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Christian Dior Opening First Canadian Store in Vancouver

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Retail Insider
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[Image Source]

Christian Dior is finalizing a lease for space at the south-east corner of Alberni and Thurlow Streets in Downtown Vancouver. This will be the first free-standing Christian Dior women’s clothing boutique in Canada, and one of only a handful in North America. 


Christian Dior currently has three shop-in-store accessory boutiques at Holt Renfrew stores in Vancouver, Toronto (Bloor Street) and Montreal. 

Dior’s Alberni Street store will join jeweller De Beers (which we previously reported) and Tory Burch (which we also previously reported) at the newly renovated Carlyle retail complex. Space at the Carlyle on Thurlow Street, currently occupied by The Keg restaurant, will become an upscale restaurant/nightclub concept. 

Rendering of renovated Carlyle Space, as viewed from 1101 Alberni Street. Image Source: Concord Pacific

Dior once had a ready-to-wear shop-in-store at Toronto’s Creeds department store. Dior unfortunately closed with Creeds’ bankruptcy in 1990. Dior women’s clothing has since been available periodically at retailers including Holt Renfrew, Simpson’s St. Regis Room in Toronto (now ‘The Room‘ at Hudsons Bay), and Leone in Vancouver.

Chanel is seeking Alberni Street space and according to our source, Chanel will not be locating in the Carlyle. We will announce shortly where Chanel is looking, since it is retail space that does not yet currently exist. 


Dollar Tree, an American-based dollar store chain, will remain in the Carlyle complex with its entrance on the Thurlow Street side of the complex. We recently mentioned Dollar Tree’s proximity to these luxury retailers. 


We will provide further details of the new Vancouver Christian Dior store as well as details on the size, configuration and location of Vancouver’s new De Beers and Tory Burch stores within the Carlyle complex. 


We will soon be announcing several new exciting Vancouver retailers. Keep reading Retail Insider! And thank you to our source Van23H of Vancouver Skyscraper Forum. 


Christian Dior website: http://www.dior.com



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Toronto’s Yorkdale Mall to Open David Yurman, All Saints, Varvatos, Ferragamo and Others New Stores…

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Retail Insider
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Photo: Yorkdale

Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre just announced a substantial number of new, exciting retailers opening in the next few months. Some are first to Canada and others are first to the Toronto area. Included are several impressive luxury tenants.

Luxury: Yorkdale will see several new luxury retailers including David Yurman (American luxury jeweler), John Varvatos (Upscale US-based men’s clothing retailer), Mulberry (UK-based luxury-goods retailer, which we previously reported), Salvator Ferragamo (Italian luxury goods retailer) and footwear retailer Stuart Weitzman.

Other New Retail: Other new Yorkdale retailers will include UK-based clothing retailer All Saints, American womenswear retailer White House Black Market (which we previously reported), Spanish-based clothing retailer Massimo Dutti, Spanish home goods retailer Zara Home (which we previously reported), LEGO and American clothing retailer Brandy Melville. 

Six of these are first-to-Canada stores (All Saints, David Yurman, John Varvatos, Mulberry, White House Black Market and Zara Home). Yorkdale’s Salvator Ferragamo store will be the company’s second Canadian location (after Vancouver’s Ferragamo store at 918 Robson Street). Yorkdale’s Massimo Dutti will be Canada’s second location, following its Toronto Eaton Centre store. Brandy Melville’s Yorkdale store will be Canada’s third (following its current Toronto location at 326 Queen Street West and Vancouver’s 850 Granville Street) and LEGO will launch its 100th global location at Yorkdale this spring.

According to Yorkdale General Manager Anthony Casalanguida: 

“Canadian shoppers no longer need to travel to shop the world’s best brands,” said Yorkdale General Manager Anthony Casalanguida.  “Yorkdale continues to attract global brands as their entry point into the Canadian market because of the quality of our existing retail mix, real estate and access to much of the GTA’s population.”

This latest addition solidifies Yorkdale’s position as Canada’s most comprehensive and upscale mall.

We previously reported on Harry Rosen’s Yorkdale Mall expansion. We reported on Hudson’s Bay’s Yorkdale store renovation, and also did an article on Holt Renfrew’s expanding 120,000 square foot Yorkdale store, including a 10,000 square foot shoe floor. All are expected to be completed by Autumn 2013, if not before. 

Thank you Yorkdale Shopping Centre for providing us with this information. Here is a link to their press release.

Keep reading Retail Insider, as we will update you on these store openings as well as details on their locations and store sizes.

Yorkdale Shopping Centre website: www.yorkdale.com

Target Opening First Canadian Stores Tuesday, March 5th

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Retail Insider
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Photo: Target

Target opens its first three Canadian stores at 8:00am (EST) Tuesday, March 5th. These Ontario store locations include: 

Guelph: 175 Stone Road 
Milton: Milton Mall Shopping Centre 
Fergus: Gates of Fergus

These stores are considered to be ‘pilot stores’ which will be used to iron out any potential ‘wrinkles’ in operation before Target opens 21 more locations later this month. The Guelph store has been open to ‘staff, friends and family’ for the last couple of weeks, and we have been informed by a staffer at the Guelph store that things are going ‘very well’ so far. 

