B
billonlogan
Guest
I noticed the old brewers retail warehouse has been torn down on lakeshore east & leslie in the portlands. I heard Canadian Tire was opening a new store. When is construction to start?
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S
samsonyuen
Guest
Imagine, Greenfields Shopping Centre. I wonder what made them realize it's a bad name
_______________________________________
Thu, December 8, 2005
The Way We Were column
By MIKE FILEY, TORONTO SUN
                       
It was on this day in 1967 that a new $100-million shopping centre, one that would dwarf the three-year-old Yorkdale project at Hwy. 401 and Dufferin St. in both size and number of tenants, received approval from the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board.
Previously approved by Toronto Township officials, the new project, which would be built on farm land at the northwest corner of Burnamthorpe Rd. and Hwy. 10 in Toronto Township (to be renamed the Town of Mississauga the following year) had been forced to wait for the Planning Board's traffic study to be completed.
The Board's approval cleared the way for the construction of this 1.5-million-square-foot shopping centre.
To be known as Greenfields Shopping Centre, the project had been proposed following the Ontario Municipal Board's rejection of the Sherway Gardens shopping centre project that had been planned for a site northwest of the Hwy. 27 and the Queen Elizabeth Way interchange in Etobicoke.
Excavation work finally began in 1969 and the new centre, now renamed Square One, opened in the fall of 1973.
_______________________________________
Thu, December 8, 2005
The Way We Were column
By MIKE FILEY, TORONTO SUN
                       
It was on this day in 1967 that a new $100-million shopping centre, one that would dwarf the three-year-old Yorkdale project at Hwy. 401 and Dufferin St. in both size and number of tenants, received approval from the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board.
Previously approved by Toronto Township officials, the new project, which would be built on farm land at the northwest corner of Burnamthorpe Rd. and Hwy. 10 in Toronto Township (to be renamed the Town of Mississauga the following year) had been forced to wait for the Planning Board's traffic study to be completed.
The Board's approval cleared the way for the construction of this 1.5-million-square-foot shopping centre.
To be known as Greenfields Shopping Centre, the project had been proposed following the Ontario Municipal Board's rejection of the Sherway Gardens shopping centre project that had been planned for a site northwest of the Hwy. 27 and the Queen Elizabeth Way interchange in Etobicoke.
Excavation work finally began in 1969 and the new centre, now renamed Square One, opened in the fall of 1973.
S
samsonyuen
Guest
TODAY CANADA, TOMORROW ... THE U.S.!
If the U.S. is opening night, international retailers see Canada as the dress rehearsal
By Dees Stribling
Tell me, how did you find America?†a reporter asks John Lennon in the movie A Hard Day’s Night. “Turned left at Greenland,†quips the sharp-witted Beatle.
Similarly, retailers from Europe and the Pacific Rim are “finding†America too — by turning left at Canada.
As these retailers seek expansion into the United States, Canada is often the entry point of choice, a stepping-stone from Europe or Asia into one of the very largest markets in the world.
“It’s a little less overwhelming than the United States, but there are still sophisticated markets such as Toronto and Montréal in which you can get your feet wet,†said John C. Williams, founder of the Toronto-based J.C. Williams Group.
Of course, Canada is a hot destination for international retailers in and of itself. According to research by Montréal-based Ivanhoe Cambridge, a leading retail landlord, roughly 110 retailers from 28 countries, including the United States, currently operate in Canada.
There are sound economic reasons for this. With a highly urbanized population of about 32.5 million, the country is wealthy by virtually any measure. The CIA World Factbook reports that Canada’s gross domestic product was just over $1 trillion in 2004, ranking it 13th in the world. Even on a per capita basis, Canada was No. 15, the Factbook says, with GDP at $31,500, placing it ahead of the U.K., Japan, France and Germany, in that order.
Indeed, some European retailers come to Canada and stop there. The country’s long-standing and deep ties to France, for example, concentrated mostly in Québec, have attracted French retailers such as women’s clothier Axara and Fly Furniture, both of which have yet to venture into the U.S. Shoe purveyor Gino Rossi (Poland) and children’s clothier Lapin House (Greece) have similarly crossed the Atlantic to Canada though not, as yet, the border with the U.S.
Many others, however, have followed that exact trajectory. Swedish retail giant Ikea did so as long ago as 1976, when it opened its first store outside Europe in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, British Columbia, nearly a decade before opening its first U.S. store, near Philadelphia. “My understanding is that Canada offered a smoother transition into the North American market for Ikea,†said Laurence Martocq, a spokesman for Ikea Canada. “Management felt that there were certain similarities between Sweden and Canada so that it was a good place to test the North American waters.â€
In 1980 Body Shop, a British retailer nearly as notable for its corporate conscience as for its lines of body care products, pursued a similar strategy by entering Canada eight years before venturing into the United States. “We started in Toronto because it’s our hometown, but that wasn’t the only consideration,†said Margo Franssen, who started Body Shop Canada with her husband and sister as partners, later handled the expansion into the eastern United States and then sold the chain last year for about $22 million. “Canada is a nice jumping off point to the United States, to see how hungry people are for the concept and what kind of people are feeding.â€
More recently, a variety of European fashion retailers have taken, or are planning to take, the same path into North America. Dutch retailer Mexx entered Canada in 1995 and the U.S. in 2003 (though, technically, it became an American company when Liz Claiborne purchased it in 2001). Mango, a Spanish clothier, opened its first three North American stores in Toronto last spring and two in Montréal last summer.
