Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/122387
r e T a i l i n g T o d a y the 48-store Lord & Taylor chain and 69 Home Outfitters stores. To date, Hudson's Bay has focused primarily on improving its four flagship stores: the Queen Street and Yorkdale Shopping Centre properties, in Toronto, and the downtown shops, in Montréal and Vancouver. Over the past three years, manage- 64 SC T / M a y 2 0 1 3 ment has eliminated some 900 brands and added roughly 300, including some that were new to Canada and others that are now exclusive to Hudson's Bay — the retailer secured a 10-year exclusivity agreement for Canada with U.K.-based Topshop. The first of these Canadian Topshop stores opened at Yorkdale Shopping Centre in October 2011. The changes to the flagship stores are exceptional, according to James Smerdon, a vice president and director of retail consulting at Colliers International Consulting, in Vancouver. The Vancouver store carved out a 33,000-square-foot space for Topshop. "Once upon a time, they might have been loath to take on other retailers within their space, but I think they have taken a more-business approach to their operations rather than just relying on the strength of their brand," Smerdon said. "By subleasing space within their flagship stores and then operating out of a smaller footprint, it is a more rational, considered approach to their space and their operations, and that is encouraging." Besides Topshop, Hudson's Bay has national exclusivity agreements with the likes of Lacoste Home, London Fog and Material Girl by Madonna. Hudson's Bay is truly trying to shed its image as the store where your grandmother shopped, says Vissia. "Now that they're getting Topshop and these other luxury brands, it is becoming a younger place to shop," she said. "With the change in ownership and change in direction, we at Primaris have never been more excited about the Bay and the direction that it is going," said John Morrison, president and CEO of Toronto-based Primaris Retail REIT. The payoff is visible. Hudson's Bay same-store sales climbed 5.5 percent year on year for the 48-week period that ended Dec. 29, 2012. Fresh off an IPO late last year, Hudson's Bay Co. may now possess the capital to extend all this change out to its broader network of stores in suburban and secondary markets across Canada. "I believe they have plans to do that," said Morrison, "but it couldn't happen soon enough in my mind." SCT