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Holt Renfrew Reveals New Pacific Centre Details and Renderings

By
Craig Patterson
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Holt Renfrew has revealed new details and renderings for its CF Pacific Centre store in Vancouver. The store is being expanded by about 40,000 square feet, and will be completed in a series of phases over the next 12 months. Retail Insider Vancouver correspondent Helen Siwak attended the small press conference to get details on the store, which will feature an expanded assortment of luxury brands and amenities. 

The existing 147,000 square foot Janson Goldstein-designed Pacific Centre Holt Renfrew originally opened in 2007, and it is being enlarged to almost 188,000 square feet by annexing adjacent space formerly occupied by a sports retailer. Many departments will be expanded, with about 80% of the existing store to be renovated. Approximately 80 new positions will be added as a result of the expansion. The store’s women’s leather goods and footwear departments will triple in size, while jewellery will expand by about 50%. The store will feature a new Beauty Lab, Nail Bar and Style Studio in its expanded ground-floor beauty hall. 

A new Chanel flagship concession is currently under construction on the store’s ground floor. Other luxury shop-in-store concessions set to relocate and expand include Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., David Yurman, Gucci, Prada, Christian Dior, Tom Ford and Fendi. The new Fendi boutique will replace Chanel on the store’s third floor with a concession that will feature women’s ready-to-wear and furs. 

The new Holt Renfrew Men store will also open this summer, and will draw inspiration from the freestanding Holt Renfrew Men location at 100 Bloor Street West in Toronto (which opened in the fall of 2014). Vancouver’s Holt Renfrew Men will feature a Howe Street entrance, and will include over a dozen new brands such as Rick Owens, Loewe, Amiri, Off White, Dries Van Noten, Officine Generale, Lardini and Wooster+Lardini, Stone Island, and Berluti. 

The new Holts Café, designed by Toronto-based Yabu Pushelberg, will open in the summer. The 80 seat restaurant will feature fine dining, a bar and private dining room, with a West Coast-inspired décor and menu. Approximately 40 new positions will be added with the opening of Holts Café. 

This year and into 2017, Holt’s will add a master tailor, shoeshine and sneaker cleaning to the store, as well as a Leather Artisan, which offers bespoke embossing details on any leather accessory and offers full service repair. The store will also feature a Jewellery & Watch service under the guidance of a certified watchmaker. We recently reported on Holt’s new Mississauga Square One location which opens this summer, and will also feature several of these new amenities. 

The Vancouver store will eventually feature an impressive 7,000 square feet of personal shopping over two levels, including an expanded fourth floor Personal Shopping Area as well as two suites within Holt Renfrew Men. The ‘Apartment’ private shopping experience will be included in the Vancouver store, as well as a 4th floor patio overlooking Granville and Dunsmuir Streets. 

Nordstrom Reveals New Yorkdale Store Details

By
Craig Patterson
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Nordstrom has revealed new details on its Yorkdale Shopping Centre store in Toronto, set to open on October 21, 2016. Included are details about its restaurants, departments and its new store manager. 

According to Nordstrom, the store will employ about 850, which is the same number of staff anticipated to be working at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre flagship which opens on September 16. Yorkdale’s Nordstrom will feature the following services and amenities: 

  • Personal Stylist
  • Beauty Stylist
  • Beauty Concierge
  • Mobile Checkout
  • Certified Shoe Fitters
  • Certified Bra Fitters
  • Family Restrooms
  • Mother’s Lounge
  • Complimentary Gift Boxes
  • Nordstrom Gift Cards
  • Debut Rewards
  • Free Wi-Fi

The store will feature three restaurant concepts: Bazille restaurant, Habitant lounge, and coffee concept ‘Ebar’. Bazille is the restaurant provider for Nordstrom’s Calgary and Ottawa stores, and Habitant lounge is featured at Nordstrom’s CF Pacific Centre flagship in Vancouver. Coffee concept Ebar is located in all Nordstrom stores. Last month we revealed that the Toronto Eaton Centre Nordstrom flagship will feature the Bistro Verde restaurant concept which debuted in Vancouver last September, as well as Habitant and Ebar. 

Yorkdale’s Nordstrom will lack some departments featured in the Eaton Centre flagship, including Nordstrom’s ‘Space‘ department, which carries emerging and otherwise unrepresented international designers. Also absent will be Pop-In@Nordstrom (designer pop-up shops) as well as ‘Studio Services’, which assists costume designers and stylists create looks for film/TV show/commercials. The Yorkdale store will feature a roster of luxury designers in its various departments, we’re told, to compete with Yorkdale’s Holt Renfrew, which does exceptionally high sales volumes. 