Franssen, whose new venture is building Accessorize Canada, a brand of U.K.-based Monsoon, says Monsoon is likely to enter the United States, depending in part on how things go in Canada. Another British retailer in Canada, Next, is also reportedly planning to venture southward. Then there is Daiso. A dollar store with its roots as a ¥100-store in Japan, Daiso established a beachhead in Richmond, British Columbia, in 2003 and is now rolling into California and other U.S. markets.
“The larger markets here [in Canada] are competitive, but not quite like Chicago or Dallas, say,†said retail consultant Williams. “That’s the nature of Canadian retailing. There is competition, and not every brand is going to make it here, but the country isn’t as over-stored as the United States.â€
Nurit Altman, manager of national retail at Cushman & Wakefield in Canada, agrees. “The competitive landscape in the United States is more fierce,†she said. “Canada’s a good place to come and not be devoured by your competition right away. If you come to Canada and then the United States, you come to the United States from a stronger position.â€
And sources say Canada presents a slower-moving target from a marketing standpoint. Robert Boyle, director of market research at Ivanhoe Cambridge, points to Canadian demographics to prove the point. “One in three Canadians lives in Toronto, Montréal or Vancouver,†he said. “In that sense, market penetration is easier. In the United States, the top three markets represent perhaps 15 percent of the population.â€
Not to say that retailers get everything right when entering the Canadian market, not even world-wise Ikea. “Selling in another country always involves that kind of learning curve,†Martocq said. “Ikea didn’t understand that beds are differently sized in North America than in Europe, so selling bed sheets was problematic at first.â€
But coming to Canada is about more than just finding a less cutthroat market than the U.S. Retailers cite other reasons, mainly involving cultural factors. It is often said that Canada, culturally speaking, has a more “European†character than the United States. Or perhaps it is more fitting to say “international†character, considering Canadian demographics. According to the Census of Canada, 19 percent of the country’s residents were born elsewhere, a higher number than the 11.5 percent south of the border, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Canadians’ taste for fashion as well as aesthetics in art and culture in general have closer affinities with Europe than, perhaps, other countries around the world,†said José Gómez, Mango’s vice president for expansion in Canada.
“Canada’s more of a mosaic, the United States a melting pot,†said Franssen.
Nevertheless, as attractive as Canada is for that and other reasons, the U.S. is no less appealing to those same foreign retailers — many of which have not taken their eyes off the prize to the south.
If the U.S. is opening night, international retailers see Canada as the dress rehearsal
By Dees Stribling
Tell me, how did you find America?†a reporter asks John Lennon in the movie A Hard Day’s Night. “Turned left at Greenland,†quips the sharp-witted Beatle.
Similarly, retailers from Europe and the Pacific Rim are “finding†America too — by turning left at Canada.
As these retailers seek expansion into the United States, Canada is often the entry point of choice, a stepping-stone from Europe or Asia into one of the very largest markets in the world.
“It’s a little less overwhelming than the United States, but there are still sophisticated markets such as Toronto and Montréal in which you can get your feet wet,†said John C. Williams, founder of the Toronto-based J.C. Williams Group.
Of course, Canada is a hot destination for international retailers in and of itself. According to research by Montréal-based Ivanhoe Cambridge, a leading retail landlord, roughly 110 retailers from 28 countries, including the United States, currently operate in Canada.
There are sound economic reasons for this. With a highly urbanized population of about 32.5 million, the country is wealthy by virtually any measure. The CIA World Factbook reports that Canada’s gross domestic product was just over $1 trillion in 2004, ranking it 13th in the world. Even on a per capita basis, Canada was No. 15, the Factbook says, with GDP at $31,500, placing it ahead of the U.K., Japan, France and Germany, in that order.
Indeed, some European retailers come to Canada and stop there. The country’s long-standing and deep ties to France, for example, concentrated mostly in Québec, have attracted French retailers such as women’s clothier Axara and Fly Furniture, both of which have yet to venture into the U.S. Shoe purveyor Gino Rossi (Poland) and children’s clothier Lapin House (Greece) have similarly crossed the Atlantic to Canada though not, as yet, the border with the U.S.
Many others, however, have followed that exact trajectory. Swedish retail giant Ikea did so as long ago as 1976, when it opened its first store outside Europe in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, British Columbia, nearly a decade before opening its first U.S. store, near Philadelphia. “My understanding is that Canada offered a smoother transition into the North American market for Ikea,†said Laurence Martocq, a spokesman for Ikea Canada. “Management felt that there were certain similarities between Sweden and Canada so that it was a good place to test the North American waters.â€
In 1980 Body Shop, a British retailer nearly as notable for its corporate conscience as for its lines of body care products, pursued a similar strategy by entering Canada eight years before venturing into the United States. “We started in Toronto because it’s our hometown, but that wasn’t the only consideration,†said Margo Franssen, who started Body Shop Canada with her husband and sister as partners, later handled the expansion into the eastern United States and then sold the chain last year for about $22 million. “Canada is a nice jumping off point to the United States, to see how hungry people are for the concept and what kind of people are feeding.â€
More recently, a variety of European fashion retailers have taken, or are planning to take, the same path into North America. Dutch retailer Mexx entered Canada in 1995 and the U.S. in 2003 (though, technically, it became an American company when Liz Claiborne purchased it in 2001). Mango, a Spanish clothier, opened its first three North American stores in Toronto last spring and two in Montréal last summer.
