Ron Cecillon, a veteran of the hospitality industry, has taken over as the new Chief Executive Officer of Balzac’s Coffee Roasters with plans to grow the brand from its base in southern Ontario to other parts of the country.
“We underwent an extensive search and selection process and met with some amazing candidates. In the end, all parties unanimously agreed that along with his deep industry expertise, Ron best reflects our company’s values and culture,” said Diana Olsen, the company’s president and founder.
“We feel so fortunate to be gaining a leader with Ron’s experience, talent and vision. I look forward to collaborating with Ron on the Balzac’s brand as we work towards building on the solid foundation and momentum achieved over the past 25 years.”
PHOTO: BALZAC’S
Cecillon, who has a long history at Kelsey’s, Harvey’s, and Swiss Chalet, was recruited into the role of CEO at Nando’s Flame Grilled Chicken in 2011, where he made a significant impact on the transformation of the brand and its business model. Tasked with evolving and transforming the Canadian business, he focused on culture, people and the repositioning of the brand; opening 25 locations, renovating the real estate, and more than tripling the annual sales volume.
“The Balzac’s story is certainly one to be proud of when it comes to Canadian hospitality,” said Cecillon. “With its strong brand credibility, leading reputation, dedicated customer base, and robust long-term success strategy this is a unique and exciting opportunity. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to join Diana Olsen and the team to lead the Balzac’s brand into its next stage of strategic growth and development.”
“I do prefer founder-led, company owned and operated businesses and it’s a great product. It’s an exceptional product. Exceptionally designed spaces and we have an exceptional team as well. The ability to grow and partner with a founder was what drove me to take on this opportunity.”
LIBERTY VILLAGE BALZAC’S. PHOTO: BALZAC’S
Balzac’s currently has 14 locations with four under development. The locations are all in the southern Ontario and Greater Toronto Area. The company started as a coffee cart operation in its early days in 1993 with the first cafe opening in 1996 in Stratford, Ontario.
“We don’t endeavour to be the next Starbucks or the next Tim Hortons. That’s not what we want. We are a boutique coffee company that wants to scale but still feel boutique. If we looked at nationally, I can’t really see us doing more than 100 or 150 because we’re looking for smaller, unique spaces where we’re part of the community versus scaling it across the country,” said Cecillon.
“We’re looking nationally from our wholesale business which is in the grocery stores. And we are looking for opportunities in Western Canada as well.”
Cecillon said the company’s coffees are created a little bit different than the mega coffee giants. Balzac’s roasts in small batches. The company is a Canadian owned and founder led business and it really tries to establish its cafés in smaller communities and communities that are quite active.
PHOTO: BALZAC’S
“So you look at even in Toronto you won’t find us in strip malls. You’ll find us in very interesting communities – the Distillery District, Market Street around the St. Lawrence Market, Liberty Village, Stratford, Niagara on the Lake, Kingston. We really look for unique spaces that represent where the community congregates and where they gather to sort of get away from things for awhile and just enjoy a great cup of coffee,” said Cecillon.
“Our specialty coffees are really created a little bit differently than some of the more main street coffee shops. We use real ingredients such as vanilla or maple syrup, pumpkin puree. It allows us to really get the distinct flavours out with not a lot of added sugar. And organic milk. The whole host of non-milk alternatives is something that we pride ourselves in as well.”
Olsen will be assuming the role of Chief Design Officer moving forward focusing on driving Balzac’s design into a new era.
Recently, it was announced that Balzac’s is partnering with Porter Airlines as their in-flight coffee provider.
PHOTO OF RON CECILLON. PHOTO: BALZAC’S
“That’s a big opportunity for us to allow more Canadians across the country to experience the magic of Balzac’s coffee,” added Cecillon.
Balzac’s name is inspired by Honoré de Balzac’s famous quote, “the Café is the People’s Parliament.”
