Toronto non-mall retail (Odds & Ends)

[samsonyuen]

From: www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs...9048863851
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Harry's widens belt
Menswear chain has ambitious expansion plans
Founder's son eyes 50% of national upscale market
Nov. 25, 2006. 01:00 AM
DANA FLAVELLE
BUSINESS REPORTER

Tucked in the far corner of Harry Rosen's flagship store on Bloor Street, in the well-appointed custom tailoring room just above subway level, are swatches of fabric so rare that only 16 suits on Earth may be made from each sample.
It is a measure of Harry Rosen's stature in the world of men's fashion retailing that his small (by global standards) chain of Canadian specialty shops has been selected as one of the vendors.
Harry, the man, may have stepped back from the business, now that he's celebrated his 75th birthday. But his son, Larry, is ensuring his father's vision of style combined with service continues to infuse the now 16-store chain with 700 employees as it embarks on an ambitious expansion plan.
The first $20 million will be spent dramatically expanding and revamping the store on Bloor St., starting in January. The renovation will nearly double the size of the squat two-storey building by adding two more floors, of glass and steel, and include a complete interior makeover.
"It's going to be, in my humble opinion, the best men's store in the world," said Larry Rosen, who quietly took over the job of CEO at Harry Rosen Inc. when his father stepped aside.
Another $30 million will be spent on other locations over the next five years to help boost the company's stake in the Canadian market for better men's wear.
"We have 40 per cent of the market. We believe we can take it to 50 per cent," Larry predicted in an interview this week. "We broke the $200 million mark this year. We think we can take it to $300 million."
A lawyer by training with a master's degree in business administration, he describes his role as the keeper of his father's vision.
"I don't see myself filling his shoes because he was an icon," said Larry. "What I try to do is make sure the standard of service, the retail experience and the brand will carry itself."
So even though Harry personally stopped appearing in store advertisements about two years ago, the retailer's slogan is still "Ask Harry." Based on a campaign he launched in the '60s, a few years after opening the first store with his brother, Lou, it aimed to position Harry as an expert in men's clothing.
"We don't sell clothes. We assist men to develop a confident personal image," says Larry.
Want to know what's hot this holiday season? Just look around a Harry Rosen store. Here is a must-have velvet suit jacket, in a rich chocolate brown tone with the all-important peaked lapel. Larry himself will be wearing one this holiday season. There is the Andrew Marc soft-as-butter lambskin bomber jacket with removable rabbit fur liner for $1,300.
"It's flying out the doors," Larry says on a tour of the Bloor St. store.
All around the main floor is cashmere, cashmere, cashmere. From the Harry Rosen-brand sweaters for $298 to the winter caps with Elmer Fudd earflaps for $170. As Larry explains, men need someone else to pamper them. They don't do it well themselves.
Even Santa wants a gift from Harry's, the retailer suggests in this year's cheeky Christmas ad campaign.
The jolly fat man is just the latest in a long line of celebrities Harry Rosen has used over the last decade, from actor Ted Danson to author Malcolm Gladwell. Larry says he gets many of them to pose for free by making a donation to their preferred charity.
On Danson: "I met him at a regatta in Portofino that (menswear designer) Zegna was sponsoring."
In a world increasingly dominated by a handful of global retailers, Harry Rosen continues to thrive despite its relatively small stature.
Larry says they've done it by sticking to their core business. Gone is the experiment in women's fashion. Gone is the ill-fated venture into the U.S.
"Good business practise says focus on what you do well. When we were in the States it was a tremendous distraction. Since we retrenched, our business has been excellent. Sometimes doing one thing well is enough," Larry says.
The past few years have been good to luxury retailers and Harry Rosen is no exception. Even as more designer brands opened their own shops on Bloor, and the new fast-fashion imitators Zara and H&M moved in next door, Harry Rosen has prospered.
"We're in our third year of double digit growth and this year has been even better than the last two," Larry said. That's not bad for a company whose main market is the small but lucrative top 3 to 5 per cent of households with a minimum $100,000 in disposable income.
While company customers include some of the country's wealthiest business leaders, Harry Rosen also aims to appeal to younger managers, professionals, entrepreneurs, athletes and entertainers.
Larry Rosen concedes that the company has been slow to start selling online, a position it's now reconsidering "because we recognize now the younger man — under 35 — is very attuned to the virtual world." People even buy shoes online, he adds in a tone of disbelief.
In the meantime, Harry Rosen will mark its 53rd year in business next year by raising the roof on the Bloor St. store to make way for the latest concepts in brick and mortar stores.
Already one of the most productive shops in the world, selling an astonishing $1,000 worth of merchandise per square foot, Larry is betting the additional space will be another home run. Even for a luxury retailer, those numbers are high.
"This store was a masterpiece of vision by my father. When he opened it in 1987, everyone thought he was crazy," Larry recalls. "At 34,000 square feet it was huge by menswear standards. But it's been a smashing success."
The renovation will also elevate the bespoke tailoring shop to new heights. The shop, which turns out 8 to 12 custom-made suits each week, will move out of the basement and into the top floor.
In the meantime, one of the salesman reportedly already has a line on the first customer for a suit made from two of the rarest fibres in the world: the camel-like vicuna and the pashmina goat.
For a mere $19,000, that customer could lay claim to owning one of the rarest suits in the world. From Harry Rosen.