Franssen, whose new venture is building Accessorize Canada, a brand of U.K.-based Monsoon, says Monsoon is likely to enter the United States, depending in part on how things go in Canada. Another British retailer in Canada, Next, is also reportedly planning to venture southward. Then there is Daiso. A dollar store with its roots as a ¥100-store in Japan, Daiso established a beachhead in Richmond, British Columbia, in 2003 and is now rolling into California and other U.S. markets.
“The larger markets here [in Canada] are competitive, but not quite like Chicago or Dallas, say,†said retail consultant Williams. “That’s the nature of Canadian retailing. There is competition, and not every brand is going to make it here, but the country isn’t as over-stored as the United States.â€
Nurit Altman, manager of national retail at Cushman & Wakefield in Canada, agrees. “The competitive landscape in the United States is more fierce,†she said. “Canada’s a good place to come and not be devoured by your competition right away. If you come to Canada and then the United States, you come to the United States from a stronger position.â€
And sources say Canada presents a slower-moving target from a marketing standpoint. Robert Boyle, director of market research at Ivanhoe Cambridge, points to Canadian demographics to prove the point. “One in three Canadians lives in Toronto, Montréal or Vancouver,†he said. “In that sense, market penetration is easier. In the United States, the top three markets represent perhaps 15 percent of the population.â€
Not to say that retailers get everything right when entering the Canadian market, not even world-wise Ikea. “Selling in another country always involves that kind of learning curve,†Martocq said. “Ikea didn’t understand that beds are differently sized in North America than in Europe, so selling bed sheets was problematic at first.â€
But coming to Canada is about more than just finding a less cutthroat market than the U.S. Retailers cite other reasons, mainly involving cultural factors. It is often said that Canada, culturally speaking, has a more “European†character than the United States. Or perhaps it is more fitting to say “international†character, considering Canadian demographics. According to the Census of Canada, 19 percent of the country’s residents were born elsewhere, a higher number than the 11.5 percent south of the border, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Canadians’ taste for fashion as well as aesthetics in art and culture in general have closer affinities with Europe than, perhaps, other countries around the world,†said José Gómez, Mango’s vice president for expansion in Canada.
“Canada’s more of a mosaic, the United States a melting pot,†said Franssen.
Nevertheless, as attractive as Canada is for that and other reasons, the U.S. is no less appealing to those same foreign retailers — many of which have not taken their eyes off the prize to the south.
B
boiler2000
Guest
S
samsonyuen
Guest
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Business Briefing
REGIONAL NEWS
Taco Del Mar, B.C. developer to expand chain into Canada
SEATTLE -- Taco Del Mar, a Seattle-based quick-service restaurant chain, has completed negotiations with British Columbia-based TDM Federal Holdings Inc. to develop franchises across Canada. The deal could produce 300 Taco Del Mar franchises in Canada over the next four years, and nearly double that by 2014.
Currently, there are 22 Taco Del Mar restaurants in British Columbia, where the franchise development is headed by the same people under a separate partnership. The 2006 focus will be to launch Taco Del Mar in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
Business Briefing
REGIONAL NEWS
Taco Del Mar, B.C. developer to expand chain into Canada
SEATTLE -- Taco Del Mar, a Seattle-based quick-service restaurant chain, has completed negotiations with British Columbia-based TDM Federal Holdings Inc. to develop franchises across Canada. The deal could produce 300 Taco Del Mar franchises in Canada over the next four years, and nearly double that by 2014.
Currently, there are 22 Taco Del Mar restaurants in British Columbia, where the franchise development is headed by the same people under a separate partnership. The 2006 focus will be to launch Taco Del Mar in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
E
Ed007Toronto
Guest
Brick consolidates banners
The Brick Group is amalgamating several of its banners under The Brick brand. Its Home Show and Sleep Better banners will now carry The Brick name and 24 of its 87 United Furniture locations will be rebranded as Brick stores.
Dick Innes, senior VP of the Edmonton-based Brick Group, says a single banner better leverages the equity of the Brick brand by targeting customers “with a single message of value, quality and customer service.â€
In addition, says Innes, it will improve both the cost efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s advertising programs.
The United Furniture stores that will be converted to Brick stores are primarily in smaller centres where The Brick doesn’t have a market presence. The Brick Group will also integrate United Furniture’s administrative and management functions with The Brick’s head office administration.
The 11 stores bearing the Sleep Better banner, which The Brick launched in the Greater Toronto Area in August 2005, will also be re-named, becoming The Brick Mattress Store. The Brick announced last year it intends to expand the sleep specialty stores from coast to coast within three years, and Innes says rebranding will avoid the costs of establishing a new brand Canada-wide.
The three Home Show locations in Toronto will become Brick Superstores. This will leverage the advertising dollars The Brick spends in the Toronto market, while allowing both stores to take advantage of the Brick platinum card, which Innes says has a significant cardholder base in Toronto.
