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Reitmans to Launch Online Marketplace in Q4 2022: President Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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REITMANS (CANADA) LIMITED TO LAUNCH RCL MARKET THIS FALL

Canadian retail giant Reitmans (Canada) Ltd, which recently announced it had emerged from its restructuring proceedings through the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, is launching the new RCL Market in the fall to expand the online offering of its three brands – Reitmans, Penningtons and RW&CO.

Jackie Tardif

“Over the last few years, our e-commerce business has grown exponentially and RCL Market will further transform the way our customers shop online,” said Jackie Tardif, President of the Reitmans brand and Executive Sponsor of the RCL Market Project. “We are proudly Canadian owned and operated, thriving to constantly evolve. We have the largest market share in both women’s and women’s Plus specialty retailing with Reitmans, Penningtons and RW&CO., attracting one in three Canadian women to shop our nationally recognized brands. We also serve the men’s market with RW&CO.’s unique work from anywhere attire.”

The retailer operates 412 stores consisting of 242 Reitmans, 92 Penningtons and 78 RW&CO.

Reitmans had filed for creditors’ protection on May 19, 2020. Recently, it announced it had paid to the Monitor appointed under the CCAA process, Ernst & Young Inc., the aggregate amount of $95 million with the Plan of Arrangement. It also announced it had entered into a senior secured asset-based revolving facility of up to $115 million with Bank of Montreal.

Reitmans at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

The credit facility has a term of three years and funds will be used, among other things, to finance the amounts payable under the Plan of Arrangement and to fund Reitmans’ working capital needs and for its ongoing general corporate purposes, including new store openings and renovations, said the retailer.

Tardif said the rise of e-commerce has fundamentally changed the expectation of the consumer and their behaviour and that has accelerated during the pandemic.

“The first reason (for launching the new initiative) is that we want to remain a leader and address the growing needs of our customers,” she said.

“The second is to offer an exceptional range of curated product from brands they know. Customers love us, recognize us, as we have very loyal customers. Expanding our product assortment is obviously a financial growth opportunity for Reitmans Canada Limited.”

“With RCL Market, we will be offering price positioning and service and, at the end of the day, when you extend an offer to customers who already like you, they know what you stand behind, so they will trust you that you’re making the right curated selection for them. They want choice but they want it in a simplified way,” she said.

Tardif said the consumer of today is loyal to a retailer when they choose a brand. They like the company’s DNA.

REITMANS (CANADA) LIMITED TO LAUNCH RCL MARKET THIS FALL

“So if we are offering the price positioning and the service, at the end of the day, when you extend an offer they already like you, they already know what you stand behind what you’re doing, so they will trust you that you’re making the curated selection for them. They want choice but they want it in a simplified way,” she said.

Tardiff said the company has been working on this initiative for the last few months to be able launch it in the Fall. 

“We want to continue to be a leader in the digital world. We’re doing very well. We’re increasing significantly on our e-commerce platform and we just want to extend it and address the growing needs of our customers,” she added.

“What is important in the RCL market we are creating is we will curate the assortment that we will be offering to our customer. So it doesn’t become a sea of brands and a sea of products. It will be well selected, high quality brands, very aligned with our values. That’s the trust that our customers have in us and we’ll make sure that we’ll respect that trust and stand behind what we offer.”

The RCL Market initiative will be powered by Mirakl, the industry’s first and most advanced enterprise marketplace SaaS platform, which will offer handpicked quality value products offered by partner brands.

“With the launch of RCL Market, our customers will benefit from a larger array of carefully selected products to offer a tailored shopping experience with both the loved and recognized brands to which they are already loyal, as well as new ones that we know they will love,” said Lisa Reitman, Vice-President, Customer Experience, and co-lead on the RCL Market Project. “Our marketplace will enable each brand to curate its own assortment, so each brand’s product selection will continue to meet the customers’ needs, yet will now offer brands and relevant categories of products such as footwear, beauty, accessories, home, and more.”

