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Altea Active Opens Massive Social Wellness Club in Toronto’s Liberty Village with More Planned: Photos/Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)

Altea Active, a unique Canadian active lifestyle brand, has opened its social wellness club in an 89,000-square-foot space in the Liberty Village neighbourhood in Toronto. 

The club, which is on the second and third floors of Novus, a new residential community located at the corner of Strachan Ave. and East Liberty St., is a massive urban playground offering Torontonians a one-of-a-kind space to play, work out, relax, dine and socialize.

Michael Nolan

Altea Active currently features a state-of-the-art 80,000-square-foot facility in Winnipeg which opened in November 2019. 

“The opening of Altea Active Toronto – Liberty Village is an important step in the continued development of the Altea Active community. We look forward to sharing news about further Altea Active community developments,” said Michael Nolan, Co-founder and COO of Altea Active.

Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)

“We’ve created a wellness club with something for everyone.”

Nolan and David Wu, Co-Founder and President of Altea Active, previously owned 16 Movati Athletic locations for close to 20 years before selling the business in 2017.

“After we left Movati, we said to ourselves how do we take this Movati business model and how do we improve it even better for that consumer experience,” said Wu. “Really, what we looked at for this upcoming Altea brand is we wanted to curate a better consumer experience by providing them with more social components and social wellness components.

“That’s really what we’ve done with Winnipeg. Social calendars. We bring in a lot of different social activities and curated calendar of events for our clients. At the end of the day it’s bringing friends and families and neighbours together in a very comfortable, safe and clean and welcoming environment. So whether it’s in the suburbs of Winnipeg or downtown Toronto in Liberty Village we curate that experience based on the demographics. What we do in Winnipeg is very different than what we did in Liberty Village. At Liberty Village we looked at the audience there. The demographics is Millennials. A lot of these Millennials are living in a 400 or 500-square-foot condo. So they want social space, they want the social amenities. It’s not just a simple going to do a class. We really take a look at that audience and that’s what we design the amenities to – to fit that audience.”

Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)
Aquatics Area at Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)

Designed by internationally acclaimed Chapi Chapo Design, Altea Active Toronto features the following amenities and services:

▪ Five multi-purpose group fitness studios offering 130+ classes a week:

o 2,500 square foot hot yoga studio with three fireplaces

o Canada’s largest cycling studio with 75-bikes and a 285-inch screen

o Classes include boxing, HIIT, antigravity fitness, dance, barre, yoga, pilates & boot camps

▪ A results-driven, dedicated small group training boutique, provided through LF3 Lifestyle Fitness

▪ 150+ top-of-the-line cardio and strength training machines

▪ Aquatic facilities: 25-metre lap pool, hot tub, hydrotherapy jet pool 

▪ KLAFS Sanarium Bio Sauna 

▪ KLAFS Polaris Ice Room with Ice Fountain 

▪ KLAFS Steam Rooms

▪ A Himalayan Salt Lounge 

▪ Somadome Meditation pod; one of three currently available in Canada

▪ Two Topgolf Swing Suites sports simulators

▪ Four Duckpin Bowling lanes, pool tables, air hockey, dome hockey and pinball machines

▪ Family-friendly offerings: Altea Active Kid’s Club, family change rooms and family swim time

▪ Complimentary towel service

▪ Complimentary underground parking for members

▪ Catalyst (Kitchen & Cocktails) 

▪ Full-service Starbucks 

▪ The Smoothie Bar

▪ Ah-So Sushi

Catalyst Kitchen at Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)

Technogym, the world’s leading producer of design and technology-driven smart-connected fitness equipment and the official equipment provider of the past eight editions of the Olympic Games, is the equipment supplier for  Altea Active Toronto. Club members will have access to the Technogym MYWELLNESS digital ecosystem, immersive Technogym Group Cycle equipment, Technogym Skillrun treadmills, and fully connected cardio equipment equipped with the Technogym Live user interface.

Memberships to Altea Active Toronto start at $95 per month.

Wu said the brand plans to expand in the future.

“We’re carefully curating our growth pipeline. Right now we really don’t have anything to announce. We’ll have more to share later this summer. We’re really focused right now on building out the new Toronto club community and servicing our new members. Our sales numbers for Liberty Village location just blew past our pre-pandemic business plan. It’s extremely busy right now,” said Wu.