–Norma Ramage/Marketing Magazine
The Brick Group is amalgamating several of its banners under The Brick brand. Its Home Show and Sleep Better banners will now carry The Brick name and 24 of its 87 United Furniture locations will be rebranded as Brick stores.
Dick Innes, senior VP of the Edmonton-based Brick Group, says a single banner better leverages the equity of the Brick brand by targeting customers “with a single message of value, quality and customer service.â€
In addition, says Innes, it will improve both the cost efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s advertising programs.
The United Furniture stores that will be converted to Brick stores are primarily in smaller centres where The Brick doesn’t have a market presence. The Brick Group will also integrate United Furniture’s administrative and management functions with The Brick’s head office administration.
The 11 stores bearing the Sleep Better banner, which The Brick launched in the Greater Toronto Area in August 2005, will also be re-named, becoming The Brick Mattress Store. The Brick announced last year it intends to expand the sleep specialty stores from coast to coast within three years, and Innes says rebranding will avoid the costs of establishing a new brand Canada-wide.
The three Home Show locations in Toronto will become Brick Superstores. This will leverage the advertising dollars The Brick spends in the Toronto market, while allowing both stores to take advantage of the Brick platinum card, which Innes says has a significant cardholder base in Toronto.
–Norma Ramage/Marketing Magazine
D
Darkstar416
Guest
Good to hear. I always thought "The Home Show" was a confusing name for a store and not fully honest. Still, I think The Brick has the most horrible furniture in all of Canada and despite the change, I won't be spending my money there.
S
samsonyuen
Guest
Success sprouts early for Lettuce Eatery
Entrepreneur spots seeds of profitability in New York City
By Terry Poulton - Business Edge
Published: 01/19/2006 - Vol. 2, No. 2
Even though he's an ambitious optimist, Matthew Corrin quips that he doesn't see his Lettuce Eatery chain becoming the Starbucks of salads "unless we start adding something as addictive as caffeine to our salad dressings."
But others adamantly predict swift mogulhood for the Winnipeg-born-and-bred Corrin, who's still years away from turning 30 and looks more like an Il Divo heartthrob than a shrewd restaurateur.
Watching Corrin zoom, in a single year, from having zero experience in the food industry to launching two queues-out-the-door restaurants in prime Toronto spots prompted the following comment from friend and patron Andrew Resnick, managing director of Radio Shack Canada.
"Matthew is a super-smart businessman with a great future ahead of him. He's got the right product at the right time in the right place."
Brennan O'Connor, Business Edge
Matthew Corrin's Lettuce Eatery brought the trend of salad entrees in a hip format from New York to Toronto just a year ago and has already expanded.
Why all the excitement? Because for increasingly health-conscious consumers - as columnist Rebecca Eckler recently opined in the National Post - "lettuce is the new black."
Sure enough, a nationwide survey by the New York-headquartered National Restaurant Association last year concluded that "More Americans are ordering salads as a main course.â€
And Food & Drink Weekly reported that bagged salad is now the second biggest-selling item in U.S. grocery stores (after bottled water). Meanwhile, of course, fast-food outlets including McDonald's and Wendy's have jumped into the salad sector.
Logic, plus Corrin's instant success, suggest that Canadian consumers are equally enthusiastic about salad options, and are having an impact on the $50-billion annual domestic food-service industry accordingly.
That statistic comes from Foodservice & Hospitality Magazine, whose restaurant reviewer recently stated: "When it comes to vegetables, nothing surpasses Toronto's chic new Lettuce Eatery."
Corrin beat everyone else to the punch by opening his first Lettuce Eatery in the heart of Toronto's financial district - the food court of the TD Centre at Wellington and York streets - in January 2005.
By November, he had launched an uptown counterpart near Bloor and Yonge streets, which differs from the first Lettuce Eatery by offering not just lunch and breakfast but dinner as well. Corrin plans to open a third restaurant in the trendy Spadina Avenue and Richmond Street district in February.
The Lettuce Eatery was Toronto's first taste of a phenomenon that's already a huge hit in major American, Australian and other cities: Restaurants whose primary offering is design-it-yourself gourmet salads purchased and consumed as entrées.
At Lettuce Eatery, the vibrant hues of dozens of chopped vegetables arrayed in gleaming stainless-steel trays complement Corrin's own crisp interior design, which features black, white, chocolate and apple-green fixtures.
A whopping 70 ingredients are on offer. They include diverse veggies, beans, fruits and berries, plus four types of lettuce, five cheeses, three flavours of chicken, two of tuna, shrimp and beef tenderloin. There are 20 dressings from which hundreds of diners per day choose their favourites, happily coughing up an average of about $8 per meal.
As he marked the anniversary of his initial Lettuce Eatery this month, Corrin took justifiable satisfaction in having defied the 98-per-cent first-year failure odds for restaurant startups.
Far from succumbing to that grim fate, he says his restaurants are "on target to do about a million in sales this year. We've already recouped our initial investment and we didn't have to go back for a second round of investment when we opened on Bloor Street."
So saying, Corrin took time just before the lunch rush to sketch out the tale of how he has gotten so far so fast.