“He was known as sort of the first man of coffee, drinking upwards of 50 cups of coffee a night because when he wrote he typically wrote from 10 p.m. through to eight o’clock in the morning. He wrote overnight. That’s where his creativity came. That’s where his mind was at its best. In order to stay alert, he drank significant amounts of coffee,” said Cecillon. “Diana spent a fair bit of time in the cafes of France and fell in love with the French culture of coffee and the way it celebrated congregating and gathering. Hence the name is after Honoré de Balzac.”
The North American Development Group has ambitious plans to build a massive project on the site of the current Agincourt Mall in Toronto – providing a unique city-building opportunity, creating a vibrant mixed-use community which builds on the retail history of the site while leveraging connections to existing and future transit, parks, and open spaces.
The project will include 4,400 residential units with 270,000 square feet of retail space and about 110,00 square feet of office. There will be a total of 10 buildings on the site which overall will have seven development blocks. Each development block is a little bit different. Several of them on the east side of the site will have podium retail and above would be some low rise or mid rise residential.
Residential will be both condo and rental throughout the development site. There’s also some town homes planned for the site, which is located at the corner of Kennedy Road and Sheppard Avenue, in the former Scarborough community, in the northeast quadrant of the Greater Toronto Area.
AGINCOURT MALL MAP
Steve Bishop, Vice-President of Development Services for the company, said the 26-acre site is occupied currently by a 300,000-square-foot, 1960s enclosed shopping centre anchored by a No-Frills food store and a Walmart. There is also a freestanding building which has The Beer Store, LCBO, and Pet Value.
“We’re immediately adjacent to the Agincourt Library which is one of the busiest branches in Toronto,” said Bishop.
He said all the buildings on the development site – not including the library – will be demolished through a phased construction process.
“We’ve been working closely with Walmart to maintain them on the site. So they would be part of our phase one program. The intent here is that we would try to keep a portion of their store open while we construct phase one – demolish a portion of their space and construct a new building with residential above them,” said Bishop.
The project has been going through all the municipal approvals with construction expected to start in 2021. Full build out would take a couple of years.
The site was acquired in January 2015 and it is dominated by automobiles with more than 70 per cent of it being surface parking. There are multiple vehicular access points to the site.
AGINCOURT MALL DEVELOPMENTS. Photo: NORTH AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT GROUP
The goal is to develop a community for retail, culture, leisure and multi-generational living while also creating a public realm that supports a mix of programs with parks and squares.
The development also wants to create great streets for everyone – pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles – which connect to the larger surrounding community and future LRT.
The location is a home run with its accessibility and being part of the transit framework. The Agincourt GO Station and the planned SmartTrack are within a five-minute walk. Seven bus lines are in the immediate area. The Highway 401 on-ramp is located less than one kilometre from Kennedy Road and Sheppard Avenue. The developer says Toronto has major plans for new higher-order transit along Sheppard Avenue.
The project will become an ideal place for residents to live, work and play with plenty of amenities as well as park space.
“We spent a lot of time focused on the public realm. When we looked at the site, we looked at it holistically with the entire neighbourhood and not in isolation. So we’ve got some great connectivity between Ron Watson Park and our proposed park and through our pedestrian connections you can get pretty much anywhere in the neighbourhood through a series of streets,” said Bishop.
“There was a lot of focus on that through our process,” said Bishop. “We’re quite happy with the way it all turned out.”
To win sales — let alone loyalty — retailers, brands, and online marketplaces must understand and navigate an increasingly complex ecosystem of consumer expectations, preferences, and channels that are anything but static, explains the report.
Key Canadian highlights from the report include:
● Retailers, brands, and online marketplaces are battling for wallet share. 81 per cent of consumers buy from a combination of retailers, brands and online marketplaces. 40 per cent of repeat purchases are made at physical stores;
● Shopping is evolving as consumers define new terms of engagement. 49 per cent of consumers shop with a specific brand in mind. The number one trait of a shoppers’ favourite brand is offering exclusive shopping experiences/promotions;
● Shopper journeys are moving to the edge. 17 per cent of shoppers buy products with a mobile wallet. On average, consumers have two shopping apps on their mobile devices; and
● Stores remain critical for discovery, experience and fulfillment. 52 per cent of shoppers have purchased a product online for in-store pickup. The number one reason consumers shop in-store is to get merchandise immediately, followed by the ability to touch and feel merchandise.