Nordstrom’s Yorkdale store manager will be Brynn Herthel-Conn, who has extensive experience with the company’s California operations. As well, media sources don’t appear to have yet reported that Todd Buntin will run the Eaton Centre flagship. 

The Yorkdale store (as well as all Canadian Nordstrom stores) is being designed by Seattle-based Callison Architecture, and it will feature clean, single-surface flooring throughout to provide flexibility to adjust and evolve departments. Natural light will flood the store through ample windows. 

Yorkdale’s Nordstrom store will span 196,000 square feet, making it the company’s third largest Canadian store. Nordstrom’s largest Canadian store, which opened in September of 2015 in Vancouver, measures about 230,000 square feet. Nordstrom’s CF Toronto Eaton Centre flagship, will span about 220,000 square feet over three floors, according to Nordstrom.

Nordstrom entered the Canadian market in September of 2014 with a 140,000 square foot CF Chinook Centre location in Calgary. A second Canadian location, measuring 157,000 square feet, opened in March of 2015 at Ottawa’s CF Rideau Centre. 

Inside Saks OFF 5TH’s 1st Canadian Store [Photos]

By
Craig Patterson
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Saks OFF 5th Vaughan Mills (Image: Norman Katz)

Saks Fifth Avenue‘s off-price division Saks OFF 5TH opened its first Canadian locations last week in southern Ontario. We’ve got photos from the opening of the retailer’s Vaughan Mills location. 

Although not nearly as glamorous and attractive as Saks Fifth Avenue’s full-priced Toronto stores, Saks OFF 5TH features a considerable number of designers at a variety of price-points. 

The Vaughan Mills OFF 5TH replaces Home Outfitters which, until recently, occupied the 34,994 square foot retail space. Both Saks and Home Outfitters are under the Hudson’s Bay Company ownership umbrella. 

Saks OFF 5TH also opened locations last week at Toronto Premium Outlets west of Toronto, and at the Outlet Collection at Niagara in Niagara-on-the-Lake. This week (Thursday, March 24) Canada’s fourth Saks OFF 5TH opens at Ottawa’s Tanger Outlets Ottawa. 

Vaughan Mills Leasing Map (Image: Ivanhoe Cambridge)
SAKS OFF 5TH ENTRANCE FROM WITHIN THE MALL. (PHOTO: NORMAN KATZ)

Saks has already confirmed 11 Canadian locations, and it plans to open up to 25 Canadian stores by the end of the decade. In the fall of this year, OFF 5TH will open locations at Calgary’s CrossIron Mills, suburban Vancouver’s Tsawwassen Mills, and in downtown Ottawa within the Hudson’s Bay building. In the spring of 2017, OFF 5TH opens at Quebec City’s Place Ste-Foy and at Winnipeg’s Outlet Collection Winnipeg. In the fall of 2018, Canada’s largest OFF 5TH (45,000 square feet) opens at Montreal Eaton Centre and it’s unclear when the Premium Outlets Montreal store will open, though it’s confirmed. 

Saks Fifth Avenue opened its first two Canadian stores last month. The Canadian flagship, which opened February 18 and measures about 170,000 square feet, is located within the Hudson’s Bay building at CF Toronto Eaton Centre. A second 143,000 square foot Saks location opened a week later at CF Sherway Gardens. 

See below for more photos. 

Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
SAKS OFF 5TH (PHOTO: BRUCE WINDER, RETAIL ADVISORS NETWORK)
EYEWEAR AND DENIM. PHOTO: NORMAN KATZ
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)
Saks OFF 5th (Image: Norman Katz)

Matt & Nat to Open 1st Freestanding Store

By
Craig Patterson
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Montreal-based eco-friendly accessory fashion brand Matt & Nat will open its first freestanding boutique this spring. The store could be the first of several Canadian locations, and the brand has secured brokerage Oberfeld Snowcap to handle its Canadian store expansion. 

Matt & Nat (short for “material” and “nature”) was founded in Montreal 1995, and is known for not using leather or any other animal-based materials in its bag and accessory designs. Since 2007, it has been committed to using linings only made out of 100% recycled plastic bottles, and it also recently introduced recycled bicycle tires to its collections. The brand has also expanded to also include footwear designs and until now, has wholesaled in other retailers. 

Matt & Nat’s first store in the world will open this spring at CF Carrefour Laval, just north of Montreal. According to a lease plan obtained by Retail Insider’s Montreal correspondent Maxime Frechette, Carrefour Laval’s Matt & Nat will be almost 1,000 square feet in size, and will be located next to the mall’s La Maison Simons store. 