Growing up in Winnipeg with fitness-conscious parents - an entrepreneurial-minded mother and a dentist father - he was only 15 when he embarked on his first business venture. It was compiling, printing and selling a provincewide guide to Manitoba's hockey and ringette rinks. It sold 2,000 copies and won him an enterprise award from his high school, St. John's Ravenscourt.
Corrin later pursued a bachelor of arts degree in media technology at the University of Western Ontario. Heading south during summer breaks, he landed a couple of enviable internships in New York City. One was at TV host David Letterman's company. The other was in the publicity department for famed fashion designer Oscar de la Renta - to which he returned for about three years after graduating.
Corrin's brainstorm about a hot business niche that New York possessed, but Canada lacked, hit him while he hung out with calorie-conscious fashion colleagues at bustling salad restaurants in Manhattan.
"I spent six months (at such spots) watching how everything was done: What was their demographic, how fast were they getting people through the line? When I wasn't there, I was sitting in Starbucks with my laptop researching the food industry and building my business plan."
Corrin then made a successful pitch to four private investors he declines to name, and moved to Toronto to search for the perfect location for what he by then had dubbed Lettuce Eatery.
It obviously took a bit of vision to settle on what he recalls as "the dark and dungeony food court in the TD Centre.â€
But when he met with Barbara Sewell, director of leasing for the building's landlord, Cadillac Fairview, and learned about plans for revamping the area and adding about nine vendors, he quickly negotiated a 10-year lease for an enviable corner spot with frontage on two sides.
"Matthew brought us an idea whose time had obviously come for the downtown core," Sewell says. "The Lettuce Eatery is hip, it's urbane and it's healthy. And clearly, judging from its success, it's responding to a pent-up demand among the professional people who work in this area."
During his first year in business, Corrin says he learned "an enormous amount.â€
And Resnick says it's his friend's ability to quickly recognize and implement improvements that has resulted in a doubling of sales and customer throughput.
Since opening with a menu consisting only of salads and salad sandwiches, Lettuce Eatery has added soups and breakfast options including an innovation Corrin says he didn't import from New York. "We now serve about 50 bowls a day of organic, slow-cooked oatmeal" to which patrons can add such ingredients as berries, fruit and chocolate chips.
That inspiration impresses but does not surprise Resnick, who says that "A lot of people might have opened a business like Matthew's but not had the wherewithal to add to their skillset so rapidly or perceive the potential scalability."
But judging by the additional plans Corrin already has in the works, it seems that Resnick and other admirers ain't seen nothing yet. He is already contemplating opening more Lettuce Eatery restaurants in Toronto in the near future and scouting likely spots in Vancouver and Montreal, with his home town of Winnipeg not far behind.
In a couple months' time, Corrin plans to launch what he calls "a major catering operation," which he projects will some day account for half of Lettuce Eatery's overall revenue.
Entrepreneurs twice his age might envy Corrin's unflappability as well as his commercial prowess. On the day he spoke with Business Edge, despite a surprise annual visit by health inspectors, he was as cool as any of the cucumbers he sells.
That pressure was nothing, he says, compared with "naming this place Lettuce Eatery and then running out of romaine on our first day and iceberg on the third."
Then, not long after that, both of his food-prep people were rushed to hospital after one cut himself and the other fainted at the sight of blood, fell down and hit his head.
That left Corrin alone at 6:30 a.m. with bushels of veggies to be chopped, not to mention six boxes of lettuce and 36 kilograms of spinach.
"I'll never forget getting through that crisis, thanks to help from my girlfriend, who's now my fiancée," he says. "I realized then that this is not rocket science. It's hard work. And if we could get through that, we can get through anything. Nothing's going to stop us."
Entrepreneur spots seeds of profitability in New York City
By Terry Poulton - Business Edge
Published: 01/19/2006 - Vol. 2, No. 2
Even though he's an ambitious optimist, Matthew Corrin quips that he doesn't see his Lettuce Eatery chain becoming the Starbucks of salads "unless we start adding something as addictive as caffeine to our salad dressings."
But others adamantly predict swift mogulhood for the Winnipeg-born-and-bred Corrin, who's still years away from turning 30 and looks more like an Il Divo heartthrob than a shrewd restaurateur.
Watching Corrin zoom, in a single year, from having zero experience in the food industry to launching two queues-out-the-door restaurants in prime Toronto spots prompted the following comment from friend and patron Andrew Resnick, managing director of Radio Shack Canada.
"Matthew is a super-smart businessman with a great future ahead of him. He's got the right product at the right time in the right place."
Brennan O'Connor, Business Edge
Matthew Corrin's Lettuce Eatery brought the trend of salad entrees in a hip format from New York to Toronto just a year ago and has already expanded.
Why all the excitement? Because for increasingly health-conscious consumers - as columnist Rebecca Eckler recently opined in the National Post - "lettuce is the new black."
Sure enough, a nationwide survey by the New York-headquartered National Restaurant Association last year concluded that "More Americans are ordering salads as a main course.â€
And Food & Drink Weekly reported that bagged salad is now the second biggest-selling item in U.S. grocery stores (after bottled water). Meanwhile, of course, fast-food outlets including McDonald's and Wendy's have jumped into the salad sector.
Logic, plus Corrin's instant success, suggest that Canadian consumers are equally enthusiastic about salad options, and are having an impact on the $50-billion annual domestic food-service industry accordingly.