The report also found that 47 per cent of shoppers plan to buy more from online marketplaces this holiday season and the number one factor influencing holiday purchases this season is what’s available in physical stores.
“We’re finding that consumers are engaging with brands well beyond their physical and virtual four walls. What that means for retailers is that’s just not about getting the operations and experience right on their own destinations but really pushing their brands to where consumers are,” said Rob Garf, Vice President of Strategy and Insights for retail and consumer goods at Salesforce.
“The second interesting point I want to highlight is that the stores are seeing a revitalization. We’re seeing consumers really valuing the stores not in isolation but as part of the overall omnichannel shopping process. While products are important, experience really has elevated as one of the most important reasons why a consumer shops with a particular brand and as part of that experience sustainability and trust has become very important particularly with the younger generations.”
PHOTO: LUSH
Garf said that retail from the beginning has been about pulling the consumer to their brand, their destination, their property. That of course was primarily physical for many years but increasingly digital has entered into the picture.
“Now it’s as much the need for retailers to push the brand to wherever the consumers are and that’s increasingly happening off property. It’s happening on third-party platforms like social media, like messaging platforms, like voice assistance, gaming consoles, even video,” he said. “What we found in the Canadian market specifically nine per cent of consumers are making purchases on social media and four per cent are making purchases on messaging apps as well. This is slightly lower than the global average which to me isn’t a huge surprise. We have found that Canadian shoppers are typically fast followers to what’s happening in other parts of the world in adoption of technology for shopping.”
PHOTO: ROOTS
There is a lot of talk these days of a retail apocalypse but Garf said it’s really more of a retail renaissance and that’s illustrated by what’s happening in the store itself. For many years, the store was simply a place to purchase a product. The point of sale was focused on speed and efficiency.
“What we found based on our research is that consumers are really looking for three fundamental things from the store,” said Garf. “First they’re looking for it to be discovery hub. The second an experiential hub and third being a fulfillment hub.
PHOTO: L’OCCITANE
“It’s critical too that in Canada 84 per cent of consumers make their first purchase in a physical store and when we think about the repeat purchase – the second, third, fourth, the ongoing purchases – 40 per cent still make those purchases in the physical store. Only 25 per cent of the repeat purchases globally is made in the physical store. So Canadian consumers are really doubling down on the importance of that physical, tactile experience within the store.”
Garf said 52 per cent of shoppers purchased a product online and picked it up in the store.
So why do consumers in Canada go into the store?
“The top three things are to get merchandise immediately. It speaks to the importance inventory availability and really streamlining the purchase and pickup activity. Being able to touch and feel the merchandise is really important particularly on fashion products and technical products that you can’t just get by reading the website. And lastly is to engage in the overall in-store experience and that can take a lot of different flavours whether that’s just talking to a knowledgeable store associate, it could mean in some cases . . . going to a store for a special event . . .”
PHOTO: SONOS EXPERIENTIAL STORE
Garf said experience for the consumer is a feeling that the retailer knows who the consumer is and provides either a relevant, personalized, convenient or automated shopping experience based on the knowledge of that consumer.
“Over 50 per cent of consumers feel like the retailers don’t know actually who they are. So it’s turning that on its head utilizing all the information that a consumer is leaving with every type, every swipe, every tap and turning that back over to the consumer and translating that into whether it’s a personalized, relevant, convenient or automated shopping experience,” he said.
On a global level, the Salesforce report found that 83 per cent of consumers say the experience is as important as the product.