According to Oberfeld Snowcap, Matt & Nat is looking for retail space in enclosed malls in the 500 square foot to 1,000 square foot range for any future Canadian locations. 

Simons Opens 1st GTA Store [Photos]

By
Craig Patterson
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Large format Quebec City-based retailer La Maison Simons opened its first Greater Toronto Area (GTA) store this morning. Located at Mississauga’s Square One, the 106,600 square foot store will be one of at least two locations to open in the area before the year 2019. 

The store was designed by figure3, which has been involved with several of Simons’ store projects. We’ll be interviewing someone from the firm for an article next week. 

The store features the chain’s restaurant concept, called Ève Café. This is the fourth restaurant concept in a Simons store — a food concept called SoupeSoup opened at Simons in Montreal’s CF Galeries d’Anjou in August of 2013, and Ève Cafés opened in August of 2015 at Les Prominades Gatineau‘s Simons near Ottawa, and in October of 2015 within Simons’ new Park Royal location in West Vancouver.  

Simons is located in part of the retail space that was formerly occupied by Square One’s Sears location at the mall’s north end. Oxford Properties-owned Square One is seeing an overhaul which includes new retailers as well as a considerable amount of new retail space. A southwest mall expansion, which opened earlier this month, houses several upscale retailers, including a beautiful new Harry Rosen store. Later this summer, a 130,000 square foot Holt Renfrew store will join them. 

Simons’ CEO Peter Simons has confirmed with us that he’ll open a store at Yorkdale Shopping Centre store in 2019. Last year, Peter Simons also told us that he’s very interested in operating a downtown Toronto location, though his search for a large enough retail space was proving challenging. Simons currently operates 11 stores in Canada. Of those, nine are in the province of Quebec, while two are in Western Canada — a West Edmonton Mall location opened in August of 2012, and West Vancouver’s Park Royal store opened mid-October of 2015.  

Saks OFF 5TH Opens 1st Canadian Stores

By
Craig Patterson
-
Image: Saks OFF 5th

Saks Fifth Avenue‘s off-price division Saks OFF 5TH opens its first three Canadian locations this morning in southern Ontario. The retailer has plans to operate up to 25 Canadian stores by the end of the decade. 

“There is great anticipation and consumer interest for our Saks OFF 5TH luxury off-price format in Canada,” said Jonathan Greller, President, HBC Off-Price. “We are thrilled to finally open the doors of our first Canadian stores next week and show customers a new experience in remarkable savings from some of the most notable names in fashion. 

The three locations that open today include: 

On Thursday, March 24, OFF 5TH’s fourth Canadian location will open at Tanger Outlets Ottawa, measuring 28,000 square feet. 

Farla Efros, President of leading retail consultancy HRC Advisory, explained how Canada is underserved by off-price retailers, and how the category is seeing considerable growth. She noted that many Canadians are familiar with OFF 5TH (and other similar retailers) from visiting the United States. She also said that given the low Canadian dollar and the economy, the timing for OFF 5TH’s Canadian entry could yield the retailer considerable success as Canadians embrace value-oriented designer shopping.  

Saks has announced a total of 11 Canadian stores, with the intention to open about 25 within Canada by the year 2021. Other confirmed Saks OFF 5TH Canadian locations include the following: 

Fall 2016: 

  • CrossIron Mills, Calgary: 30,000 square feet
  • Tsawwassen Mills, Delta BC: 32,687 square feet
  • Downtown Ottawa (Hudson’s Bay Building): 33,000 square feet

Spring 2017:

Fall 2018:

TBD:

OFF 5TH’s Canadian entry comes one month after Saks Fifth Avenue opened its first two Canadian stores, both in Toronto. The Canadian flagship, which opened February 18 and measures about 170,000 square feet, is located within the Hudson’s Bay building at CF Toronto Eaton Centre. A second 143,000 square foot Saks location opened a week later at CF Sherway Gardens. 

eTail Canada Conference: May 16-19 in Toronto

By
Retail Insider
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eTail Canada, the “one stop shop”conference for ecommerce and multi-channel best practices, networking and technology evaluation for Canadian retailers, is hosting a conference on May 16-19, 2016 at Toronto’s Hyatt Regency. Top omnichannel thought leaders will be attending and speaking at the event.

There is a 25% registration discount for subscribers (retailers only) using code EC16RI.