 

[samsonyuen]

From: www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs...9048863851
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Malls get a holiday makeover
Traditional malls are hard to beat when shopping in comfort and style and owners are investing heavily to keep it that way
Dec. 2, 2006. 01:00 AM
DANA FLAVELLE
BUSINESS REPORTER

It's the first Saturday in December and malls across the GTA are gearing up for the Christmas crush. Faced with increased competition from online stores and big-box retailers, malls like Square One in Mississauga are investing millions in dramatic facelifts.
General manager Nance MacDonald, who has been with Square One since it opened 34 years ago, says a lot has changed since the farmer across the street parked his horse on the bike rack to do his shopping.
"Everyone thought the developer was insane," said MacDonald, referring to legendary Mississauga developer Bruce McLaughlin, of The McLaughlin Group, who began building Square One when it was still surrounded by farmers' fields. "I was marketing to a market that didn't exist yet."
Now, the mall gets 22 million visitors a year, including walk-in traffic from the forest of condos that circle the parking lot and MacDonald figures sales have nowhere to go but up as suburban growth continues.
Owned by Oxford Retail Group, which also owns Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Scarborough Town Centre, and dozens of others beyond Toronto's borders, Square One is the latest proof that neither retail power centres nor Internet retailers have replaced indoor shopping in comfort and style.
With the exception of Vaughan Mills, no one in Canada has built a new enclosed mall in more than 14 years. But owners of traditional regional malls, most of them cash-rich pension fund management firms, have been pouring millions into existing properties.
"I think we're in a period of intense buoyant optimism with the vast majority of regional shopping centres across the continent, from coast to coast, having invested heavily over the last several years to upgrade their facilities at every level," said Anthony Stokan, a principal with the consulting firm Anthony Russell Inc., in Toronto, and author of Naked Consumption: Retail Trends Uncovered.
"The vast majority of retailers have recognized that even though they may have gone into power centres, or opened factory outlets, no one delivers traffic consistently like a regional shopping centre."
"That's really the key to the whole thing; the absolute pleasure of one-stop shopping in a controlled environment," Stokan explained. "That's not to say warehouse clubs like Costco aren't busy. They are. But the market place is big enough to appeal to the extremes. There are people who cherish the functionality of warehouse or big-box shopping. And there are millions of consumers who enjoy the luxury of the regional shopping centre."
Besides, Stokan asks, where else are you going to find Santa?
Sales data at enclosed malls in Canada are hard to come by as the industry lumps power centres in with traditional indoor malls. But they're generally considered to be somewhat more productive than their U.S. counterparts, Stokan said.
If sales at U.S. malls on Black Friday, considered the start of the holiday shopping season, are any indication, Canadian mall owners could be in for a robust season. Sales south of the border rose 6 per cent last Friday, according to the International Council of Shopping Centres, quoting independent research firm ShopperTrak.
Over a three-year period, ending next year, the Oxford Retail Group and its owner, OMERS Realty, the municipal employees pension fund for Ontario, will have put $33 million into Square One, one of the country's largest malls at 1.7 million square feet.
The makeover in Mississauga, at Hurontario St. and Burnhamthorpe Rd., is typical of the new direction malls are taking. Higher ceilings, cleaner signage and less clutter are all aimed at making the mall easier to navigate. Distinctive colours divide the mall into three "neighbourhoods" — north, south and central. Specialty menswear retailer Harry Rosen has moved into the mall. European cosmetics retailer Sephora has opened a shop. Casual-wear chain Eddie Bauer opened its latest prototype store a few days ago. The mall is also home to the largest Wal-Mart store in North America, at a staggering 240,000 square feet, nearly twice as big as the average Wal-mart in Canada.
"We have almost every store you can imagine in the middle-range," said MacDonald.
In three decades, Square One has undergone three renovations and three expansions. But this latest is the most extensive one in MacDonald's memory.
It's now home to 360 retailers and 5,000 employees, including 100 mall administrative and maintenance staff. For now, traffic in the mall is steady but the real crush won't come until later this month.
Altering an age-old formula that saw discounts rise in January as merchants try to clear shelves after Christmas, MacDonald said she thinks more stores will stock new and full-priced goods in January as gift cards send a second wave of holiday shoppers to stores.

