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HBC-OWNED SAKS FIFTH AVENUE TO OPEN STORES IN ASIA AND EUROPE

By
Craig Patterson
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Saks Fifth Avenue, Polanco, Mexico
Saks Fifth Avenue, Polanco, Mexico

The Hudson’s Bay Company‘s vice-chair Bonnie Brooks has announced that Saks Fifth Avenue will expand into Asia and Europe. The idea is lofty, and potentially dangerous for the retailer. If they can pull it off, however, Saks could become one of the world’s greatest global retailers.

Ms. Brooks says that she thinks Asia will be a growth market for Saks. She is no stranger to Asian luxury retailing: Before returning to Canada to modernize Hudson’s Bay, Ms. Brooks ran Hong Kong-based Lane Crawford, now one of the world’s most prestigious department stores.

Saks Fifth Avenue has built many stores in the United States, only to subsequently close them due to low sales. The company has considerable debts. Overseas shoppers may not be as receptive to a foreign department store. Saks already has, however, several international stores in the Middle East and Mexico, as well as a licensed 91,000 square foot store in Kazakhstan which opened last year. If it continues to expand, we don’t know if Saks would continue to license its name (as it has internationally) or take over control of its new and existing international stores.

Alternatively, if Saks can make it in Asia, it could become one of the world’s great international retailers. Given the limited growth of the American economy, international expansion might be a way to increase Saks’ revenues while avoiding home-based competition by retailers such as Neiman Marcus.

Ms. Brooks also mentioned the opening of Saks stores in Europe. One problem we see is Saks trying to secure 75,000-150,000+ square foot store spaces in cities with older, typically smaller buildings. One alternative would be for Saks to open in the suburbs of some larger European cities, though being regarded as a suburban store might harm Saks’ reputation on a continent where luxury shopping is still mostly confined to urban high streets. 

Ms. Brooks discussed some of these details during her September 23rd speech at The Canadian Club in Montreal.

[Source]

[Saks Fifth Avenue website]

SAKS FIFTH AVENUE TO OPEN IN QUEBEC: BONNIE BROOKS

By
Craig Patterson
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Image: Saks Fifth Avenue

Bonnie Brooks, formerly president of Hudson’s Bay stores, confirms that Saks Fifth Avenue will open at least one store in the province of Quebec. As we mentioned previously, we expect Saks will open within the Downtown Montreal Hudson’s Bay department store.

Ms. Brooks then went on to say that Quebec’s “fashion-forward shoppers” would embrace Saks Fifth Avenue over lesser-known Nordstrom. Nordstrom opens its first Canadian store next year, and it is interesting to note that none are currently planned for the province of Quebec.

Saks will be seeking to gain sales from Montreal’s limited luxury goods market. Montreal already has two upscale department stores under the same owner – Ogilvy and Holt Renfrew. La Maison Simons‘ Montreal store includes some expensive designer items, and specialty retailers like Harry Rosen, Ursula B. and shoe retailer Rosenstein Paris will also feel the impact of Saks in Quebec.

Ms. Brooks gave these details during her September 23rd speech at The Canadian Club in Montreal.

[Source]

[Saks Fifth Avenue website]

IKEA (RE)OPENS ITS LARGEST NORTH AMERICAN STORE IN SUBURBAN MONTREAL

By
Retail Insider
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Image: Ikea

Ikea has (re)opened its largest North American store in suburban Montreal. The store is huge, and is now one of the largest stores in Canada. It represents a trend of Ikea stores expanding amid Canadian sales success.

The 470,000 square foot Ikea store expanded from its original size of about 237,000 square feet. It is located in Ville St. Laurent. The store’s warehouse is about twice as large as its previous one, carrying about twice as much product.

The new store includes over 1,400 parking spaces, a 600-seat restaurant, and 48 cash lanes.

Few Canadian stores are larger than this Ikea store. Larger Canadian stores include Hudson’s Bay locations in downtown Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver, as well as Sears‘ current store location at the Toronto Eaton Centre.

Ikea has 12 Canadian stores. In total, it has 342 stores in 42 countries

Source: Samson Yuen, who provided us with this article.

VANCOUVER’S “ST JOHN” STORE TO TAKE OVER GRIFFINS RESTAURANT SPACE

By
Retail Insider
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Hotel Vancouver ground floor plan. We took this photo in the hotel's lobby. They incorrectly named the store "ST JOHNS"

A source tells us that the current St. John store at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver will relocate to space currently occupied by a restaurant called Griffins. St. John will subsequently be replaced by a luxury retailer that we’ll reveal later this week. 

Vancouver is the only Canadian city to have a free-standing St. John store. Last month we speculated that it could replace Griffins restaurant, and Van23H of Vancouver Skyscraper Forum now indicates that the deal is done. 

We examined the space occupied by Griffins restaurant and noticed it has high ceilings with arched windows. We think this could be a very elegant space for St. John, provided that extensive renovations are done. 

Griffins Restaurant Interior. High ceilings for St. John

St. John is an upscale American womenswear label with prices into the hundreds and even thousands. It is carried in Canada at selected Holt Renfrew stores. Most Nordstrom stores also feature large in-store St. John departments, and we expect this to be the case for Nordstrom’s future Canadian stores as well. 