Upscale Swiss Chocolate Brand Läderach Kicks Off Canadian Expansion with First Storefront: Swiss chocolate brand Läderach has opened its first standalone flagship in North America at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto. The 1,590 square-foot store is located on ‘Level 2’ of North America’s busiest shopping centre. Mary Mowbray of Colliers represented Läderach in a lease deal with landlord Cadillac Fairview, and is helping spearhead Läderach’s Canadian store expansion that will continue into 2020 and beyond.
Läderach only sells its products through its own direct-to-consumer stores — the company avoids wholesaling as it aims to control the entire consumer experience. That includes attractive stores with upscale interiors that are staffed by chocolate experts. Läderach says that it only uses the best ingredients and has strong relationships with its suppliers — that includes milk from Swiss cows, almonds from California, Piedmont hazelnuts from Italy, and honey from Swiss bees. More than 100 varieties of chocolates include 50+ different praline and truffle offerings, dozens of confectionery specialties, airy ‘Mini Mousses’, over 20 varieties of FrischSchoggi™ (fresh chocolate), and a large selection of seasonal creations. Prices are higher than competitors such as Purdy’s, with some boxes of chocolates costing in excess of $100 for 36 pieces.
The opening of the Toronto store was certainly unique — a parade of traditional cow herders with Swiss cow bells marched through the centre to the tune of Alphorn players. A welcoming ceremony with the Läderach family was a highlight — family members flew in from Switzerland just for the occasion. A symbolic chocolate key was presented to Toronto’s First Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong.
The Läderach brand was founded in 1962 and the family’s third generation is now running the business. That includes a network of more than 80 stores and more than 1,000 employees globally. Toronto was chosen for the brand’s first North American store because of the city’s diversity that includes a sophisticated taste in chocolates. Läderach is planning to expand further into Canada with more stores, including in Toronto, with more details to be announced at a later date. The expansion will be careful so as to maintain the exclusivity of the brand, which includes award-winning flavours known to be some of the highest-quality chocolate in the world. A standalone recently opened on Lexington Avenue in New York City, kicking off the brand’s US expansion.
Ted Baker Opens Largest Store in Canada Featuring a Garden Theme in Toronto: British lifestyle brand Ted Baker has relocated its Yorkdale Shopping Centre flagship up the hall to a new 4,322 square-foot space in the mall’s 2012 expansion wing. It replaces a 3,227 square-foot location nearby that was Canada’s first Ted Baker store when it opened in October of 2012. Real estate company JLL represents Ted Baker as brokerage in Canada and Dianne Lemm, negotiated the Yorkdale lease deal on behalf of the retailer. Oxford Properties is Yorkdale’s landlord.
Ted Baker’s Yorkdale flagship’s design is said to be “inspired by both the iconic modernist buildings in London’s Barbican Centre and Toronto’s own illustrious local architecture and surroundings.” The Barbican Centre is known for its gardens conservatory, and the new Toronto Ted Baker features an expansive assortment of green foliage. That contrasts with the use of raw industrial materials which Ted Baker says one might associate with Toronto’s modern architecture. The store features collections for men and women, including Baker’s Holiday collections. Ted Baker fashions are known to be eye catching with unique styles and colours.
Nearby retailers include Apple and Microsoft, as well as new luxury brand flagships for Bottega Veneta, Valentino and Balenciaga. Holt Renfrew, which has seen substantial renovations, also recently unveiled large concessions for Gucci, Fendi, and Dior, with new mall-facing Brunello Cucinelli and Christian Louboutin boutiques under construction.
Ted Baker currently operates nine standalone stores in Canada in markets including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, suburban Montreal, and Ottawa. Two of them are outlet stores. Ted Baker also operates shop-in-store leased concessions at Hudson’s Bay stores in downtown Vancouver and Toronto. The Ted Baker brand, which is headquartered in London UK, was founded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1987. Originally a men’s brand, Ted Baker’s women’s line launched in 1995. The brand operates nearly 500 stores globally and has expanded extensively in the United States over the past several years, both with standalone units as well as shop-in-store concessions in many Bloomingdale’s stores. Ted Baker’s largest standalone storefront in North America is on 5th Avenue in New York City, and spans about 7,000 square feet.