 

[samsonyuen]

From: www.canada.com:80/ottawac...83&rfp=dta
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RadioShack to close last nine Canadian stores

Vito Pilieci, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, December 09, 2006
RadioShack Corp. is pulling the plug on nine corporately owned stores in Canada, less than a year after they opened for business.
The U.S. electronics retailer says the outlets will close by January.
The stores were opened in a rebranding effort by the company in January 2006 in an attempt to reassert a foothold in the Canadian market after severing ties with RadioShack Canada in 2004.
None of the stores are located in the Ottawa area. Those to be closed are located in Edmonton, Calgary and Sherwood Park, Alta., as well as Burlington, Mississauga, Pickering and Scarborough, Ont.
The company said the stores are being closed so it can refocus resources on business in the United States.
The closing of the stores will not affect The Source by Circuit City, which was formerly RadioShack Canada. The Source was formed after a lengthy legal battle with the U.S. retailer over the name RadioShack.
RadioShack Canada's former owner was InterTAN Canada Ltd.
InterTAN licensed the named RadioShack to be used in Canada, but when its more than 900 Canadian stores were bought by giant U.S. electronics retailer Circuit City in May 2004, the licensing agreement ended and the name of the stores had to be changed.[

 

[samsonyuen]

From: www.canada.com/nationalpo...35&k=44212
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Yankee Doodle retail