“We’re quite busy making sure we’re servicing our new members and on-boarding them and making sure they have a very positive experience. We are working on a very curated pipeline. We’re not doing a shotgun approach of going everywhere. We’re very carefully looking at the right type of real estate and the right type of retail node for our upcoming Altea space.”

Additional Images from Altea Active Toronto

Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)
Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)
Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)
Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)
Kids Club at Altea Active Toronto (Image: Altea Active)

Retailers See Boost as Canadian Consumer Spending Rises in Q1 2022: Report/Steve Sadove Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Hudson's Bay at Queen Street (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

Canadian consumer spending maintained positive momentum in February with an encouraging outlook expected for retailers across the country in the coming months.

The Mastercard Spending Pulse report indicated February retail sales, excluding auto, rose by 6.2 per cent year-over-year and they were up 22.7 per cent compared to pre-pandemic spending in 2019.

Steve Sadove

Also, in-store sales grew 15.2 per cent in February compared to the same month last year and 12.2 per cent versus pre-pandemic as consumers resume in-person activity. E-commerce sales were down (19.8 per cent) when compared to elevated growth in February 2021, however online sales are up 101.4 per cent when compared to February 2019.

“Despite inflation, consumers are putting their record savings to work and expressing themselves through fashion again—much to the benefit of the Apparel, Jewelry and Leather Goods verticals, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse,” said Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard and former CEO and Chairman of Saks Incorporated. 

“You have a lot of people who are out there who have historically over the last couple of years said retail’s dead. Or the consumer’s not shopping. What’s very clear, and I see it in the Canadian data and I see it in the United States data, is that the consumer is alive and healthy. They’re shopping. They’re shopping very differently than they used to shop and there are an enormous amount of shifts going on in the behaviour.

Alexander McQueen Interior at Yorkdale Shopping Centre (Image: Alexander McQueen)

“But overall the consumer wants to get out. What you had in the earlier states of the pandemic was this nesting going on. Everybody, for all kinds of good reasons, they wanted to be safe, they wanted to stay home, if they went out and shopped they wanted to shop somewhere that was big box because they felt safer in a big box . . . And they didn’t go out to a restaurant. They stayed home.”

Sadove said that pattern continued for about a year and a half. But during the last six months, as the pandemic has evolved to become closer to an endemic, people have started to get used to living with the virus and the Omicron variant has started to wane. People have become more comfortable with getting out and returning to their more normal behaviour.

He said February retail sales showed a six per cent year-over-year hike, January was up four per cent, December rose by 10 per cent, November four per cent, and October six per cent.

Sadove said the 15.2 per cent year-over-year growth in in-store sales is the healthiest numbers seen in years and years.

lululemon at CF Pacific Centre (Image: Cadillac Fairview)

“People want to get back to a physical store. They want to touch stuff. They want to experience product,” he said, adding that while e-commerce numbers are down those numbers have still doubled compared to pre-pandemic.

“Still you’ve seen a vast increase in the digitization and growth of e-commerce.”

Other key findings from the report include:

  • Return to office attire: Apparel (18.3 per cent) growth rates remained elevated for the month as consumers prepare to return to physical offices, updating their wardrobes after nearly two years of working remotely. Jewelry and Leather Goods (24.4 per cent) also experienced growth with Valentine’s Day falling mid-month;
  • Home décor continues: Furniture and Furnishings sales were positive again in February as Canadians continue to spend on their homes, with Home Furniture and Furnishings up 6.7 per cent and Home Improvement up 9.0 per cent; 
  • Restaurant resurgence: Restaurant sales (21.0 per cent year-over-year) continued to grow in February as Canadians slowly felt more comfortable with in-person dining; and
  • Back to gadgets: Electronic sales were back up 19.3 per cent year-over-year and more significantly 52.3 per cent year-over-three-years in February, after a year-over-year decrease in January (24.9 per cent).

“The way I would describe apparel was when the pandemic hit nobody was going to work. They were staying home and they were living in their sweat suits. And they were dressed super casually and they didn’t have anywhere to go. They couldn’t go to an office, they couldn’t go to a social event and they were just staying home. So you saw this big decline in apparel,” said Sadove.

“And now all of a sudden as the world has started to open, and everything is tied together, you see the big growth in restaurants, people are going out. They want to wear something in a restaurant. They’re tired of wearing their sweat pants and by the way they might have changed their weight a little bit. Some of them lost weight, some of them gained weight. So they want to get new clothes.