Windows to the left of the hotel’s entrance for Griffins and, eventually, St. John

Keep reading, because the retailer expected to replace St. John will be a first for Canada. Any guesses who will replace St. John at the corner of Burrard and West Georgia Streets? Feel free to post comments below, to this article’s link on our Facebook Page, or even to our Twitter. 

[Hotel Vancouver website]

[St. John Knits website]

TOPSHOP OPENS TOMORROW AT MISSISSAUGA’S SQUARE ONE

By
Retail Insider
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Photo: Topshop

Tomorrow (Saturday September 21st), TopShop/TopMan opens a 15,000 square foot store inside of Hudson’s Bay‘s Square One location. TopShop will be located on the second-floor of the 190,000 square foot Bay store. 

TopShop has opened several stores across Canada, including one of the world’s largest in Vancouver. Other Toronto area locations to feature TopShops include Hudson’s Bay Sherway Gardens, which will join TopShop locations already at Hudson’s Bay Yorkdale (about 15,000 square feet) and at the flagship Queen Street Hudson’s Bay (about 19,000 square feet). 

Thank you for reading Retail Insider, and have an excellent weekend. 

[TopShop/TopMan website]

[Hudson’s Bay website]

CALGARY’S DOWNTOWN HUDSON’S BAY WILL SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCE ITS RETAIL SPACE FOR OTHER PURPOSES

By
Retail Insider
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Photo: Google Streetview Screenshot

Calgary’s downtown Hudson’s Bay store turned 100 years old this week, and it will substantially reduce its retail space both on its ground floor as well as its top level. Ground floor space will be lost to a restaurant, while the top level will eventually be entirely devoted to an event facility. 

A 7,500 square foot restaurant will occupy the south-west portion of the store’s ground floor, and a further 4,000 square feet of basement space will be devoted to a lounge. Given that each floor of the Hudson’s Bay store is about 50,000 square feet, the restaurant represents a loss of about 15% of the store’s ground-floor retail space.

Ground floor retail space, in cities where pedestrians primarily access retail from the street, is considered to be prime. Hudson’s Bay recently removed men’s furnishings on the ground floor of its flagship Toronto store to open one of the world’s largest shoe floors. We’ve been told shoe sales have been stellar, and that the floor expects sales in excess of $1,000/square foot. In Calgary, on the other hand, many shoppers use a series of elevated walkways to access downtown retail. 

The entire sixth floor of the store will eventually be dedicated to an event space. Including the ground-floor restaurant, Hudson’s Bay will reduce the downtown store’s retail space by about 20%. 

Despite Calgary’s wealth and population, downtown Calgary’s Bay store lacks much of the luxury found in its Toronto, Vancouver and (soon) Montreal stores. Toronto and Vancouver Hudson’s Bay stores include ~20,000 square foot luxury women’s departments called The Room, and Montreal will open The Room next year as well. Toronto’s Hudson’s Bay has an in-store Burberry boutique, and several more productive Bay flagships are seeing partial or complete overhauls. Calgary’s downtown Bay lags behind these, partly due to its proximity and lack of connectivity to the popular Core Shopping Centre located downtown, which includes considerable retail and a large and luxurious Holt Renfrew as its anchor. 

Hudson’s Bay is leasing space in its stores to make way for new concepts, including retailers and restaurants. It leased 20,000 square feet on the 7th floor of its flagship Toronto store to NYC-based Kleinfeld Bridal, and it could eventually open Kleinfeld in Calgary. Hudson’s Bay has dedicated substantial square footage to TopShop at several of its stores, though these are HBC-owned franchises. Saks Fifth Avenue will soon take the largest chunk of existing Hudson’s Bay retail space, expected to be in the hundreds of thousands of square feet. Restaurant space has and will continue to be added to other Bay stores, though not to the same degree as in this Calgary location. Time will tell how much retail space Hudson’s Bay will reposition in its existing stores. 

On the plus side, the aforementioned ground-floor restaurant will include what could become Calgary’s largest outdoor dining patio. And the sixth-floor event facility will no doubt be popular and be very useful for those seeking event space. Being Retail Insider, we don’t generally report on restaurants. The restaurants are expected to be excellent, however, and we direct you to this press release for more details on what will likely become a very popular dining and event location. 

[Source: Press Release]

[Hudson’s Bay website]

FIRST OF ITS KIND: KLEINFELD BRIDAL COULD OPEN AS MANY AS 4 CANADIAN LOCATIONS

By
Retail Insider
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Kleinfeld, NYC

New York City-based Kleinfeld Bridal could open as many as four Canadian stores if its Toronto store is a success, according to company co-owner Mara Urshel. The Canadian test store opens in early 2014 on the 7th floor of Toronto’s flagship Hudson’s Bay store. If successful, locations could follow in Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary’s flagship Hudson’s Bay stores. 