Two notable speakers are Jeremy Pee and Nicolas Gaudreau. Their speaking panels will cover everything from digital innovation across various channels to utilizing customer experiences using data. Here’s a brief summary of their presentations:

Jeremy Pee – SVP of eCommerce and Omni-Channel, Loblaw Digital, speaking about Digital Innovation At Loblaw: Covering Wins And Challenges:

Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada’s food and pharmacy leader, is working to create seamless end-to-end customer experiences across retail and digital. Over the past 3 years, it has launched three successful e-commerce businesses and continues to introduce new innovation in the Canadian landscape. These achievements are made possible by building an entrepreneurial and innovative culture within the Loblaw Digital business.

Nicolas Gaudreau – CMO, Group Dynamite, speaking at: CMO Panel Discussion: Evolving The Role To Build Cross-Channel Collaboration:

With technology shaping brands’ marketing plan, the world of the CMO has been drastically effected. There is now a need to understand and adapt to eCommerce/digital strategies so it may boost business growth. The CMOs on this panel are doing just this, and leading their brands to engage with customers in a more connective way.

If you want to see who else is speaking, . 

To see who else will be there, . 

Trudeau Airport to Expand Retail

By
Craig Patterson
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Montréal’s Pierre Trudeau International Airport is expanding its international wing, with plans to enlarge its duty free retail component. It’s the second retail expansion for the terminal in less than a year. 

Aer Rianta International North America (ARINA) runs the Loop Duty Free store at the airport, which expanded from 12,000 square feet to 13,130 square feet in September of 2015. The latest expansion will add a further 3,550 square feet of retail space to the store, adding brands such as Desigual, Lacoste, Longchamp, Pandora, Tumi and Victoria’s Secret to the mix. 

The store is ARINA’s largest location, and it also operates Canadian locations at international airports in Halifax, Ottawa and Winnipeg. 

ECCO Shoes Plans Multi-Year Canadian Expansion

By
Craig Patterson
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ECCO AT FIRST CANADIAN PLACE. (PHOTO: ECCO)

Danish shoe brand ECCO will continue to open multiple Canadian locations over the next several years. We spoke with the company’s Canadian President for details. 

ECCO was founded in Bredebro, Denmark, in 1963. It is sold in 88 countries worldwide in over 3,000 ECCO shops and shop-in-stores, at more than 14,000 sales points around the world. The brand has since expanded into accessories and small leather goods. ECCO opened its first Canadian store in 1997. 

According to ECCO Shoes Canada Inc. President, Jordan Searle, ECCO is looking to open approximately three to four Canadian stores each year over the next five years. This would eventually take its Canadian store count from 27 locations to about 40. The company is seeing exceptional growth in Canada, with sales up 9% in 2015 over the year prior. 

ECCO Advertising at First Canadian Place

Mr. Searle said that ECCO is particularly interested in opening more store locations in the B.C. Lower Mainland, Greater Toronto Area, and in Montreal and Quebec City. The company is looking for both enclosed mall and strong high-street locations, ideally in the 1,000 to 1,200 square foot range. It is also looking to open in outlet centres, ideally in the 2,000 to 2,500 square foot range. Northwest Atlantic represents ECCO in Canada. 

Mr. Searle also said that ECCO would consider opening shop-in-store concessions within department stores if opportunities presented, though nothing is currently in the works. 

ECCO has seen tremendous international sales growth as well. Net sales in 2015 increased 7.4%, reaching EUR 1.3 billion with before-tax profit of EUR 183 million. 

Home Furnishings Retailer ‘Provide’ Relocates Storefront [Photos]

By
Craig Patterson
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Vancouver-based home furnishings retailer Provide has relocated to Vancouver’s Fairview area from a previous downtown location. 

The new store, located at 1805 Fir Street, measures 1,693 square feet. That’s slightly larger than the company’s former space at 529 Beatty Street in downtown Vancouver. Provide relocated partly because East India Carpets owner Ravi Sidhoo suggested to Provide’s owners that they relocate to compliment other businesses in the area, which includes designer’s offices, cafes, and other like-minded interiors showrooms such as Brougham Interiors, Ann Sacks, Living Space, and Mr. Sidhoo’s East India Carpets. 

Provide was founded by David Keeler and Robert Quinnell in 2007. Their company quickly gained attention in the press for its highly edited collections that feature unique items from artists and designers working in ceramics, glass, wood, metal and textiles, as well as contemporary design from smaller boutique brands sourced from within Canada and around the globe. The collections are “distinctively modern, yet warm and welcoming”, according to the founders. 

All photos were taken by Tanya Goehring, and were provided by Provide. 

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