That statistic comes from Foodservice & Hospitality Magazine, whose restaurant reviewer recently stated: "When it comes to vegetables, nothing surpasses Toronto's chic new Lettuce Eatery."
Corrin beat everyone else to the punch by opening his first Lettuce Eatery in the heart of Toronto's financial district - the food court of the TD Centre at Wellington and York streets - in January 2005.
By November, he had launched an uptown counterpart near Bloor and Yonge streets, which differs from the first Lettuce Eatery by offering not just lunch and breakfast but dinner as well. Corrin plans to open a third restaurant in the trendy Spadina Avenue and Richmond Street district in February.
The Lettuce Eatery was Toronto's first taste of a phenomenon that's already a huge hit in major American, Australian and other cities: Restaurants whose primary offering is design-it-yourself gourmet salads purchased and consumed as entrées.
At Lettuce Eatery, the vibrant hues of dozens of chopped vegetables arrayed in gleaming stainless-steel trays complement Corrin's own crisp interior design, which features black, white, chocolate and apple-green fixtures.
A whopping 70 ingredients are on offer. They include diverse veggies, beans, fruits and berries, plus four types of lettuce, five cheeses, three flavours of chicken, two of tuna, shrimp and beef tenderloin. There are 20 dressings from which hundreds of diners per day choose their favourites, happily coughing up an average of about $8 per meal.
As he marked the anniversary of his initial Lettuce Eatery this month, Corrin took justifiable satisfaction in having defied the 98-per-cent first-year failure odds for restaurant startups.
Far from succumbing to that grim fate, he says his restaurants are "on target to do about a million in sales this year. We've already recouped our initial investment and we didn't have to go back for a second round of investment when we opened on Bloor Street."
So saying, Corrin took time just before the lunch rush to sketch out the tale of how he has gotten so far so fast.
Growing up in Winnipeg with fitness-conscious parents - an entrepreneurial-minded mother and a dentist father - he was only 15 when he embarked on his first business venture. It was compiling, printing and selling a provincewide guide to Manitoba's hockey and ringette rinks. It sold 2,000 copies and won him an enterprise award from his high school, St. John's Ravenscourt.
Corrin later pursued a bachelor of arts degree in media technology at the University of Western Ontario. Heading south during summer breaks, he landed a couple of enviable internships in New York City. One was at TV host David Letterman's company. The other was in the publicity department for famed fashion designer Oscar de la Renta - to which he returned for about three years after graduating.
Corrin's brainstorm about a hot business niche that New York possessed, but Canada lacked, hit him while he hung out with calorie-conscious fashion colleagues at bustling salad restaurants in Manhattan.
"I spent six months (at such spots) watching how everything was done: What was their demographic, how fast were they getting people through the line? When I wasn't there, I was sitting in Starbucks with my laptop researching the food industry and building my business plan."
Corrin then made a successful pitch to four private investors he declines to name, and moved to Toronto to search for the perfect location for what he by then had dubbed Lettuce Eatery.
It obviously took a bit of vision to settle on what he recalls as "the dark and dungeony food court in the TD Centre.â€
But when he met with Barbara Sewell, director of leasing for the building's landlord, Cadillac Fairview, and learned about plans for revamping the area and adding about nine vendors, he quickly negotiated a 10-year lease for an enviable corner spot with frontage on two sides.
"Matthew brought us an idea whose time had obviously come for the downtown core," Sewell says. "The Lettuce Eatery is hip, it's urbane and it's healthy. And clearly, judging from its success, it's responding to a pent-up demand among the professional people who work in this area."
During his first year in business, Corrin says he learned "an enormous amount.â€
And Resnick says it's his friend's ability to quickly recognize and implement improvements that has resulted in a doubling of sales and customer throughput.
Since opening with a menu consisting only of salads and salad sandwiches, Lettuce Eatery has added soups and breakfast options including an innovation Corrin says he didn't import from New York. "We now serve about 50 bowls a day of organic, slow-cooked oatmeal" to which patrons can add such ingredients as berries, fruit and chocolate chips.
That inspiration impresses but does not surprise Resnick, who says that "A lot of people might have opened a business like Matthew's but not had the wherewithal to add to their skillset so rapidly or perceive the potential scalability."
But judging by the additional plans Corrin already has in the works, it seems that Resnick and other admirers ain't seen nothing yet. He is already contemplating opening more Lettuce Eatery restaurants in Toronto in the near future and scouting likely spots in Vancouver and Montreal, with his home town of Winnipeg not far behind.
In a couple months' time, Corrin plans to launch what he calls "a major catering operation," which he projects will some day account for half of Lettuce Eatery's overall revenue.
Entrepreneurs twice his age might envy Corrin's unflappability as well as his commercial prowess. On the day he spoke with Business Edge, despite a surprise annual visit by health inspectors, he was as cool as any of the cucumbers he sells.
That pressure was nothing, he says, compared with "naming this place Lettuce Eatery and then running out of romaine on our first day and iceberg on the third."
Then, not long after that, both of his food-prep people were rushed to hospital after one cut himself and the other fainted at the sight of blood, fell down and hit his head.
That left Corrin alone at 6:30 a.m. with bushels of veggies to be chopped, not to mention six boxes of lettuce and 36 kilograms of spinach.