Toronto’s Kleinfeld store will the the first of its kind in the world – an enormous (20,000 square foot) full-service bridal salon (including private rooms and alterations) located within an existing department store. From what we’ve been told, the Toronto store will be stunning. It will replace office space and will include a terrace and skylights. Staff will be trained via NYC store management, and there are expected to be as many as 70 staff working at the Toronto location alone. Sales targets, needless to say, are high.

Readers may be familiar with Kleinfeld from the hit TLC television show  ‘Say Yes to the Dress‘. Kleinfeld only has one store in Manhattan, so its potential Canadian expansion is significant and unusual for a company with only one American location. 

Kleinfeld’s Canadian operations may be a smart move, as Nordstrom is expected to bring its wedding business north of the border with its ‘The Wedding Suite’ concept. 

Hudson’s Bay already has Canada’s most popular wedding registry. Kleinfeld will compliment that with an extensive wedding gown collection generally priced from $1500-upward.

We will keep you updated on Kleinfeld’s Canadian expansion, including details of potential Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary locations. 

[Kleinfeld Bridal website] 

[Hudson’s Bay website] 

LA MAISON SIMONS’ LOCATION WITHIN WEST VANCOUVER’S PARK ROYAL

By
Craig Patterson
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Floorplan: Park Royal Shopping Centre

As we announced last week, La Maison Simons will open its first Vancouver-area store at West Vancouver’s Park Royal Shopping Centre. We were provided a floorplan by Park Royal Management, showing the location of the mall’s La Maison Simons store which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2015. It will replace a grocery store and will be located within an expansion of Park Royal South (the mall is separated into two parts by West Vancouver’s Marine Drive). 

We’ll follow up this article with details from an interview with Park Royal VP Rick Amantea. Park Royal, we discovered, is unlike any other Canadian mall for various reasons. We’ll elaborate soon on this topic – we’ve been doing a lot of research this week so we’re keeping our articles brief. 

We also interviewed La Maison Simons CEO Peter Simons last week, and Mr. Simons provided us with information on Simons’ exciting cross-Canada openings. Next Canadian city to get a Simons announcement? We’ll do a follow-up article soon. 

[La Maison Simons website]

[Park Royal Shopping Centre website]

WHAT IS YOUR IMPRESSION OF TARGET’S CANADIAN STORES?

By
Retail Insider
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Target: (Photo: David Goldmann)

Target opened its first Quebec stores yesterday, as we reported would happen last week. A reader sent us feedback and a photo. We’re curious to hear your feedback about Target’s Canadian stores as well. 

David Goldmann emailed us to let us know his reaction to his visit to Laval’s new Target store. He said it was very busy, and that merchandise was selling well. Perhaps too well – he indicates shelves will need to stocked quickly to keep up with demand. 

Two weeks ago we visited a Target store in Coquitlam, BC. Perhaps we had high expectations because our initial impressions were less than stellar. The store had an odd smell, shelves were only half-stocked and their clothing selection left much to be desired. 

Target is in the process of opening stores across Canada, and will continue to open Canadian locations periodically throughout the year. Here is a list of Target stores scheduled to open October 18th. 

To send us your comments on your experiences at Canadian Target stores, please feel free to leave them on our Facebook page, or to tweet them to our Twitter account. This is the link to comment on Facebook specifically about this article. 

[Target Canada website]

ClearlyContacts.ca Announces Retail Expansion Plans After Achieving $2,000/sq ft in Sales

By
Retail Insider
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Photo: ClearlyContacts.ca

Canada’s largest online eyewear retailer, ClearlyContacts.ca today released sales figures from its first North American brick and mortar store. Figures show ClearlyContacts.ca is now generating over $2,000 per square foot, ranking it among retail giants such as Tiffany & Co. and Lululemon Athletica Inc. In addition to sales figures, the company also announced its retail expansion plans. This includes moving the Robson store in November to a larger, permanent location beside the newly opened Victoria’s Secret, as well as a second retail store which opened in Vancouver last week.

“Although the online shopping experience is growing in popularity, many shoppers are using multiple channels to shop and still value the ability to interact with the product,” said Roger Hardy, founder and CEO of ClearlyContacts.ca. “We accredit strong sales to the adoption of the omni-channel model and the importance we’ve placed on developing our business to serve our customers in a way that is convenient for them.” 

ClearlyContacts.ca made the transition to the omni-channel model with the opening of its first brick and mortar location last March. To date, the sales at the brick and mortar location have increased month over month by as high as 20 per cent. A report released by UPS states that 44 per cent of consumers are more likely to shop with a retailer if they can buy online and pick up their purchase in a retail location. These findings support the notion that consumer behaviour is evolving which is why business leaders are choosing to transition to the omni-channel model providing consumers with multiple channels to shop from including: the internet, bricks and mortar and mobile applications.  

“We are pleased with the results of our Robson store and have achieved leading industry standards,” said Steve Wallace, Vice President of Sales at ClearlyContacts.ca. “These results lead to the opening of our second location in Vancouver and are now seeking other markets across Canada.”

Glen Korstrom at Business In Vancouver Magazine wrote an excellent article providing more details. The link to his article is here, including details as to where Clearly Contacts’ permanent Robson Street location will be. 

[Clearly Contacts website] 

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