Target’s formal ‘Grand Opening’ will be in early April.  Target will open 124 Canadian stores in 2013.  

We will keep you updated on Target’s Canadian store openings. 

[Article Source]

Target Canada website: www.target.ca

Zara Home Store Opening First North American Location at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre

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Retail Insider
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*****UPDATE: Yorkdale’s Zara Home opened August 22nd, 2013. It is 3265 square feet. Its Canadian online shopping site launched the same day*****

Spanish-owned Zara Home will open its first North American location at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Zara Home is offshoot of Zara, a moderately-priced, modern fashion and accessories retailer with multiple Canadian stores.

We are awaiting further details on the store including mall location and store size.

Canadian shoppers can expect modern, interesting, well-priced residential items from the Zara Home collection. The concept is expected to expand Canada-wide with possible future locations in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal.


Zara Home has no American locations currently, but can be purchased online: ZaraHome.com/usa. Canada is getting Zara Home before America, at least brick-and-mortar-wise.

Zara is owned by Inditex Group, the world’s largest fashion retailing conglomerate with almost 100 different companies under its umbrella.

Thank you to our ‘retail insider who wishes to remain anonymous’ for this tip!

Zara Home website: www.zarahome.com

Hermès Achieves Record Sales

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Retail Insider
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Photo: Hermes

French luxury goods manufacturer/retailer Hermès achieved record profits in 2012 with a 22.6% increase over 2011 sales. Asian consumers account for much of the growth including several store openings and renovations. Hermès has five Canadian stores in four Canadian cities.  

Hermès has managed to maintain exclusivity with high prices/no discounts, low supply, and a heritage of craftsmanship/artisanship.

Worldwide revenues of $4.66 billion make Hermès one of the highest grossing luxury goods retailers in the world. Hermès’ Asian sales increased 25% between 2011 and 2012. European growth was at 15% while American growth was 14%.

Hermès may be best known for its bag called the ‘Birkin’, named after acress Jane Birkin in 1984. Prices typically range between $9,000 and $150,000. In 2009 a $220,000 Birkin bag made of red crocodile with a clasp of 18k white gold and diamonds rotated around Canadian Hermès stores, starting with the new Calgary Hermès location which opened inside of Holt Renfrew in October of 2009. It sold in a 2011 Dallas auction for about $203,000.

Hermès has five Canadian locations:

Toronto: 130 Bloor Street West,
Montreal: at Holt Renfrew,
Calgary: at Holt Renfrew, and
Vancouver: 1) 107-755 Burrard Street and 2) Vancouver International Airport

The Toronto (4,000 sq ft)  and Vancouver (2,500 sq ft – Burrard Street) Hermès stores compete for Canada’s highest Hermès sales, according to a sales associate at the Toronto location. 

[Partial Article Source]

Hermès website: www.hermes.com

Holt Renfrew website: www.HoltRenfrew.com

Hudson’s Bay Uses its New Name and Font on Website

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Retail Insider
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Hudson's Bay website screenshot, Thursday February 28th 2013 23:05 PST

Canada’s Hudson’s Bay department store’s website has, as of Thursday February 28th 2013, formally introduced its new name font along with its simplified store name ‘Hudson’s Bay’ (see image screenshot from their website, above). 

Gone are the stylized ‘B’ and the abbreviated store name ‘The Bay’. 

Hudson’s Bay Classic Logo

Former Bay logo including stylized ‘B’

We previously reported that the store formally known as The Hudson’s Bay Company or ‘The Bay’ would be changing its name. We expected a full-on name change late 2012 and it appears to have been delayed until now. 

The company’s most recent furniture flyer also includes the store’s new name/font ‘Hudson’s Bay’. 

‘snyberTO’ of Urban Toronto noticed and pointed out the similar fonts between Hudson’s Bay and Burberry. See below:

Burberry Logo

vs.

‘Hudson’s Bay’ is the main Canadian department store branch of the organization still called ‘The Hudson’s Bay Company‘. The same company also owns American department store chain Lord & Taylor, as well as Canadian home retailer ‘Home Outfitters‘. The company will also operate three Zellers stores (as we previously reported) and owns the Canadian rights to British cheap & chic retailer TopShop/TopMan

Retail Insider will continue to keep you updated on Canadian retail news. Have an excellent weekend, everyone! 

Hudson’s Bay website: 

www.TheBay.com

Burberry website: 

www.burberry.com

Retail Insider on twitter: 

@retailinsider_

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www.facebook.com/RetailInsider

Got any retail insider info?

insider@retail-insider.com

‘White House | Black Market’ Coming to Canada

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Retail Insider
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Photo: White House | Black Market

American womenswear retailer White House | Black Market will open three Canadian stores in 2013. Parent company Chico’s will open more Canadian stores under the Chico’s banner in 2014.  