Sean Silcoff, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, December 23, 2006
Without a doubt, we are really seeing the Americanization of the Canadian retail sector. If they haven't bought it (The Bay), they've built it (Home Depot). And with the world awash in private-equity money and cheap credit, more potential foreign buyers have put Canadian retailers on their radar screens.
In October, 2000, Mitch Goldhar, Wal-Mart's Canadian real estate developer, declared that within five years "all retailers serving Canada on a national basis will be foreign owned."
His timing may have been off, but Mr. Goldhar nailed the trend. In the past six years, foreigners have bought some of Canada's biggest and best-known retailers, including Dollarama, Future Shop, yoga wear merchant Lululemon Athletica and, this year, Hudson's Bay Co., lingerie seller La Senza and jeans maker and retailer Buffalo Group.
If they haven't bought, they have built. New entrants include European banners Zara and H & M and U.S. favourites Pottery Barn, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Build-A-Bear Workshop. Some, such as Apple, have been awed by the high volumes in their Canadian outlets. More chains are coming, including Lowe's and Crate and Barrel.
Much has obviously changed since Wal-Mart and Home Depot entered Canada in 1994, not least that Canadians have learned to expect better from their retailers.
Now that shoppers have become better served, investors are starting to benefit as well. Thanks to the eye-popping sums paid, in particular, $1-billion for Dollarama in 2004 and $710-million for La Senza this fall, and the strength of the Canadian economy, retail has ended its long drought as one of Canada's most moribund sectors for investors.
Across the country, merchants have begun doing the back-of-theenvelope calculations to figure out what they could get for their businesses if they were to sell or take on partners. That is, if a slew of eager private equity firms and investment banks haven't beaten them to it.
"I don't think there is a retailer in Canada who wouldn't sell" for the price that lingerie merchant La Senza received from Victoria's Secret owner, The Limited Brands, said one senior retail industry veteran in Montreal.
That deal valued La Senza -- which operates 318 stores in Canada and has 327 licensed outlets in 39 countries -- at an impressive 9.3- times the ratio of the firm's enterprise value to operating profit.
Receiving Christmas cards is nice, and gift cards are even nicer, judging by their growing popularity
way of the U.S. mass merchant juggernauts, honing in on niches they could dominate. Some managed to break the curse of Canadian retailers past by thriving beyond Canada's borders. Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. has grown into the second-largest independent convenience store operator in the United States, while La Senza and shoe merchant Aldo Group have franchised stores around the world. Bath and beauty retailer Fruits & Passions has franchised 60 outlets in Asia, Europe and Mexico (in addition to its 90 in Canada) and sold its branded products to some of the world's great department stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom.
But the retailers marking these recent successes, which have put Canadian retail on the global map, are also the very ones most likely to have foreign owners calling the shots before long. Jean Hurteau, chief executive of Fruits & Passion's parent company, shrugs off that likelihood. After selling 30% of the company to Quebec's investment arm this year, "I would say [for our next round of financing] it's definitely going to be an international investor," he said. "We need someone that will bring that international dimension and access to real estate."
And in the end, is that such a bad thing? Canadian merchants are cashing out, shoppers are getting more choice, and space once occupied by lumbering, poorly performing domestic retailers has been released to better shops. Save for the odd Canadian sentimentalist, the changes have been good for everyone.
Many industry observers say the deal is unique as it pairs two rivals with complementary operations, giving Victoria's Secret a platform to expand globally. At the same time, however, it points to huge value premiums Canada's "best-in-class" retailers could fetch if sold. "There are idle conversations going on," the source said. "Everybody gets turned on" by the La Senza deal. "This will vibrate. There are people in play."
One top Montreal mergers and acquisitions lawyer said "investment bankers are calling the retailers and effectively giving them the message there has never been a better time than today to sell out. I know that for a fact. If they haven't been calling, some of the retailers have been calling and saying, 'What can I get for my company?' "
One firm that is on the block is fashion retailer Le Chateau. The Montreal-based company traded hands this week in the range of $58 to $60 per share. But a buyout offer similar to that for La Senza could value Le Chateau for as high as $80 a share, Versant Partners analyst Neil Linsdell said.
Other retailers say they've fielded far more calls lately from possible buyers talking of similar premiums to be had. The president of one growing Canadian fashion retailer with more than 200 stores said the company used to get "about one call a year" from potential suitors. Since early 2005, "we get a call once every couple of weeks. They probably literally walk through malls trying to figure out who to pick up the phone and call."
Many merchants, including Stephen Bebis, chief executive of the 28-store Golf Town Income Fund, say their firms aren't for sale. But they openly talk about likely suitors, which suggests they are open to deals, at the right price. Shares of Markham, Ont.-based Golf Town, said Mr. Bebis, would "definitely be selling for more than we are today" if a suitor was in the wings, "Without question, Dick's Sporting Goods would be a perfect strategic partner" for Golf Town, which had $215-million in sales in its last four quarters.
Pittsburgh-based Dick's recently paid 11-times operating earnings for fellow U.S. retailer Golf Galaxy. At that multiple, Golf Town, which is more profitable than Golf Galaxy, would sell for more than a 50% premium to its recent value of $13 per unit.
Others are equally coy. "If someone were to make an approach with numbers we thought were appropriate, it would gain our attention and we would look at it," said Jeremy Reitman, CEO of Montreal-based fashion retailer Reitmans Canada Ltd., one of Canada's largest specialty chains. "I think there have been some very interesting deals out there."
The internationalization of Canadian retail has only begun. More U.S. chains are on their way. And with the world awash in private-equity money and cheap credit, more potential foreign buyers have put Canadian retailers on their radar screens.
"The reality is you've got some phenomenal retailers," said Tom
Financial Post ssilcoff@nationalpost.com Stemberg, former CEO of Staples Inc., and now a venture partner with Lexington, Mass.-based Highland Capital Partners, which paid US$93-million along with another U.S. private equity firm in 2005 for a 48% stake in Vancouver-based Lulu lemon. "I spend an awful lot of my time in Canada looking for opportunities."
The retailers and buyout firms see a Canadian economy that is strong -- and possibly more resilient than the economy of the United States, where consumer spending could be hit by a fall in housing prices. Private-equity firms have already done a round of buyouts there, but in Canada there remains a healthy complement of merchants that are expanding and carry valuations that are lower than their U.S. peers. The retail sector is also less competitive than it is in the United States, which has more stores per capita. Meanwhile, Canadian department stores have not roared back to health as they have to the south. As a result, there are many opportunities for the picking.
"There is definitely an eagerness to invest in the sector, but it's not a blind interest," said Kevin Callaghan, managing director of Boston-based Berkshire Partners, which put $100- million last year in Aritzia, a Vancouver- based women's apparel chain. "People want to buy the winners. It's in markets like these that good companies are available."
All that is missing are Canadian buyers. There are few private-equity firms of any consequence in Canada. That doesn't bother Mr. Stemberg much. "There are more ideas than there is capital up there," he said. "I don't know why, but I like it."
It's hard to believe these people are talking about Canada. In the dark ages of retail, before the arrival of Costco, Wal-Mart and Home Depot in the early 1990s, shopping in Canada was a depressing experience, dominated by large, datedmass merchants. Being underserved seemed like a civic duty. But many of the retailers that either came of age or began in the Wal-Mart era are today's savviest and fastest-growing players, including La Senza, Dynamite Group (operator of the Dynamite and Garage banners), Dollarama and handbag merchant Bentley. They learned quickly to get out of the