“And as you come into more of the reopening, there’s a whole new fashion cycle going on. So people who have been stuck in their houses or their apartments now what they want to do is they want to flaunt it a little bit. They want to get out, they want to get out and express themselves. And so you have a lot more vibrant colours, you have a little sexier, you have a little bit of new styles in clothing. So everybody’s out buying that newness and you’re seeing it in the numbers in terms of the resurrection of the growth in apparel.”

Brooks Brothers at Royal Bank Plaza (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

Sadove said restaurants and apparel were the two hardest hit categories during the earlier stages of the pandemic. People want to get back out to restaurants now. 

“Anything that is what I would call the experience and experiences are restaurants, they’re local travel, they’re not international travel but they’re getting around, they want to get out and visit places. So you’re seeing a growth in things that are tied to experiences. That’s one theme,” said Sadove.

“Another theme is a self-expression. I see it in the jewelry numbers. Again, people have been at home. They want to treat themselves. They want to look good, they want to get a new handbag, they want to wear some new jewelry. That’s showing a big growth in those categories.

“One of the surprising numbers to me is that in the beginning of the pandemic everyone stayed home and all they did was fix up their houses and home improvement, that’s still continuing. It’s not been an either or. I would have thought that you would have seen a slow down a little bit in the home improvement and part of it is because the supply chains have been so difficult. They’ve been waiting for the refrigerator to come for a year or something like that. People are continuing to invest in their homes and you’re seeing that in the data as well.”

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For March 14th, 2022

By
Retail Insider
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Canadian Retail News From Around The Web

News at a Glance

Retail Insider is streamlining its Canadian retail news from around the web to include a handful of top news stories that can be viewed quickly during the day. Here are the top stories from the weekend.

Calgary-Based Retailer Swimco Emerges from Bankruptcy with Plans for 2.0 Retail Expansion: Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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SWIMCO STORE AT SQUARE ONE SHOPPING CENTRE. PHOTO: SWIMCO

After going into bankruptcy and closing all its retail locations in the fall of 2020, Calgary-based swimwear retailer Swimco is growing its business online and looking to get back into physical locations in the near future.

Dave Bacon, owner of the retail brand, said after the company went into bankruptcy over the Thanksgiving weekend 2020 he convinced the receiver to maintain the online sales because it could attract more dollars to the estate than just liquidating it pennies on the dollar.

“So we continued to run the online sales through the fall of 2020, working for the receiver. I put a bid in for the assets and there were other people who put bids in for the assets as well and my bid was the highest. So I bought the assets from the receiver. I bought the inventory, the building and intellectual property,” said Bacon.

The building was a warehouse in southeast Calgary.

Swimco.com

“That’s where we started our own destiny after that. We just continued to sell online. We knew that when summer hit we would start to see our summer business and it did. In May (2021), we opened up as a pop-up store in Willow Park Village. We were open for six weeks and we did quite well,” said Bacon. 

“It’s been kind of up and down but we’re still surviving. We started buying new merchandise, started taking delivery on new merchandise last fall. We decided we’re going to go full-time somewhere. I’ve got a couple of irons in the fire right now but we think if we have a store in Edmonton and a store in Calgary we can have a presence. Not like we were but we can satisfy a big chunk of the swimwear market. We’re getting calls every week for the last 18 months. ‘Where’s your locations? What stores are still open?’ And the answer is no we’re just online. We know we’ve got brand awareness. We know the people want to shop with us, we know we’ve got the right product, we’ve got two really good strong buyers, we’ve got some nice merchandise and we’re making sales online. So it’s very encouraging.”

Bacon said the plan is to open two stores this year.

“We’re going to open permanently. To be able to attract staff we have to offer a permanent solution. It would be difficult for us to attract the right type of sales person for a temporary pop-up. And we’re just not deep enough to staff it ourselves,” he said. “That’s what we ran into last year. We got so busy, especially the last three weeks of June, that our little office staff was working in the store every day.

“In fact, the last three days, July long weekend, I worked the cash register for three days in a row because we had no staff. Everybody was on the floor. We had 10 sales people and we were busy as hell.”

His wife Lori Bacon had spearheaded the company for a number of years as its CEO and owner.

“We’re in it together financially. But she hasn’t worked since last June. She decided that she just didn’t want to do it anymore. She got two of our former buyers up to speed. She’s just been doing the grandma thing. We’ve got a couple of grandchildren. She’s golfing and playing pickleball and gardening,” said Dave Bacon.

