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From The Star: http://www.thestar.com/business/companies/article/906790--u-s-off-price-retailer-marshalls-coming-to-the-gta
Published on Tue Dec 14 2010
A U.S.-based sister chain to Winners will open its first Canadian stores next year, including one in the now defunct nightclub Circa in Toronto’s entertainment district, the property owner has confirmed.
The Circa site is one of at least four scheduled to open next year as Marshalls makes its move into Canada, the chief executive of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust said in an interview.
“We have re-leased it to a Marshalls,” RioCan president and chief executive officer Ed Sonshine said of the former nightclub space on John St. between King and Richmond Sts.
The high-profile club, which featured 50,000 square feet of space and guest performances by rappers 50 Cent and Kanye West, closed three years after it opened.
The first three Marshalls are set to open next spring, one at Warden and Eglinton, one at the Colossus Centre at Highways 407 and 400, and one in the Durham Centre in Ajax, he said.
The store in the former Circa club will not open until later in 2011.
Marshalls is similar to Winners in that it carries mainly off-price brand name clothing and housewares. In the U.S., Marshalls differentiates itself from its sister chain, TJ Maxx, by stocking more family footwear, more junior styles and more men’s fashions.
The U.S. parent company, The TJX Cos. Inc., is likely to want Marshalls to complement rather than compete with Winners, said Frances Gunn, an assistant professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management.
Comparing it to Best Buy and Future Shop, two consumer electronics chains that belong to the same parent, Gunn said: “The whole idea is to eat up as much of the available market share as possible in one organization.”
Like other U.S retailers eyeing Canada, TJX Cos. has seen its existing Canadian chains, Winners and HomeSense, outperform the market. Sales at its 297 Canadian stores were up 17.8 per cent year over year by the end of October.
Marshalls carries a somewhat broader range of goods than typical Winners, but not as much as a department store, said Wendy Evans, president of consulting firm Evans & Company,
Still, the chain will compete with elements of Zellers, Sears, the Bay and various specialty stores because it will have the same designer lines but come in under the regular price, Evans said.
Marshalls is just one of several large retailers with plans for Toronto’s entertainment district as the explosion of condos in that area drives demand for more stores, retail analysts said.
RioCan, which is also looking for locations for U.S.-based Target, said that chain is unlikely to open its first Canadian stores before 2013.
Published on Tue Dec 14 2010
A U.S.-based sister chain to Winners will open its first Canadian stores next year, including one in the now defunct nightclub Circa in Toronto’s entertainment district, the property owner has confirmed.
The Circa site is one of at least four scheduled to open next year as Marshalls makes its move into Canada, the chief executive of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust said in an interview.
“We have re-leased it to a Marshalls,” RioCan president and chief executive officer Ed Sonshine said of the former nightclub space on John St. between King and Richmond Sts.
The high-profile club, which featured 50,000 square feet of space and guest performances by rappers 50 Cent and Kanye West, closed three years after it opened.
The first three Marshalls are set to open next spring, one at Warden and Eglinton, one at the Colossus Centre at Highways 407 and 400, and one in the Durham Centre in Ajax, he said.
The store in the former Circa club will not open until later in 2011.
Marshalls is similar to Winners in that it carries mainly off-price brand name clothing and housewares. In the U.S., Marshalls differentiates itself from its sister chain, TJ Maxx, by stocking more family footwear, more junior styles and more men’s fashions.
The U.S. parent company, The TJX Cos. Inc., is likely to want Marshalls to complement rather than compete with Winners, said Frances Gunn, an assistant professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management.
Comparing it to Best Buy and Future Shop, two consumer electronics chains that belong to the same parent, Gunn said: “The whole idea is to eat up as much of the available market share as possible in one organization.”
Like other U.S retailers eyeing Canada, TJX Cos. has seen its existing Canadian chains, Winners and HomeSense, outperform the market. Sales at its 297 Canadian stores were up 17.8 per cent year over year by the end of October.
Marshalls carries a somewhat broader range of goods than typical Winners, but not as much as a department store, said Wendy Evans, president of consulting firm Evans & Company,
Still, the chain will compete with elements of Zellers, Sears, the Bay and various specialty stores because it will have the same designer lines but come in under the regular price, Evans said.
Marshalls is just one of several large retailers with plans for Toronto’s entertainment district as the explosion of condos in that area drives demand for more stores, retail analysts said.
RioCan, which is also looking for locations for U.S.-based Target, said that chain is unlikely to open its first Canadian stores before 2013.