 

[building babel]

I hope Build-A-Bear Workshop sets up in the Village!

 

[samsonyuen]

From: www.canada.com/nationalpo...38366fd061
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Le Chateau picks growth over sale
Hollie Shaw, Financial Post
Published: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Montreal-based Le Chateau Inc. has wrapped up a strategic review and decided to expand further rather than sell the company, the fashion retailer confirmed yesterday. Late Friday, Le Chateau released record- setting holiday results for the period from Nov. 26, 2006 to Jan. 3, 2007, with sales jumping 17% compared with the same period last year. Sales at stores open for more than a year rose a robust 13% compared with a year earlier. For the fourth quarter to date, sales were up 15.1% and same-store sales rose 10.9%. Le Chateau, which will release full-year results in April, said it plans to increase its average store size to 5,000 square feet from an average of 3,500 square feet. Chain wide, the retailer wants to increase to 1.3-million square feet of selling space from 850,000 square feet. Le Chateau has 195 stores across Canada and five in New York City.

 

[vistaway]

Re: >Re: Toronto Retail Thread

Canada's first Panera Bread location looks like it will open in NW Mississauga this summer. I believe they are opening around a dozen this year.

 

[SD2]

Re: >Re: Toronto Retail Thread

Nice to hear Le Chateau isn't selling out.

 

[building babel]

Re: >Re: Toronto Retail Thread

When Royal Bank Plaza first opened you could look up from the mini tropical jungle in the lower basement level to the ceiling of the banking hall. There was a large suspended decorative thing ( I think it was yellow and white ) composed of slim metal tubes. It was quite the place, that atrium. Somewhere around 1990 they blocked off the view from below by filling in the floor of the banking hall and made the place rather mundane.