Thank you Norman Katz for providing Retail Insider with photos of the new Ted Baker Yorkdale store. Interior photos can be seen in the slideshow above.
ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE
Ontario Science Centre Launching Pop-Up Market with Opportunities for Brands: The popular Ontario Science Centre in Toronto is hosting a ‘Winter Pop-Up Market’ from December 27th through to January 4, 2020. Applications are now open for the Ontario Science Centre Winter Pop-Up Market. Brands interested in taking part can apply HERE.
Thousands of visitors are expected to come into the Ontario Science Centre over the winter holidays, particularly as schools will be on a break. Toronto-based pop-up retail activator pop-up go is facilitating the activation — the company has hosted a variety of pop-up markets over the past several years. Founder/Chief Connector Linda Farha said that demand for pop-up space is greater than ever before as brands seek to engage with consumers via temporary activations.
“This announcement isn’t just great for visitors, but also for prospective pop-up brands. A pop-up at the Ontario Science Centre is a completely unique opportunity—providing guaranteed visibility for brands to knowingly position themselves in front of a very specific target audience,” said Ms. Farha. “The market will have a truly seasonal feel and doing something like this is a great way to transition into the New Year for the Centre, its visitors and the pop-up brands!”
Last year, pop-up go facilitated the one-hour long Skittles’ “Last Minute Gift Shop” on Queen Street West. The pop-up was open for several hours and saw lineups of people looking to buy Skittles-themed gifts.
Maison Birks Unveils Canada’s Largest ‘Hard Luxury’ Website: Montreal-based jeweller Maison Birks has officially unveiled what it says is the most comprehensive online luxury store in Canada. The website features an expansive assortment of luxury brands found in Birks’ Canadian stores, including some exclusive brands only found at Birks.
Jean-Christophe Bédos, President and CEO of Birks Group Inc., said in an interview that the Maisonbirks.com website now features exclusive-in-Canada brands Chaumet and Messika, as well as hard-to-find brands including Dinh Van, Marco Bicego, Roberto Coin, and Yoko London. Remarkably, Birks is also the only official ecommerce partner of French luxury brand Cartier in Canada. Watch brands on the site include Baume & Mercier, Cartier, Breitling, Frédérique Constant, Longines, Montblanc, Tag Heuer, and Wolf 1834.
More than 2,400 pieces are available on the expanded website with prices starting at $100 and at the top-end, exceeding $58,000. An additional catalogue features more than 500 items from brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Vhernier, and Rolex — products can be seen online and purchased via appointment in one of Birks’ 29 stores Canada-wide.
“We also plan to continue adding new jewellery and timepiece collections in 2020,” said Mr. Bédos. The website is a way to further interact with Birks’ clientele in Canada, providing opportunities to purchase as well as do research before visiting one of Birks’ stores. The online presence also provides a level of credibility for Birks, which is considered to be the leading multi-brand luxury jewellery retailer in Canada. The website also engages with consumers in parts of the country where Birks once had stores but has since shuttered them — that includes markets such as the Maritimes, Hamilton (Ontario), and Regina (Saskatchewan), for example. And while Birks operates high-selling standalone flagship stores in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, the Maison Birks website is the “top selling store in the chain” according to Mr. Bédos.
Birks has been adding new brands to its roster, including recently opened Graff and Patek Philippe boutiques in downtown Vancouver. Mr. Bédos explained that Birks is looking to add new brands — names such as Harry Winston are currently not available in Canada, and that could change as Birks seeks to be the dominant player in multi-brand jewellery and timepieces. Birks has also unveiled new concept stores including CF Fairview Mall in Toronto as well as at First Canadian Place.
We asked Mr. Bédos about the phenomenon of brands going direct-to-consumer by opening standalone stores — luxury conglomerates Richemont and Kering have been expanding operations in Canada. He explained that the clustering of luxury brands found in Birks stores create an attraction for shoppers much like various beauty brands in a Sephora store, and in some instances some luxury jewellery brands aren’t yet ready to open standalone storefronts in the Canadian market.