Reitmans (Canada) Limited is currently searching for partnerships with brands – worldwide or Canadian, big or small – who want to join its community to serve Canadian customers from coast to coast. Any interested vendors looking to join the RCL Market experience for the Fall 2022 launch can now apply by visiting www.reitmanscanadalimited.com/rclmarket.

Jean-Francois Fortin

“Working in partnership with brands that share our values will be of the utmost importance to us; we are committed to ensuring responsible business conduct and ethical sourcing principles. We offer trusted and loyal service and will look for partners who also uphold these high standards,” said Jean-François Fortin, Vice-President, Planning & Allocation and co-lead on the RCL Market Project. “Mirakl’s best-in-class technology and marketplace expertise will ensure that RCL Market will be a digital shopping experience that includes staples available in our physical stores as well as products that are exclusive to the RCL Market, while remaining true to the DNA of our brands and to our values.”

In a recent public letter, Reitmans President Stephen Reitman said he’s confident that its brands (Reitmans, Penningtons and RW&Co.) will flourish.

“We now begin a new chapter in our company’s almost 100-year history,” wrote Reitman.

“While the uncertainty of Covid-19 may continue, I am confident that Reitmans (Canada) Limited and our brands, Reitmans, Penningtons and RW&CO., will flourish. I look to the future with hope and optimism for us all, our partners and our valued customers.”

RW&CO at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

In December, the company released its financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal 2022, ending October 30.

Sales for the third quarter of 2022 increased by $14.8 million, or 9.1 per cent, to $178.2 million, primarily due to an increase in store traffic and number of transactions, as customers transitioned back to a “brick and mortar” shopping experience, it said.

Gross profit for the third quarter of 2022 increased $19.8 million to $101.4 million as compared with $81.6 million for the third quarter of 2021. Gross profit as a percentage of sales for the third quarter of 2022 increased to 56.9 per cent from 49.9 per cent for the third quarter of 2021.

“The increase both in gross profit and as a percentage of sales is primarily attributable to lower markdowns and promotional activity in the third quarter of 2022 combined with a favourable foreign exchange impact on U.S. dollar denominated purchases included in cost of goods sold, partially offset by higher merchandise freight costs as the global shipping industry disruption required an increased usage of air freight shipments to meet customer demand,” said the retailer.

In his letter Stephen Reitman said: “When I reflect upon our experiences over the last 22 months, I am struck by the number of people, both within and outside of our organization, who enabled us to emerge successfully from CCAA, and who have supported us during this most difficult time.

“While the uncertainty of Covid-19 may continue, I am confident that Reitmans (Canada) Limited and our brands, Reitmans, Penningtons and RW&CO., will flourish. I look to the future with hope and optimism for us all, our partners and our valued customers.”

Grocery Pick Up Sees Significant Growth in Canada into 2022: Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Grocery Pick Up Sees Significant Growth in Canada into 2022: Interview

A recent survey by Field Agent Canada, a company that leverages crowdsourcing and mobile technology to collect retail audits and conduct mystery shops for retail operations, indicates 51 per cent of Canadian grocery shoppers have used Grocery Pick Up services at least once in the past month.

JEFF DOUCETTE

Jeff Doucette, General Manager of Field Agent Canada, said in the early days of the pandemic it was often very difficult to book a Grocery Pick Up appointment right across Canada as shoppers looked for a way to get their groceries while avoiding a trip to the store. 

Field Agent wanted to check in and see how Canadians are using grocery pick up almost two years later. A survey of 3,369 Canadian shoppers was taken between January 12 – 16.

The survey also found that 52 per cent of users report using these services now more often than they did a year ago.

Image: Grocery Pick Up (Field Agent)

The two Grocery Pick Up services used most often are PC Express with 67 per cent and Walmart with 63 per cent.

Also, 77 per cent of Grocery Pick Up users are buying less than 50 per cent of their groceries through Grocery Pick Up services.

“In general, the overall adoption rate was boosted by the pandemic obviously. There’s sort of a decade of growth there kind of overnight which helped,” said Doucette. “The year before there were a lot of struggles in actually getting a picked up spot because the infrastructure was built for a slower, smaller business and then overnight everybody wanted to do it.