"I'll never forget getting through that crisis, thanks to help from my girlfriend, who's now my fiancée," he says. "I realized then that this is not rocket science. It's hard work. And if we could get through that, we can get through anything. Nothing's going to stop us."
D
Darkstar416
Guest
Re: Paramount Canada's Wonderland to be sold!
Looks like PCW is on the auction block now...
January 27, 2006
Chief Says CBS Plans to Sell Theme Parks
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
CBS Inc. plans to sell its theme parks division by the end of the year, its chief executive told a meeting of Wall Street analysts yesterday.
The chief executive, Leslie Moonves, said the business did not fit with CBS's content-driven business, which includes the television network, television and radio stations, an outdoor advertising business and a publishing business. The sale has already generated interest among potential buyers, according to CBS.
The theme park operation, Paramount Parks, is part of the CBS publishing unit, which represented about $1.1 billion, or 8 percent, of the company's $14.5 billion in 2004 pro forma revenue. The theme parks include Kings Dominion in Richmond, Va., and Great America in Santa Clara, Calif., and get more than 12 million visitors a year, CBS said.
One analyst asked Mr. Moonves why CBS was keeping the publishing unit, Simon & Schuster, which appears to have little synergy with CBS's other content businesses. While acknowledging that the synergies were not evident, Mr. Moonves gave no indication that he planned to sell the unit.
"To tell the truth, it is not the most synergistic group, but it is a content provider and we are working on different ways of using the books," he said.
Mr. Moonves has been moving fast to put his mark on CBS. This week, CBS announced that it would merge its UPN network with the WB network in an effort to attract younger television audiences. As audiences, and particularly younger audiences, have moved to watching hit programs on other media, like iPods, Mr. Moonves has vowed to provide content wherever it would be profitable for his company.
Some analysts had worried that Mr. Moonves would try to make major acquisitions in an attempt to turn CBS into a growth company. But he seemed to reassure Wall Street yesterday when he said: "We don't need to make transforming investments. We will make smart investments."
CBS also said it planned to increase its dividend to 16 cents from 14 cents.
Wall Street has generally been pleased with Mr. Moonves's performance in his first weeks as head of CBS, sending the stock up 41 cents yesterday to close at $26.81 a share.
Looks like PCW is on the auction block now...
January 27, 2006
Chief Says CBS Plans to Sell Theme Parks
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
CBS Inc. plans to sell its theme parks division by the end of the year, its chief executive told a meeting of Wall Street analysts yesterday.
The chief executive, Leslie Moonves, said the business did not fit with CBS's content-driven business, which includes the television network, television and radio stations, an outdoor advertising business and a publishing business. The sale has already generated interest among potential buyers, according to CBS.
The theme park operation, Paramount Parks, is part of the CBS publishing unit, which represented about $1.1 billion, or 8 percent, of the company's $14.5 billion in 2004 pro forma revenue. The theme parks include Kings Dominion in Richmond, Va., and Great America in Santa Clara, Calif., and get more than 12 million visitors a year, CBS said.
One analyst asked Mr. Moonves why CBS was keeping the publishing unit, Simon & Schuster, which appears to have little synergy with CBS's other content businesses. While acknowledging that the synergies were not evident, Mr. Moonves gave no indication that he planned to sell the unit.
"To tell the truth, it is not the most synergistic group, but it is a content provider and we are working on different ways of using the books," he said.
Mr. Moonves has been moving fast to put his mark on CBS. This week, CBS announced that it would merge its UPN network with the WB network in an effort to attract younger television audiences. As audiences, and particularly younger audiences, have moved to watching hit programs on other media, like iPods, Mr. Moonves has vowed to provide content wherever it would be profitable for his company.
Some analysts had worried that Mr. Moonves would try to make major acquisitions in an attempt to turn CBS into a growth company. But he seemed to reassure Wall Street yesterday when he said: "We don't need to make transforming investments. We will make smart investments."
CBS also said it planned to increase its dividend to 16 cents from 14 cents.
Wall Street has generally been pleased with Mr. Moonves's performance in his first weeks as head of CBS, sending the stock up 41 cents yesterday to close at $26.81 a share.
S
samsonyuen
Guest
Re: Paramount Canada's Wonderland to be sold!
^I don't know who would buy it except Six Flags (which would be cool), or Anheuser-Busch. It's pretty profitable, though, isn't it?
^I don't know who would buy it except Six Flags (which would be cool), or Anheuser-Busch. It's pretty profitable, though, isn't it?
S
samsonyuen
Guest
Retailers welcome renovation
Station's stores pine for customers
Sprucing up `shabby' terminus may help
Feb. 3, 2006. 01:00 AM
HAROLD LEVY
STAFF REPORTER
Plans to redevelop Union Station were met with mixed feelings by the owners of some of the station's smaller stores.
Ching Mei, owner of The General Store on the departures level, welcomed the massive renovations but feels much more downtown development is required.
"It is not enough to improve Union Station," Ching, who at 18 years believes she is the longest-standing merchant at Union Station. "The whole area around it has to be made more conducive for retail stores and there has to be adequate parking."
But Ching hopes the renovation will bring more business to the stores in Union Station which are often stagnant between the morning and evening rush hours.
