Tel Aviv-based Fox Group is bringing its home furnishings concept Fox Home stores to the Canadian market this year with an initial eight locations. It’s part of a Canadian expansion for the Fox Group that also includes new stores for licensed brands Nike, Mango and Laline.
Fox Home was founded in Israel in 2010 and the retailer says that it offers “a new and fresh concept for the home products market.” Its products are of a “high quality” while offering “value for money,” according to its website in Israel.
The Fox Home stores carry a wide range of smaller home goods that can fit in a footprint of about 4,000 square feet. That includes cookware, kitchen items and tableware such as plates, cups and cutlery, small kitchen appliances, bedding and pillows, rugs, items for the bathroom, decorative accessories, candles and home fragrances, mirrors, and items for home offices.
Currently Israel is the only market where Fox Home has a presence, with 90 stores in the country and over 750 employees. Canada appears to be the first international market that Fox Home is expanding into.
As part of the Canadian store expansion, Fox Group will be opening an initial eight Canadian locations for Fox Home this year. All of these stores will be located in the Greater Toronto Area prior to expanding into new markets.
Those eight Fox Home locations include stores at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto, Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto, CF Fairview Mall in Toronto, Scarborough Town Centre in Toronto, Vaughan Mills near Toronto, Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket, and at Square One in Mississauga.
It appears that Fox Home’s strategy is to operate stores in leading enclosed regional shopping centres, having already chosen some of the top locations in the Greater Toronto Area. That means we may expect Fox Home to open in some of Canada’s leading malls in other regions if the initial launch is successful.
Fox Home will compete with a wide range of home furnishings retailers in Canada. For example, companies such as Ikea are looking to gain market share by opening different sized stores. The list of retailers in Canada carrying home furnishings is extensive, ranging from department stores such as Hudson’s Bay to off-price retailers such as TJX-owned HomeSense. Even smaller Asian concepts such as Miniso and Mumuso will compete with Fox Home in terms of smaller items for the kitchen and home.
In Canada, Fox Group is investing heavily into the market. In 2018 the company launched skincare retail concept Laline, which currently operates nine stores in southern Ontario. The biggest retailer Fox Group is working with in Canada to date is Nike, which includes the opening of a flagship store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre in the summer of 2021 — now plans are in place for flagships to open in downtown Montreal as well as in malls in Edmonton and Calgary. Fox Group is also the licensee for Spanish retailer Mango which just opened its first Canadian store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre.
The entry of Fox Home into the Canadian market signals confidence in physical retail, as international brands look to Canada to open stores.
We’ll follow up on this report when Fox Home opens its first stores, and we’ll also be reporting more on other retail concepts expanding in Canada under the direction of Fox Group.
Do they have a buying office in Toronto ?
I wonder if Bed Bath & Beyond’s upcoming closure will help accelerate Fox Home’s entrance and expansion accross Canada. Per the article it seems Fox’s preferred store size is quite a bit smaller than a typical BB&B, however the upcoming vacancies nationwide do present a ripe opportunity for some ambitious retailer for sure.