentino. Holt Renfrew carries all of these, while Hudson’s Bay’s ‘The Room’ carries Charlotte Olympia in Vancouver. 

Holt Renfrew still carries Vancouver’s broadest selection of luxury brands across all categories, including mainstream staples such as Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and others. The 150,000 square foot store is expanding by 40,000 square feet and by the end of 2016, it will be almost as large as Nordstrom, measuring almost 190,000 square feet. Holt Renfrew’s Vancouver location currently sees sales close to $150 million according to sources, and one questions if Holt’s can maintain these sales numbers if Nordstrom Pacific Centre does $200 million+ in annual revenues that some analysts are already predicting. Harry Rosen’s “very strong relationships with generations of luxury male shoppers and the company’s extensive store remodeling investments will likely protect its market share,” according to Mr. Karabus. 

Hudson’s Bay’s The Room also features an exceptional roster of luxury designers, though somewhat less mainstream than that of neighbouring Holt Renfrew. Time will tell how Hudson’s Bay fares in Vancouver in light of increasing competition, particularly given its dated interiors in some departments (and its elevators) and overall lacklustre customer service when compared to Nordstrom and Holt’s.  

Canada’s luxury department store wars will especially heat up next February when Saks Fifth Avenue opens its first Canadian locations in Toronto. Saks’ Canadian locations will carry a wide range of luxury brands and sources already confirm that the Toronto CF Eaton Centre Queen Street flagship will feature brands Lanvin and Givenchy for women, as well as DSquared2 and Isaia for men. A number of vendors, including some of the world’s top brands, have asked us to delay revealing that they’ll be carried at Saks for now, and we’ll respect that request. Saks’ Canadian stores will also provide personal shopping and its Fifth Avenue Club, which it describes as an “intimate shopping service that will provide a personal shopper who will travel to your home or office with merchandise specifically selected for you, including, but not limited to beauty, styling and tailoring”. Saks confirms that it could open as many as two Vancouver-area stores, and sources speculate that both could locate in suburban shopping centres.

Toronto-based landlord Cadillac Fairview has rebranded, including a new logo and modified naming of its 20 mall properties. Individual mall website URLs have also been changed as part of the rebranding. 

The name of each Cadillac Fairview shopping centre will now be preceded by ‘CF‘. For example, Toronto Eaton Centre will now be called ‘CF Toronto Eaton Centre‘ and Vancouver’s Pacific Centre is now ‘CF Pacific Centre‘. Signage on Pacific Centre now reflects the rebranding as per the image above and with Toronto’s Sherway Gardens, below. 

The new corporate logo includes the tagline ‘Where it all comes together‘. Although mall names have changed, office towers will remain unchanged and be named after anchor tenants or location. 

“Cadillac Fairview’s new visual identity highlights for shoppers that our properties provide a consistently welcoming and engaging retail destination,” said Jason Anderson, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cadillac Fairview.  “Putting a new logo on the door is the easy part. The real work is designing and implementing changes to the way consumers experience our shopping centres. We know technology and unique and engaging experiences will play a big role in changing the way people think of the shopping mall.”

Cadillac Fairview mall websites also have updated URLs to reflect the rebranding. Toronto Eaton Centre’s website was www.torontoeatoncentre.com and this has been modified to https://www.cfshops.com/toronto-eaton-centre.html. Cadillac Fairview’s other mall properties also feature new URLs, beginning with www.cfshops.com/. 

Cadillac Fairview is in the process of spending $4 billion on revitalizations and developments. The company is one of North America’s largest owners, operators and developers of commercial real estate, with a portfolio valued at more than $28 billion and over 36 million square feet of leasable space at 66 North American properties. Cadillac Fairview is wholly-owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which invests to secure the retirement income of 311,000 active and retired teachers in Ontario.

Triple Five Group, owners of West Edmonton Mall, have secured two game-changing luxury retailers for its New Jersey mega-mall, American Dream. Saks Fifth Avenue will open a 131,906 squre foot location in the centre, and French luxury brand Hermès will open an 8,000 square foot two-level store in the mall. Both are scheduled to open in 2017. 

Besides Saks Fifth Avenue, American Dream will house Hudson’s Bay Company anchor retailers Lord & Taylor (119,605 square feet) and Saks OFF 5TH (30,000 square feet). The New Jersey mall will be the world’s first to house all three HBC nameplates. 

Securing Hermès is possibly the most remarkable score for the mall so far, as it signals the likelihood that American Dream will obtain similar retailers for its luxury wing. Hermes chooses only the ‘best’ locations and now that it’s chosen American Dream, brands such as Chanel, Gucci and Prada are more likely to follow. American Dream’s Hermes will also be one of its largest U.S. locations. Hermes was reportedly attracted to the mall because its luxury wing will be a “streetscape under glass” with the opportunity to create dramatic flagship retail spaces. 

Saks Fifth Avenue will open up to eight Canadian locations over the next several years, including two confirmed Toronto locations which will open in February of 2016. Unlike its U.S. locations, Canada’s Saks stores will feature upscale in-store ‘food halls’. Sources are now saying that Saks may introduce food halls into some of its U.S. locations, with one source saying that Saks’ replacement Bal Harbour Shops location near Miami may feature a shop-in-store grocery component. This is speculation until confirmed. 

American Dream, located near the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will span approximately 4.8 million square feet and cost about U.S. $3.5 billion. It will feature in excess of 300 stores and also house an indoor NHL-sized ice rink, an amusement park, water park, concert hall, indoor ski slope, miniature golf, and a Ferris wheel, among other attractions.