Swimco closed its retail store locations after 45 years in business. In 2020, the national swimwear company had filed a Notice of Intention, under creditor’s protection, to restructure its operations as it responded to the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But on October 13, 2020, a Certificate of Assignment into Bankruptcy was filed to the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada by Deloitte Restructuring Inc., which was the licensed insolvency trustee in the matter.

The retailer opened its first store in Calgary in 1983 but Swimco actually had its roots as a home-based, mail-order business started by Lori Bacon’s mother Corinne Forseth a few years before the retailer opened its first location.

“We’re looking to be a smaller company. We’re at 20 (stores) and we envision staying there,” said Lori Bacon in an interview with Retail Insider during the summer of 2020. At that time, she confirmed that the company had about $6.5 million in unsecured claims and that included about $1.6 million in landlord rent.

Swimco had reduced its head office by about half. The company had 45 staff in its corporate head office but that was reduced to about 20. Retail staff was about 200 but fell to about 120 during that summer.

Lori Bacon said then that the COVID crisis in 2020 came around spring break which meant no travel for people.

“With all stores being shut and still having your rent looming over you, you go in the hole pretty quick. At first, I think everyone was just in a state of shock. ‘For two weeks we’re going to close.’ But it readily became apparent that this was not a two-week thing. We laid everybody off temporarily. We closed the stores on Monday March 16 and we quickly laid off all our store people and most of our head office people and by the following week we had laid off everybody,” she said.

Pre-COVID it had 25 stores in operation.

Brief: JD Sports Opens Edmonton Flagship, Arc’teryx Opening at CF Toronto Eaton Centre

By
Retail Insider
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JD Sports Continues Canadian Expansion With New Store At West Edmonton Mall [Photos]

JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)

UK-based fashion retailer has opened a 14,196 square foot location on Level Two, Phase II of the mall next to UNIQLO.

Read more about the new storefront

Arc’teryx To Open Store At CF Toronto Eaton Centre

Arc’teryx Signage at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

The Vancouver-based technical apparel and equipment brand will open a 3,900 square foot storefront this summer. Construction hoarding was installed on a retail space that was previously home to PLUS on the 3rd floor of the downtown Toronto shopping centre.

Read more about the future Arc’teryx

Luxury Perfumery Debuts Flagship Location At Bayview Village In Toronto

Niche Essence at Bayview Village (Image: Niche Essence)

Niche Essence opens its first stand-alone store after seeing success with shop-in-shop locations in Toronto and Vancouver.

Read more about the new flagship at Bayview Village.

La Vie En Rose To Relocate And Expand Storefront At CF Toronto Eaton Centre

Future Home of La Vie en Rose at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

Montreal-based retailer to move into a 3,148 square foot location on the 2nd floor next to the former Disney Store.

Read more about the future store.

Decathlon Canada Updates Symbol Of Access With Ability Signs Concept

Parking Lot Installations (Image: Decathlon)

International sporting goods retailer has introduced a set of icons that utilize sporting activities as a way to promote the abilities rather than the disabilities.

Read more about Ability Signs

1Related Retail Insider Briefs

Luxury Perfumery Debuts Flagship Location at Bayview Village in Toronto

By
Dustin Fuhs
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Niche Essence at Bayview Village (Image: Niche Essence)

Niche Essence, a luxury perfume retailer, has opened its flagship boutique and first stand-alone location at Toronto’s Bayview Village.

The brand was founded in 2012 and has shop-in-shop locations in Toronto and Vancouver, with the Bayview Village location being the only one to include the entire lineup of products.

“We are so excited to introduce Niche Essence to Bayview Village in keeping with our brand reputation of offering a true 360 degree glam lifestyle experience,” says Carrie DeVries, Vice President of Leasing, QuadReal Property Group. “Bayview Village is home to one-of-a-kind luxury retailers and Niche Essence has curated a unique, exclusive collection of fragrances that cannot be found anywhere else.”

Bayview Village Mall Map

The store carries over 25 brands of perfume from around the world, including close to 20 exclusive brands, including Amouage from Oman, Dusita from France and puredistance Exclusive brands include Amouage from Oman, Dusita from France, puredistance from the Netherlands and Xerjoff from Italy, with new products regularly added to their collection. Other offerings include lotions, soaps and candles to complement the bath, body and home.