 

[adma]

Re: >Re: Toronto Retail Thread

I think they filled it up with trading-floor stuff. But if you're feeling a little Ninjalicious, you might go up to, I forgot, the 4th or 5th floor or so, and see if you can sweet-talk a secretary into having you walking btw/the towers (yes, there's a secret access walkway, not unlike the ped bridge btw/the T-D and Ernst & Young towers)--the atrium's still there, Soto tube sculpture and all.

It's probably a signal of the atrophy of everyday urban form geekery by c1990 that the closing-off of the RBC atrium came and went without notice--today, there'd be blog posts and UT posts aplenty. (Then again, there isn't much comment being passed around about the present concourse operations, so who knows.)

 

[andreapalladio]

Re: >Re: Toronto Retail Thread

It was closed later that 1990 - I was living here when they did it, so that puts it after mid 1993...

There was even less comment when they removed the string art installation from the lobby of the Exchange Tower when it was renovated a couple of years ago.

 

[rdaner]

First condo boom, now a retail boom

Riocan opts for urban shopping

For the past 20 years, Ed Sonshine has been visiting the Yonge-Eglinton Centre to see a movie and grab a bite to eat.

The downside: After ordering a meal from the Pickle Barrel Restaurant, he'd end up trying to find his car in the vast underground parking garage. That won't happen again.

"It's been a bit of pet peeve of mine, because the signage is so bad that I could never figure out where I was," Sonshine, the president and chief executive officer of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, said in an interview yesterday. "But luckily, now I'm in a position to do something about it."

Yesterday, Sonshine confirmed RioCan's agreement to buy the popular 30-year-old mall at the northwest corner of Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave., at the Eglinton subway station, for $223 million.

Ray Wong, director of national research for CB Richard Ellis, said yesterday the property purchased from a local consortium was bought at fair market value.

The complex will be paid with $146 million in cash, assumption of $56 million in debt and the issuance of shares.

"They are looking at the upside potential. There has been a change of demographics in the area to a more upper-income clientele and they hope to capitalize on that," Wong said.

The purchase illustrates the trend by big-box retail centre developers, such as RioCan, to buy prime urban properties in recognition of Toronto's unprecedented condominium boom that has been luring residents into the city's core areas.

Sonshine said the Yonge-Eglinton Centre attracted 13 bidders. Dominion, Famous Players, Indigo Books, Toys R Us, and HMV are among the mall's retailers.

"There is no question the city is getting denser and people need services," he said. "Retailers have been doing great business opening big-box stores for the last 15 years in the suburbs, and now they're realizing that there are a huge number of urban customers that they're not servicing."

With several major condominiums recently built in the area and more on the way, the Yonge and Eglinton area has benefited from being an important hub on the subway line with a young, vibrant demographic.

But the retail mix of stores and amenities in the mall, even by Sonshine's own admission, has been looking a little tired. "It really needs a lot of modernizing and upgrading," he said.

To that end, Sonshine said he will likely spend several million dollars upgrading the facilities over the next six months.

In the long term, he intends to have a retail mix that reflects the growing community. There likely won't be a Costco or Home Depot in the mall since the area is too small to accommodate those retailers, he said.

In addition to four levels of retail that comprises approximately 264,000 square feet, the centre also has 748,000 square feet of office space in two towers for a total of over a million square feet.

Sonshine said while he's had "no end of offers" to take the office space, he's decided to keep it in his portfolio, adding that he sees "significant" upside to filling the office towers.

Meanwhile, Sonshine plans to do some more tinkering with the mall after the initial improvements. "Most of our senior officers live within a 10-minute drive of the mall, so it's going to be our own little Petri dish," Sonshine joked.

For neighbourhood residents, that's probably a good thing.