“Having just over half of consumers using a service like that in the last month just shows that the adoption and the acceptance of that is still really high. They continue to use the service but it’s rare that someone is buying all of their groceries for grocery pick up. They’re still making trips to the store. They’re still interacting with the physical bricks and mortar but they do use that pick up service at least for a portion of their groceries.”

PC Express PHOTO: RETAIL ANALYSIS

Doucette said it’s not a surprise that PC Express and Walmart are the two leaders in the field because they’re available nationally. 

“For me, when we talk to consumers about grocery pick up and what’s important it’s still very similar to what it was prior to the pandemic which is quality and freshness of produce, order accuracy, minimum amount of substitutions or out of stocks. Those are the three big areas that are important in online ordering,” he said.

“Then the other piece is just having a slot available at a time that is convenient for you to pick up . . . You want those slots available on the weekends and the evenings. It becomes a staffing issue. Like anything else now during the pandemic, can you get enough people working your pick up operations in those peak times to meet the demand?

“There’s eight or 10 parking spots out in front of the store and if you needed more parking spots you could always add more signs. It’s not really a constraint. It’s really the capacity of how many pickers can you have going up and down the aisle and do that in an efficient way.”

An example of what’s happening today, Doucette said, is a renovated Walmart store in Northland Mall in Calgary where they’ve built an entire section of the building that’s orange in colour, labeled grocery pick up with its own door.

Image: Walmart Canada
PICK-UP CENTRE AT A WALMART STORE. PHOTO: WALMART CANADA

“It’s one of the first examples I’ve seen of a purpose-built grocery pick up facility in Canada. That’s very similar to what they operate in the US where in their US stores they have almost like drive-thru lanes set up, parts of their building are orange, and they actually have a fulfillment centre happening in the back there,” he said.

“That’s the future at scale. Now we’ve gotten to this point where there’s some scale here and then the next part of that business is how can I take those operations and make them more efficient. Have a separate part of the store, give people the space and really staff it appropriately.”

Doucette said for many stores it has been a learning curve in the past two years and they have tweaked their operations to meet the growing demand for grocery pick up services. 

“There’s been a lot of learning. Sort of trial by fire really,” he said. “I think Walmart has a bit of an advantage because they can tap into their US experience and that business in the US is much more advanced.

“Two years ago when I was in northwest Arkansas the primary focus of the store almost felt like it was grocery pick up. They were really, really focused on it. Yes, it’s a learning curve and yes it’s still going to evolve but I think the investments will still be there and now it will become more about service and efficiencies.”

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For January 26th, 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 past 24 hours.

How Zensurance Helps Canadian Retailers and Business Owners with Necessary Operational Insurance: Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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How Zensurance Helps Canadian Retailers and Business Owners with Necessary Operational Insurance: Interview

Online insurance brokerage Zensurance is helping Canadian business owners save time and money by providing a convenient and affordable way to buy business insurance. 

It has become increasingly important for businesses these days to have liability insurance to protect them from the costs associated with third-party liability lawsuits or claims on issues such as property damage or bodily injury.

Matt Jardine, a Zensurance broker and team lead for Property and Hospitality, said the risks a business owner is exposed to will vary based on the size of their operation, industry, or profession. 

How Zensurance Helps Canadian Retailers and Business Owners with Necessary Operational Insurance: Interview

In general, business liability insurance provides coverage for another’s bodily injury, property damage, or financial loss (professional liability) due to a company’s operations. Regardless of fault, the liability insurance may cover the costs of legal defence, out-of-court settlements, and third-party medical expenses.

“When you’re a small business you often feel like ‘where’s the risk?’ Just because you’re small, you’re not invisible when you’re small, you’re still vulnerable and you’re still susceptible to the same losses anybody else is,” said Jardine.

Jardine said Zensurance is a brokerage that is focused on providing the easiest path to getting insurance for Canada’s small business owners. 

“It’s not saying that we only exclusively work with small business owners but what we try to do is have the most precise and concise way of them accessing the insurance they need in a format that is user-friendly, purposeful, often able to provide a price the moment that they are going on to get a quote,” said Jardine. 