“We believe that Bayview Village is the right location for Niche Essence’s flagship boutique as this shopping centre is a well-known destination for niche and luxury products,” says Kiavash Kashani, President of Niche Essence. “Each perfume is made of the highest-quality ingredients that go deeper than the top notes and the goal is to help the customer find an unforgettable scent—true to their own identity that allows them to be confident in their skin.”

Niche Essence’s flagship is located on the main corridor of Bayview Village, in between Stuart Weitzman and Vivian Shyu.

Disconnect Between Retail Workers and Head Offices in Canada a Major Issue Leading to Turnover: Report

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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A new report by Nudge, a mobile communications platform, has found that there’s a big disconnect between retail workers and their head offices.

The Deskless Report: Retail Edition found that 68 per cent of retail workers said feedback is very or extremely important to them, but 37 per cent of workers don’t feel heard by their organization.

Other key findings include:

  • 81 per cent of retail leaders feel they’re sending out meaningful, quality communications, while 59 per cent of retail workers said the communications they receive are somewhat to not-at-all useful; and
  • 27 per cent of retail leaders stated turnover was their biggest challenge, with 37 per cent of polled retail workers saying they want to quit their jobs due to a combination of poor management, pay and benefits and poor communication.
Jordan Ekers

“Retail can’t escape the impact of The Great Resignation and corporate leadership is finally catching on,” said Jordan Ekers, Co-founder and COO of Nudge. “Turnover and resignations are still on the rise because frontline retail workers want better. Better communications, better feedback, better engagement and a better employee experience. It’s time retail leaders listened and it seems that they now are.

“It’s absolutely been a long-standing issue. If you look at any employee engagement survey in retail over the last 15 to 20 years, communication engagement, recognition and relationship with managers are the three largest drivers of an individual’s likelihood to stay with the business. So it’s been a very long-standing issue.

“The reason why it has now been prioritized is with the introduction of COVID the need to invest in tools to support your frontline employees to have them be more engaged at work is now the number one priority that retailers are trying to solve for because of the labour market that they’re operating in. I think it’s been a foundational problem that’s existed which is we need to find better ways to engage, communicate, empower our workforce. Introduce COVID, massive strain on this workforce. We now have a labour market that every brand is trying to figure out how they attract, retain and develop their talent.”

Uniqlo Hiring Sign at CF Toronto Eaton Centre – Photo by Dustin Fuhs

Ekers said retail brands have recognized that they need to prioritize the way that they support their people and that is no longer just competitive compensation. 

“There’s so much more to it. Fortunately for us, we started our business eight years ago on this premise and we’ve seen some pretty substantial growth since COVID landed,” added Ekers.

Lindsey Goodchild

In the report, Lindsey Goodchild, Nudge CEO, said retail organizations have been forever changed coming out of the pandemic.

“There’s a need for operational agility like never before. The expectations of consumers have been heightened to a level we’ve never seen. There’s a labor shortage impacting virtually every organization. And, of course, frontline workforces are finally in the spotlight as the essential, incredibly hardworking employees that they’ve always been,” she said. 

“These workers can do incredible things with the right tools, knowledge, and support. So, what’s the state of the retail workforce? We have some work to do. As we come out of this challenging period, it’s time to take a hard look at who this workforce is, what they want, and how we can support them to help us rebuild – and thrive.”

The report said turnover is the number one challenge facing retailers with 27 per cent citing that problem. Revenue and productivity are also top of mind, with 23 per cent and 17 per cent of retail leaders choosing them as their top challenge, respectively. 

“This highlights the struggle of organizations to return to ‘normal’ post-pandemic. Retailers also indicated communication remains a major challenge; in fact, they said it’s the number one barrier between head office and workers. More specifically, the biggest communication challenges facing leaders are knowledge retention and finding ways to share real-time info – two critical hurdles to overcome for any frontline organization,” added the report. 

Ekers said the needs of retail workers have evolved. They have career goals, a hunger for community, and opinions about how to make organizations better. 

“To get the most out of workers, we need to treat them like partners – like the vital assets they are. It’s time for retailers to finally shake off the deskbound legacies that have stuck around for far too long. Time and time again, we see deskbound technology causing problems in frontline organizations: it’s too slow, too computer-focused, too ill-suited to the needs of the retail worker. For retailers to truly thrive, they need to embrace the two-way, real-time information sharing that their workers desperately need. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.”