Sonshine oversees the largest portfolio of shopping centres in Canada: 204 properties with a market capitalization of $7.8 billion. At Yonge-Eglinton Centre, it can't hurt that he's also a customer. For one thing, he hopes to talk to the city about the outdoor space at the centre, a vast stretch of concrete that he describes as "pretty drab."

"It's just not inviting. We certainly want to create some spaces where people will be happy to sit and have lunch."

 

[samsonyuen]

Re: First condo boom, now a retail boom

From: www.cbc.ca/money/story/20...kip300x250
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L.L. Bean looking to expand Canadian presence
Last Updated: Saturday, January 27, 2007 | 11:00 AM ET
CBC News
L.L. Bean, the Maine-based retail catalogue giant, says it wants to significantly increase its presence in Canada.

The company said that could ultimately include building retail stores in Canada, as well as a Canadian website and Canadian catalogue.

Currently, the only way for Canadians to buy L.L. Bean's outdoor gear and clothing is to order it through the U.S.-based website or from the thick catalogues that flood into the country by the hundreds of thousands each year.

As a privately held family company, L.L. Bean does not release much financial information. But it said its interest in establishing a bigger Canadian footprint was sparked by a 30 per cent annual increase in its Canadian business in each of the past three years.

"We are … looking to boost our presence in Canada with an in-country catalog, website and ultimately a retail presence," said Zane Shatzer, who was recently named as L.L. Bean's general manager of international new market development.

Shatzer has led L.L. Bean's expansion in Japan, where the company now has 15 retail stores. It has 22 retail and factory-outlet stores in the U.S., and a huge flagship store in Freeport, Maine.

Continue Article

L.L. Bean is also looking to expand its retail presence in Latin America and beyond Japan. Company CEO Chris McCormick said "it makes sense" to think about diversifying into other markets. "Of particular interest are international locations with a strong outdoor orientation," he said.

In Canada, L.L. Bean would face a lot of competition in the bricks-and-mortar "outdoor" retail market. Rivals would include Vancouver-based Mountain Equipment Co-op — which has 11 retail stores in Canada and a catalogue business — as well as Canadian Tire-owned Mark's Work Wearhouse, which sells casual and outdoor apparel at its 300 stores across Canada.

Roots, Eddie Bauer and Bass Pro Shops all have stores in Canada that cater, at least in part, to the typical L.L. Bean customer.

 

[samsonyuen]

From: www.insidetoronto.ca/to/s...carborough
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Road paves way for Wal-Mart Supercentre

LISA QUEEN
Jan. 23, 2007

So much fanfare for such a little stretch of road.
But a grand opening last week featuring many local dignitaries goes to prove the short extension of Lebovic Avenue north of Eglinton Avenue west of Warden Avenue in the heart of Scarborough's "Golden Mile" signifies more than just 300 metres of new pavement.

The $1.6-million road, paid for by retail developers in the area, paves the way for the new Wal-Mart Supercentre, which opens its doors today.

"Although this is a small street or small avenue, it's an important element in this community," said Ward 37 Councillor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre), who pointed out the road extension fulfills the city's goals of boosting economic development and relieving traffic congestion.

Since last fall, Wal-Mart has launched a handful of super centres in southern Ontario communities. Scarborough will host the only such store in Toronto.

Compared to the 80,000 to 120,000 square feet of retail space in a regular Wal-Mart, the super centre is 220,000 square feet. In addition to an expanded line of general merchandise, it features a full grocery store with fresh meat, fruit and vegetables.

"We feel Scarborough customers will respond very well to it," district manager Rodd Olmstead said at the Lebovic extension event.

Just as the road paves the way for Wal-Mart, the super centre is a sign Scarborough is a desirable location for big box retailers offering their customers one-stop-shopping.

Helping to secure that reputation is HBC, which is looking to construct a Zellers superstore in the area of Eglinton and Birchmount Road.

"It will be one of our superstores so that's a special prototype that we have introduced and we're rolling out across the country," spokesperson Hillary Marshall said.

The superstore will be more than 100,000 square feet compared to a typical Zellers at less than 75,000 square feet.