“There’s savings because of the unique relationships we have on the dollars and cents side but there’s also savings in terms of the time it takes to acquire a quote and to get an insurance policy. We try to really reduce that usual wait window that exists in the marketplace from multiple days to over a week down to sometimes multiple hours, the same day, with some things that we have.”

Image: Zensurance

Jardine said Zensurance currently has more than 100,000 business clients. 

“We focus on the people I find that are not usually focused on by the marketing and the advertising and the direction of brokerages. Everyone’s going on to the biggest fish in the sea where we’re trying to swim with the small guys to help them out and guide them,” said Jardine.

For many e-retailers expanding into customer facing events, they need to be aware of new risks they face and their general liability exposure. More and more small businesses are venturing out into the realm of pop up events, farmers’ markets and other in-person events.

“General liability covers property damage and bodily injury. Think about these in-person events, there’s little things that can happen, there’s big things that can happen. You might be putting on a presentation, have your computer plugged in and think nothing of it, and someone trips over your laptop cord and falls down. All of a sudden they’ve broken their wrist. What happens if the person that broke their wrist is a hair stylist and now they’re going to be out of work for a number of months,” said Jardine.

“These can become issues for small business people.”

By taking a business out from e-commerce or a home and into the market in physical places, small businesses now have the liability that goes with being in those premises as well. 

Jardine said businesses also need to have coverage if they are operating out of their homes or online. For example, what if a customer has a severe allergic reaction to a product they have purchased. Liability insurance policies are there to respond to allegations as well as the potential loss that has been triggered. A policy will cover legal representation including a statement of claim made against a business.

“When you think of the value, that’s tremendous,” said Jardine. “We want to subtly remind people that we are there to safeguard yourself without getting in your way or taking time out of your day really.

“Our whole business is about helping people take risks, in making sure they don’t fall down if it goes south on them. I think for small businesses they often overlook the need and value in having an insurance policy.”

The backup support is also there for cyber liability when traditional retailers pivot to more aggressive online strategies with apps, delivery and online sales as well as those businesses who launch strictly an e-commerce business.

“When you’re selling online I think it’s really easy to make mistakes that can come back and hurt your business. If there was no human error, there would almost be no cyber events. So cyber events are seldom successful without human error,” said Jardine. “The majority of things that happen is people become susceptible to a phishing attack or a ransomware attack or a malware attack.

“Those are all preventable. There are many coverages that are first-party coverage and that means that the insured, if they suffer let’s just say a malware attack and it happens to destroy their computer, there’s reimbursements for that. That’s why this policy is so valuable. Not only can it address the issue of the attack . . . but you’re vulnerable when you’re busy and you’re online. Small businesses don’t always have the financial resources to invest in the tools that pick up these threats. They have to rely on the people they have to identify, recognize and pick up these threats.

Having a policy to safeguard against these exposures and threats is recommended as one of the strategies a business can have to respond to the potential perils they face.

“The cyberspace impacts small businesses as much as it impacts large businesses because they’re far more vulnerable and it’s very easy to make a request for ransom. And some of those costs and damages are covered by the policy.”

Plant-Based ‘The Very Good Butchers’ Expanding with New Locations and Business Growth: Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Image: The Very Good Butchers

Plant-based food company The Very Good Butchers is riding the wave of popularity these days as more and more consumers in the country look for alternatives to meat.

The company, which began with a small stand on Denman Island Farmers’ Market off the coast of Vancouver Island in 2016, has become one of the fastest growing, plant-based meat companies in North America after it was founded by James Davison and Mitchell Scott.

The company is based in Victoria, BC.

“We butcher beans and we create a range of plant-based meat alternatives out of real food. Beans, veggies, herbs and spices. We’ve got a retail butcher shop in Victoria where you can come in, dedicated to meat and cheese (alternatives). We sell a ton of product online and we also sell in grocery stores and restaurants,” said Scott, the CEO and Co-Founder. 