Remarkably, the Vancouver Hublot licensee was not aware that Hublot was opening a Toronto location — it appears that Hublot did a deal directly with Yorkdale’s landlord Oxford Properties. It’s not yet known if Hublot will open any more freestanding stores in Canada, though it’s possible. Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville area is a notable luxury node and as luxury retail continues to expand in Canada, new luxury nodes may also become a target for Hublot. That includes Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre which will include a dedicated luxury wing, as well as the massive Royalmount development in Montreal that will also include a luxury retail component that could be anchored by an upscale international department store, according to sources.
Hublot was founded in Switzerland in 1980 by Italian Carlo Crocco — a scion of the Italian Binda Group dynasty, best known for making Breil watches. Hublot is named after the French word for “porthole”, and the first watch that he created featured the first natural rubber strap in the history of watchmaking — a feat that took three years of research to create. In 1998, Hublot was acquired by French luxury conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), and it continues to operate as a subsidiary. The company has more than 70 stores globally including several in the United States.
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Opens 1st Canadian Flagship Store: Kitchen and cookware brand Zwilling J.A. Henckels has opened its first flagship store in Canada at the CF Markville shopping centre in Markham, north of Toronto. The 2,500 square foot store is in an upscale section of the mall next to a Michael Kors store and across from Coach.
The tech-heavy Zwilling flagship features “an experiential digital wall making the consumer’s shopping experience more interactive and informative” where visitors can purchase from the brand’s catalogue of products. The retailer opened its first outlet store in Vancouver at the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet in 2015 and now operates 10 stores across the country.
Zwilling is another example of a brand going direct-to-consumer by opening stores. Prior to opening its standalone units, the brand was only available in multi-brand retailers in Canada. Zwilling continues to be distributed wholesale across the country, though its new corporate stores are part of an effort by the company to own a larger market share by connecting with its customers directly.
Sustainable Organic Children’s Brand to Launch in Canada Early Next Year: New York City-based children’s lifestyle brand ‘art & eden’ will launch in Canada next spring. Founder Susan Correa says that it was created in a sustainable business model that “has embraced triple top line accountability.”
The art & eden product lines include fashions for boys and girls up to 10 years, as well as infants as young as three months. The brand has won several awards including being awarded ‘Best New Kids Brand’ as well as ‘Most Sustainable and Socially Responsible Brand”. Earlier this year, art & eden collaborated with Discovery as part of an effort to spread awareness of endangered and vulnerable animals. Product can be viewed on the retailer’s US website.
The company was founded in 2017 and is registered as a Public Benefit Corporation. Its approach “focuses on ensuring prosperity, while celebrating community and nature, so the results are far more positive, as they can be economically, ecologically and equitably enjoyed.” The brand utilizes a “give back platform” with the mantra of “buy better, do better”.
The company’s managing director Charlotte Taylor Wright is responsible for establishing the art & eden brand in Canada. That will include launching the ‘earth by art & eden’ collection at Babies R Us stores in Canada.
The launch of the brand in Canada comes at a time of intense competition — other homegrown brands have launched children’s apparel lines while international players continue to expand in Canada. The particular angle that art & eden is taking involves storytelling which is a smart move, as it will help create brand awareness for consumers while also providing a sense of ‘meaning’ which will give it a leg-up on fast-fashion competitors — it’s a trend being seen in adult fashions as well, including US-based women’s retailer Reformation which opened its first Canadian storefront at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre over the summer.
Unique Holiday Market Opens at Square One: For the second year, the Square One shopping centre in Mississauga is hosting the ‘Merry & Bright Holiday Market’ featuring a ‘Candyland’ theme. Square One partnered with Sheridan Visual Merchandising Arts to decorate the space. Annie Sloan sponsored the paint, IKEA furnished the workshop space, and Skittles is supplying sweet treats for guests.