White House | Black Market is known for its ‘slimming’ clothing (some have been featured on Oprah) and targets the 30-55 year-old female. It plays on variations of staple white-and-black clothing styles. 

Michelle Obama wore this $148 White House | Black Market dress called ‘My Sister’s Dress’ in a 2008 appearance on TV show ‘The View‘. [Image Source] American Presidential Wife Michelle Obama wore a $148 White House Black Market dress in a 2008 interview on the TV Show ‘The View‘. The dress sold out shortly thereafter. 

Photo: White House | Black Market

The Canadian store-opening information was confirmed in a fourth-quarter investor conference call the afternoon of Thursday, February 28th by Chico’s CEO David Dyer. This was immediately reported to Canadian readers via the Financial Post. 

White House | Black Market has about 350 American stores, while Chico’s has almost 1100 American locations.

[Article Source]

White House | Black Market website: 

www.whitehouseblackmarket.com

Chico’s website: 

www.chicos.com

Rolex To Open First Canadian ‘Corporate Store’ in Toronto

By
Retail Insider
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Rolex (Photo urbacon)

Rolex will open a ‘free-standing’ store within Toronto’s ‘Rolex Building’ at 50 St. Clair Avenue West. This will be the first corporately-owned Rolex store in Canada, and only the second in North America.

The Rolex Building is located at 50 St. Clair West in Toronto’s mid-town ‘Deer Park‘ neighbourhood. It’s an affluent area located between the even more affluent neighbourhoods of Rosedale and Forest Hill.

According to this website, Toronto’s Rolex Building is 28,000 square feet over five floors. The building is currently being renovated by Urbacon.

Photo: Rolex

Thank you to ‘androiduk’ of Urban Toronto for providing this tip. Information was obtained by the City of Toronto Planning website, with information on the Rolex Building specifically being found here.

Rolex website: www.rolex.com

New North Vancouver Mall Could Break Ground Soon

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Retail Insider
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Construction of a proposed 430,000 square foot, $65 million North Vancouver shopping mall, located on aboriginal lands, could begin as early as next year. 

The mall would include an enclosed element as well as possibly big-box stores. Squamish Nation, property owner, is currently examining putting housing on the site along with the proposed retail. We are awaiting development proposal documents and we will share them with readers when received. 

The proposed shopping centre site is located at the north end of Vancouver’s Second-Narrows/Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. The site sees considerable vehicle traffic and the area population is expected to grow with residential proposals in areas near Capilano University to the north of the site. 

The development would proceed in conjunction with developer Kingswood Capital Corporation, which owns a 50% stake in the development as part of its 99 year sublease of the roughly 30 acre Squamish lands. 

The project was initially proposed in 1999 and was to break ground in 2004. The new proposal would see a modified design and the addition of residential to ‘optimize the site’s use’. 

Art Installation in ‘International Store of the Year’: Simons West Edmonton Mall

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Retail Insider
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La Maison Simons CEO Peter Simons at art installation unveiling.

Canada can be proud that Chain Store Age‘s ‘International Store of the Year’ is, this year, a Canadian retailer. Last week we reported the award went to La Maison Simons, West Edmonton Mall. 

This week we’re posting some photos of the in-store art installation we mentioned last week.

Philip Beesley‘s ‘Simons Aurora’ was unveiled Wednesday, February 20th, to much acclaim. We think it looks great, and we’re posting some of the artwork’s description from Canadian Architect Magazine. 

The photos we are posting are taken from West Edmonton Mall’s Facebook page. 

According to Canadian Architect Magazine, “Simons Aurora is a canopy of crystalline columns that uses sensory mechanisms to respond to human movement, creating a gently swelling and rippling ocean of light”. 

Inspired by the aurora borealis, Simons Aurora is composed of laser-cut acrylic, mylar and custom glassware. Suspended from the ceiling of the store’s north atrium, the installation is 68 feet long, 26 feet wide, and has more than 40 electronically active columns of varying lengths. Philip Beesley’s team used a new generation of electronics that allows a highly complex, intelligent digital fabric to create responsive chain reactions of light.

“We were excited by the idea of working with the Simons family which has a longstanding reputation for creating innovative retail spaces,” said Philip Beesley. “The scale and atmosphere of the Edmonton location allowed us to envision a significant installation that would adapt to and be energized by interactions with customers.”

The installation of Simons Aurora will take eight members of Philip Beesley’s studio and a large team of local artists, designers and students 17 days to complete. The process will be captured on time-lapse video. While Philip Beesley’s works reside in many countries around the world, Simons Aurora is Beesley’s first permanent installation in Canada“.

Peter Simons, CEO of the store, was in attendance for the art installation’s unveiling. From this description in the Edmonton Journal, fun was had by those in attendance. 

We’ll be checking out Edmonton’s La Maison Simons this summer when we visit. We also look forward to seeing some of West Edmonton Mall’s updates we recently reported on.

La Maison Simons website: 

www.simons.ca

West Edmonton Mall website: 

www.wem.ca

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