The Very Good Butchers (Victoria, BC)
The Very Good Butchers (Victoria, BC)

“It’s what you might find in a butcher shop. Not just burgers and sausages but we’ve got ribs, steaks, deli meats. A whole range of high quality plant-based meats.”

Davison, a classically trained chef from England, moved to Vancouver and started working at a plant-based restaurant, ended up going vegan, moved to the island and realized there was no work for him as there really weren’t any restaurants there. At the same time, he missed the taste of meat and wasn’t impressed by what was at the grocery store with everything processed.

“So he just went into the kitchen for a month or so and came out with two products, classic English breakfast sausage and a veggie burger. And then decided to take it to the farmers’ market. Sold out that first day in about 15 minutes,” said Scott.

Today, the brand is in just under 1,000 grocery stores across Canada and in about 400 to 500 in the US. It launched its retail presence in the US a few months ago. 

Mitchell Scott and James Davison (Image: The Very Good Butchers)
Image: The Very Good Butchers

“We kind of started in the independents channel and have been slowly moving a bit more into mainstream,” said Scott. “It’s starting to get great coverage in Canada and building up a business in the US and we’ve been selling online for three or four years now. A lot of people ordering directly as well.”

The company will be opening a butcher shop in Vancouver late spring or early summer.

“For the butcher shops it’s more of a flagship model. So we’re not looking to franchise these but have a few – 10 to 15 around the world in key markets in cities. It’s still something we’re developing,” added Scott.

“We’re looking to be a global leader in plant-based meats. Grocery stores the big focus now is the US retail market because it’s such a big market but looking to being in tens of thousands of stores around the world.”

The Very Good Butchers (Victoria, BC)
The Very Good Butchers (Victoria, BC)

Scott said plant-based alternatives have been one of the top food trends in recent years.

“For us, as more and more people have good plant-based food and have a positive experience, they realize that plant-based food is good whereas five or six years ago it was hard to find. That perception is shifting and people are looking to reduce their meat intake for various reasons – health, environmental, ethical. More and more people are trying plant-based foods and they’re having a positive experience and then they’re open to trying more,” he said.

“We really see that as our niche and opportunity, the premium plant-based niche. Still being relatively affordable but not being mass market.”

How a Local Footwear Retailer in Stratford Saw Success with eBay and Ecommerce During the Pandemic: Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Image: White-Balmer Shoes

Like thousands of retailers across the country, White-Balmer Shoes has faced a tough challenge over the past two years to deal with the lockdowns and public health restrictions put in place to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But entrepreneur Karina Bogle, owner of the Stratford, Ontario business, turned to ecommerce and the eBay platform to keep the store alive and thriving during the difficult time.

Bogle took over White-Balmer, which has been in business for 41 years, just before the pandemic began in March 2020. The store is located on the main street in the heart of Stratford.

“The first wave of the pandemic hit about seven months after I owned the store. I was just learning still how effectively to run a shoe store when I was forced to temporarily close. So I really had to pivot quickly and find new ways to generate sales and move inventory. Like most retailers I started offering curbside pickup and doing local home deliveries but I also knew at the start of the pandemic that was the time I needed to expedite my ecommerce plans,” she said.

Image: White-Balmer Shoes
Image: White-Balmer Shoes

“The pandemic really created the opportunity for me to build and launch whitebalmershoes.com and after that was up and running I linked that inventory to eBay’s global marketplace which has been really successful and now I can embrace both instore and online shopping which allows me to reach many more new customers and even the website for local business it’s been really great because customers are able to pre-shop and see what we have instore and if we stock in what they’re after so that they can come in and zero in on what they’re after and work with our knowledgeable staff.”

The website was launched in April 2020 and she started using eBay in December 2020.

Bogle was named eBay’s Emerging Ecommerce Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021.

“I had experience selling personal items on eBay. So I was already familiar with the platform. I was just trying to find new ways to reach more people and it turned out to be a really great way to extend my audience and reach people globally,” said Bogle.

“Through my website it’s just North America but on eBay I’ve been selling to people in Australia and all over the world which has been exciting.”