It will feature a neighbourhood market, which offers packaged and frozen food, bread, milk and dairy products but not fresh meat, fruits and vegetables. The Zellers superstore will also include an enhanced cosmetic department with health and wellness products.

The superstore plays to Zellers' core customer, who is a busy mother with small children who likes the convenience of shopping for clothes, diapers and other general merchandise while also being able to pick up grocery items, Marshall said.

Meanwhile, despite an announcement this week that Loblaw Cos Ltd., Canada's largest supermarket chain, plans to cut 800 to 1,000 head office and regional office jobs, a spokesperson confirmed the company is building a Real Canadian Superstore on Progress Avenue near the Scarborough Town Centre but would provide no further details.

Real Canadian superstores offer a combination of groceries and other merchandise such as clothing and housewares.

Ironically, as Scarborough plays host to more big box stores, it is also laying claim to Asian condominium malls in which stores range in size from a large closet to a couple of hundred square feet.

Three condo malls have been announced for northern Scarborough in the last two months.

Attracting both big box stores and condo malls shows Scarborough appeals to a wide variety of retailers and consumers, Thompson said.

 

[samsonyuen]

From: www.theglobeandmail.com/s...y/Business
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U.S. retailer eyes 'tween' market
Targets La Senza with plan for 100 stores

MARINA STRAUSS
RETAILING REPORTER
Tween Brands Inc., the U.S. specialty retailer that has tried to define fashion sales for girls aged seven to 14, is preparing a major expansion in Canada to challenge Montreal-based La Senza's dominance of the fast-growing market niche.

The U.S. company, which operates Limited Too and its sister chain Justice, has hired a real estate consultant to scout locations in Canada, with an eye to opening its first stores next year. Robert Atkinson, a vice-president at Limited, said the company wants to eventually open as many as 100 stores here, citing the lack of competition.

"It's all the more reason to look at Canada as an opportunity, because of the dearth of competition there," Mr. Atkinson said in a telephone interview yesterday from the company's headquarters in New Albany, Ohio.

Tween Brands, which recorded about $760-million (U.S.) in sales last year in the United States, is entering the Canadian market with few rivals. The only specialty chain in the sector is La Senza Girl, owned by lingerie retailer La Senza, which agreed late last year to be sold to Limited Brands, owner of Victoria's Secret. Limited Brands spun off Limited Too in 1999.

Tweens in Canada have significant purchasing power. According to the 2005 YTV Tween Report, the 2.5 million "tweens" -- children between 7 and 14 -- account for $2.9 billion in retail purchases and, if given the choice, would spend about half of it on clothing.

Parents of "tweens" anticipated spending about $177 on back-to-school clothes and shoes alone for the 2005 school year, the YTV report said.

Limited Too and Justice both look for the latest styles in the fashion world to stock in its stores for a younger customer. Limited Too, a more established name in U.S. malls with 560 stores, is premium priced, while Justice, which was started just a few years ago and now has almost 160 U.S. outlets, offers styles at low prices.

Retail consultant John Winter said that the chains will be a welcome addition to malls and shopping centres, which have been challenged in recent years to cater to that age bracket.

Traditional Canadian retailers have struggled to produce the right styles for a demographic that is notorious for a wide range of body sizes, the result of girls maturing at different rates. Compounding the challenge is the fact that "tweens" tend to want to copy the fashion tastes of teens, even though they don't necessarily fit into clothes made for teens.

Mr. Atkinson said Tween Brands tries to deal with the challenges by carrying 17 different sizes in outlets.

Mr. Winter said the U.S. retailer has other potential opportunities in Canada, beyond cashing in on the paucity of direct rivals. "It's a growing market and there's a growing recognition that tweens have some money to spend."

Chain stores not specifically geared to tweens have started to tune in. Urban Behaviour targets 13-to-22-year-olds, while Costa Blanca is aimed at customers between 18 and 32, but both carry sizes small enough for tween girls. Among the top brands of clothing sought by tween girls are Gap, La Senza Girl, Old Navy and Roxy.