Ekers said frontline workers in retail have become somewhat disenfranchised with their love for retail because of the pressure that was placed on them with all the safety protocols during the pandemic.

“Every single brand out there right now is trying to find unique ways to build their brand in the marketplace so that it becomes a place of choice where workers want to go . . . Not only is it compensation but it’s building a culture where you have a sense of purpose. It’s providing workers the tools so that they can better communicate and provide feedback. You just want to make work easier, more fun and more connected to the brand,” he said.

Ekers said the labour issue is going to be a longer-term situation than a short-term blip in time. Employees have heightened expectations today for what their relationship looks like with their brand that they have ever had before. As a result, brands are now needing to invest a lot more money in the way they support their people and empower people in order to attract and retain them.

“The cost of attrition in the first 30, 60, 90 days is such an impact on a brand,” he said.

La Vie en Rose to Relocate and Expand Storefront at CF Toronto Eaton Centre

By
Dustin Fuhs
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Future Home of La Vie en Rose at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

Montreal-based lingerie, sleepwear and swimsuit retailer La Vie en Rose is set to move to a 3,148 square foot storefront at CF Toronto Eaton Centre.

This location was formerly home to a number of permanent and short-term leases, including Calendar Club, Champs Sports, Innisfree and most recently – Black Owned Toronto, which closed after a multi-month pop-up in the space.

Nordstrom announced that the popular brand would be opening a “What’s Happening @Nordstrom” pop-up between March 8th and April 26th, which is located on the main floor mall entrance, across from the Nordstrom Ebar.

CF Toronto Eaton Centre Leasing Plan
Black Owned Toronto at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

La Vie en Rose has been a long-term tenant of the downtown Toronto shopping centre, going back to a previous 3rd floor location from a bygone era that was surrounded by neighbours like Apple, The Disney Store, Grand & Toy and McDonalds.

The store relocated to a 2,151 square foot 2nd floor location across from Champs Sports with a store update, while the former area underwent full shift to the current lineup of Sandro, Marc Cain and Maje.

Retail Insider interviewed La Vie en Rose & Bikini Village CEO François Roberge in 2021 to discuss the brand expansion as part of the 25th anniversary of the family’s acquisition of the company.

La Vie En Rose works with brokerage Oberfeld Snowcap for its Canadian real estate negotiations.

CF Toronto Eaton Centre Black Friday (Image: Wikipedia)

JD Sports Continues Canadian Expansion With New Store at West Edmonton Mall [Photos]

By
Dustin Fuhs
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JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)

Global sports fashion retailer JD Sports has opened a new 14,196 square foot store at West Edmonton Mall.

The new store is located on Level Two, Phase II of the mall beside UNIQLO and across from lululemon and Apple.

This is the third store in the Canadian marketplace, following the brand’s first two storefronts in CF Fairview Mall in Toronto and Guildford Town Centre in Vancouver.

JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)

“We’re really happy about how the marketplace has responded to JD Sports. From queues at our store openings to the growth of our social media accounts and ecom site, we’re seeing that the brand is resonating with Canadians,” says brand manager, Rolf Savella. “We feel like we’re bringing new energy to the market with a great roster of global brands and a product mix for the whole family. We look to keep this momentum going with our next store in West Edmonton Mall.”

The WEM store has opened with a full slate of brands, including Nike, Jordan and adidas in addition to bringing exclusives through its Global Access program. This will bring special make ups (SMUs) of footwear and apparel from brand partners and private labels such as Pink Soda and Supply & Demand.

JD has over 850 stores in 20 territories around the world and is in the process of expanding across Canada.

Jordan Karp of Savills Canada is representing the retailer throughout the Canadian expansion. JD Sports is looking for shopping centre, urban street-front and outlet mall retail spaces. Suburban mall locations will ideally be in the 8,000-10,000 square foot range with Canadian stores generally in the 6,000 – 20,000+ square foot range depending on location.

JD Sports partnered with Amachris Corporation to build out the West Edmonton Mall location.

Additional Store Images from JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall

JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)
JD Sports at West Edmonton Mall (Image: JD Sports)

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For March 11th, 2022

By
Retail Insider
-
Canadian Retail News From Around The Web

News at a Glance

Retail Insider is streamlining its Canadian retail news from around the web to include a handful of top news stories that can be viewed quickly during the day. Here are the top stories from the past 24 hours.

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