Image: Karina Bogle
Image: White-Balmer Shoes

The retailer sells footwear for men, women and children, handbags and accessories, gloves, scarfs, hats, umbrellas, socks and shoe care products.

“I’m planning to increase my sales team and introduce new products, expand further on to the existing products. Definitely continue to grow ecommerce, find ways to make my website stronger, and actually get to work with some eBay experts who are going to work with me and advise how to best grow sales and be more visible to their audience. So I definitely plan to continue on with that,” said Bogle.

In Ontario currently, retailers are allowed 50 per cent capacity in their stores due to the latest COVID lockdown restrictions.

“I don’t think that has been what’s caused such negative impact on retail stores especially in destination shopping areas like what Stratford is. I think the major issue is that the restaurants have to be closed so it’s not as desirable for people to go downtown shopping when there’s nowhere they can go inside to eat and the uncertainty of being able to find a public washroom,” explained Bogle. 

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For January 25th, 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.

Podcast [Interview] The Importance of Insurance for Retailers in Canada

By
Retail Insider
-
Podcast [Interview] The Importance of Insurance for Retailers in Canada

Craig and Danish Yusuf of Zensurance discuss the implications for retailers not having proper insurance and how the pandemic has changed things. 

The Interview Series podcast by Retail Insider Canada is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Also check out our The Weekly podcast where Craig and Lee discuss popular content published on Retail Insider which is part of the The Retail Insider Podcast Network.

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Background Music Credit: Hard Boiled Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sporting Life Re-Opens Store in Collingwood After Disastrous 2020 Fire: Interview/Photos

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)

The Sporting Life retail store in Collingwood, Ontario has literally risen from the ashes after a devastating fire that gutted the building on January 27, 2020.

“It was a complete loss,” said Andy Hotson, General Manager of the Collingwood store. “It was thoroughly investigated and it was undetermined (the cause).

“Immediately the next day there was a meeting with all of our staff and I remember going to the building and cars pulling up beside me and honking and rolling down their windows and walking down the street. I’ve been there since 2002 so I know a lot of these people in the community, they know me – expressing their condolences and everybody being super supportive. 

Andy Hotson, Store Manager of Sporting Life in Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Youtube video

“For me with the community being super supportive, our head office, everybody within our company being super supportive, it was just kind of thinking where do we go from here. We will grieve obviously but we’re going to come back better than ever – thinking Sporting Life 2.0 at the time.”

The store originally opened in December 2002 and was the fourth retail location under the Sporting Life banner. 

After the fire, a temporary smaller store was established nearby in December 2020 until the new store was rebuilt from the ground up. Construction started for the new store on the original site in the spring of 2021. The new store opened November 20.

“It’s obviously a brand new building. Better layout. More modern. I think more customer and staff friendly in the sense of being new with new amenities and big open windows, kind of an open concept. But also we are in kind of the downtown of Collingwood and it’s considered an historic area. I think the architecture fits in with the downtown. It’s a great new building but really fits in. Lots of natural light and just a great space,” said Hotson.

Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)

The location is about 10,000 square feet and includes state-of-the-art equipment like the Wintersteiger, used to tune skis.

“The community reach was great. Not only our customers of course but even other local businesses. The Mayor even. Other retailers. Competitors of ours and all of our vendors. All of the people in the community no matter where myself or my staff were going to the grocery store, going out skiing, they would just stop and say ‘we love your store and can’t wait for the new store to open. That’s our store’,” said Hotson.

Sporting Life is partners with Alpine Canada, Alpine Ontario and the National Ski Academy, which the brand is celebrating 20 years of partnership since 2002. As partners, the brand provides athlete support from ski tuning and boot fitting to expert advice. It is also Canada’s Ski Team’s trusted source for product, service and advice.

“The Collingwood community didn’t have their Sporting Life to turn to when it burned down,” shared the brand. “But now we’re back and Collingwood has their community’s favourite spot to go to get expert advice and a unique assortment of the latest & greatest premium product. People come to visit to pass the time and talk ski & snow with Sporting Life experts, because there’s this mutual love and passion for the sport.”