"It could use a boost," she said.
Nancy, owner of a small bakery franchise in the GO Corridor area of Union Station, described her feelings about the renovation as "fifty-fifty."
"It's good for regular people and for Toronto because Toronto is open to the world and that is good," said Nancy, who has a 1 1/2-year lease. "But for us, for the business ... we're nervous.
"Change may not be good for the business."
It was good news to Jane Kang who works in a small cosmetics store in the concourse.
"This place is shabby," she said. "It definitely needs to be cleaned up.
"Look at the marble," she said, pointing toward the corridor. "I'm pretty sure it was white when they put it in. Now, it is brown."
Kang pointed out major problems for everyday users of the station, such as elevators that are so inaccessible that people take the ramps instead, poor access to the building and a confusing layout.
"I get people coming in all the time to ask me where to go," she said.
Mayor David Miller also welcomes the proposed overhaul.
"My hopes are that, first of all, the retail areas that are there are significantly improved. It will actually be a destination," he told reporters yesterday.
It was also good news to Qin Bin who operates a newsstand in the concourse area and has dreams of the station being transformed into an "enchanting" retail and transportation centre.
"I hope it can be made like a station fit for a modern city," said Qin, who recently signed a four-year lease.
"This could be huge and I will benefit."
with files from catherine porter
Station's stores pine for customers
Sprucing up `shabby' terminus may help
Feb. 3, 2006. 01:00 AM
HAROLD LEVY
STAFF REPORTER
Plans to redevelop Union Station were met with mixed feelings by the owners of some of the station's smaller stores.
Ching Mei, owner of The General Store on the departures level, welcomed the massive renovations but feels much more downtown development is required.
"It is not enough to improve Union Station," Ching, who at 18 years believes she is the longest-standing merchant at Union Station. "The whole area around it has to be made more conducive for retail stores and there has to be adequate parking."
But Ching hopes the renovation will bring more business to the stores in Union Station which are often stagnant between the morning and evening rush hours.
"It could use a boost," she said.
Nancy, owner of a small bakery franchise in the GO Corridor area of Union Station, described her feelings about the renovation as "fifty-fifty."
"It's good for regular people and for Toronto because Toronto is open to the world and that is good," said Nancy, who has a 1 1/2-year lease. "But for us, for the business ... we're nervous.
"Change may not be good for the business."
It was good news to Jane Kang who works in a small cosmetics store in the concourse.
"This place is shabby," she said. "It definitely needs to be cleaned up.
"Look at the marble," she said, pointing toward the corridor. "I'm pretty sure it was white when they put it in. Now, it is brown."
Kang pointed out major problems for everyday users of the station, such as elevators that are so inaccessible that people take the ramps instead, poor access to the building and a confusing layout.
"I get people coming in all the time to ask me where to go," she said.
Mayor David Miller also welcomes the proposed overhaul.
"My hopes are that, first of all, the retail areas that are there are significantly improved. It will actually be a destination," he told reporters yesterday.
It was also good news to Qin Bin who operates a newsstand in the concourse area and has dreams of the station being transformed into an "enchanting" retail and transportation centre.
"I hope it can be made like a station fit for a modern city," said Qin, who recently signed a four-year lease.
"This could be huge and I will benefit."
with files from catherine porter
D
Darkstar416
Guest
Re: Apple Store
Anyone know what's going on with the Buffalo store at Yonge & Shuter? I walked by this afternoon and all the windows are papered over and there's big 70% off signs all over the place. I didn't get a close look, but it kind of looked like a closing down sale.
Anyone know what's going on with the Buffalo store at Yonge & Shuter? I walked by this afternoon and all the windows are papered over and there's big 70% off signs all over the place. I didn't get a close look, but it kind of looked like a closing down sale.
2
21stcenturymichael
Guest
Re: HBC
I also thought it was closing down. But some of the signs say "renovation sale", and they appear to still be selling clothes on the second floor. Last week, they had a staff recruitment sign in the window -- not sure if it's still there -- which is usually a sign that the store isn't closing.
Funny, I walk by every day, but it never occurs to me to go inside that particular store...
I also thought it was closing down. But some of the signs say "renovation sale", and they appear to still be selling clothes on the second floor. Last week, they had a staff recruitment sign in the window -- not sure if it's still there -- which is usually a sign that the store isn't closing.
Funny, I walk by every day, but it never occurs to me to go inside that particular store...
S
samsonyuen
Guest
Re: Buffalo
With regards to the Buffalo store, I hope they do close. It's just a bad layout for store, and the clothes aren't great. I'm surprised they lasted that long!
Anyone remember the HBC Outfitters store that was there before? HBC was attempting to make this a chain, and I believe they still own the building. Perhaps, they will turn it into their new off-price Winners-fighter designerDepot. It would make sense.
With regards to the Buffalo store, I hope they do close. It's just a bad layout for store, and the clothes aren't great. I'm surprised they lasted that long!
Anyone remember the HBC Outfitters store that was there before? HBC was attempting to make this a chain, and I believe they still own the building. Perhaps, they will turn it into their new off-price Winners-fighter designerDepot. It would make sense.
S
spmarshall
Guest
I remember when that store sold Cherokee, the Zellers in-house "fashion" brand. That didn't last long either.