Howard Israelsohn, Chief of Staff for the Sporting Life Group, said the brand has 11 stores across Canada. The general format is bigger than Collingwood with about 30,000 square feet.

“It’s really important for us to be in a place like Collingwood because Sporting Life is all about active outdoor and Collingwood represents that,” he said.

Additional Images from Sporting Life Collingwood

Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)
Sporting Life Collingwood (Image: Sporting Life)

Vancouver-Based Jeweller Melanie Auld Expands to Toronto with 1st Storefront [Photos]

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Melanie Auld Ossington (Image: Melanie Auld)

Melanie Auld Jewelry has expanded from its Vancouver base with the opening of a new Toronto boutique on the bustling Ossington Avenue strip.

The new location features on-the-spot piercing, permanent bracelet welding and jewelry engraving along with a wide selection of the brand’s fine and demi-fine jewelry collections. 

It also includes the MA Studio which is an in-boutique annex at the back of the store housing a bracelet welding station, a jewelry engraving station and a dedicated piercing room. 

Melanie Auld Jewelry Boutique in Toronto (Image: Melanie Auld)

“The MAJ Boutique in Toronto really speaks to what our brand is all about at its core, and that is, jewelry that celebrates personal connections,” said Auld, who founded the brand in 2013.

Melanie Auld

“With MA Studio, we wanted to create the perfect place to mark life’s special moments, giving our customers the opportunity to honour and celebrate their own experiences.”

Auld had been previously working in jewelry with her brand in the US prior to starting MAJ. The first brick and mortar store was opened in Vancouver in June 2019. The location remains in the South Granville area on West 6th Avenue. Prior to that, jewelry was sold online and sold throughout various retailers such as Nordstrom.

“Initially we started out doing wholesale and with our own e-commerce site,” she said. 

Melanie Auld Jewelry Boutique in Toronto (Image: Melanie Auld)

“Originally when I started the brand it was more of like an artistic, creative outlet and we would sell to lots of specialty boutiques and retailers and we really followed that typical fashion calendar where you had collections every spring and fall. Going to trade shows. Trying to get new accounts. But over time we connected more to our customer, and actually we started a collection with Jillian Harris and it was called our Adorned collection, it was all about initials and telling your story. That led us down this path of personalized pieces and seeing how it resonated with our customers and how much they connected in being able to personalize their own piece and have so much meaning behind what they were wearing . . . it actually started us down what I would say now is our path.”

Auld said the brand decided not to continue its wholesale side of the business in order to connect to its customer more closely and to be able to offer them the more personalized jewelry experience.

“It just felt it wasn’t conducive to wholesale any longer as we were getting more into connecting our customer to their jewelry in a very personalized way,” she said. “After we opened our boutique in 2019, and being able to have that physical presence, and having our customer be able to come in, it was very eye opening having that direct relationship with them. It was the following year we decided to no longer offer our jewelry to wholesale.”

Auld said the brand’s business has done really well throughout the pandemic. Vancouver and Toronto are the brand’s leading markets online and customers from Toronto were constantly asking when a physical store would open in their city. For Auld, it just felt like the next step to take in the company’s growth.

Melanie Auld Jewelry Boutique in Toronto (Image: Melanie Auld)

“Right before COVID took hold in February 2020 we went to look at a few different areas in Toronto. In Vancouver, we have quite a neighbourhood community kind of feel. We’re a little bit off the beaten path. Not necessarily on a high foot traffic street,” she said. “And we really wanted to make sure that in Toronto we had the same feel with potentially higher foot traffic. But the same feel of it being like a community because our brand is so much about connections to people, places and things.

“It was really important that we found a community that felt like there was energy and there’s so many amazing restaurants, independently owned boutiques, and it felt like a really good synergy for us in Ossington.”

The brand is currently renovating another space in Vancouver on 4th Avenue in Kitsilano with a planned opening this summer. The new store will also have an MA Studio like the Toronto store. 

“Our plan is to keep our 6th Avenue store open by appointment only and be more like a personal shopping fine jewelry experience there,” said Auld. 

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