Canadian Fashion Retailer
Aritzia, Canadian Fashion Retailer, Files IPO
If you don’t yet know Aritzia, it’s likely your wife, daughter or girlfriend does.
The 30-year-old Canadian company — based in Vancouver with 75 stores, 16 in the United States and a growing on-line presence — has managed to thrive despite competition from fast-fashion giants like Zara and H & M and the death of other Canadian fashion retailers like Jacob and Danier.
The company filed last week for an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
According to Bloomberg, the company will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the subordinate voting shares, which did not say how much the IPO planned to raise.
CIBC World Markets Inc., Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Canada unit and Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Securities Inc. are leading the sale.
Aritzia opened its first U.S. store in Seattle and Santa Clara, California in November 2007, and their Manhattan flagship is 13,000 square feet.
The company reported a profit of $38.1 million (to May 29 2016), compared to $16.5 million in the year ending March 1, 2015.
Toronto retail analyst Jim Danahy, CEO of Customer Lab, says the company, which began with a single store in an upscale suburban Vancouver mall in 1984, has a “sensational record” of sales and a “well-defined brand.”
Its CEO Brian Hill, (who co-owns the company with Berkshire Partners, which holds a majority interest), “is one of the most highly-regarded retailers in our country,” Danahy told Canada’s Business News Network.
I’m curious to see how this turns out because — I admit it — I’m a fan, wearing an Aritzia dress from their summer 2015 line, as I write this.
I grew up in Toronto, where Aritzia‘s shop was a stalwart on one of the city’s busiest and trendiest retail streets, Queen Street West.
When they opened a typically enormous space in my local upscale mall a few years ago, The Westchester, in White Plains, NY, I thought: “Really?”
Like every tenant paying high rents there, and an unknown name competing with familiar and heavily-advertised brands like Ann Taylor, J. Jill. Eileen Fisher, the Gap and Nordstrom, Aritzia would face tremendous competition for American shoppers’ attention and dollars.
It’s still there, still going strong, and I’m a happy repeat customer.
Like many of their stores elsewhere, it’s a huge, airy, uncrowded space; your blood pressure drops just walking in the door and not, for once, bumping into a rack or a mannequin or being chased by an over-eager associate.
Here are nine reasons to like Aritzia:
1. It’s Canadian.
As am I. So few Canadian retailers have made a dent in the enormous and challenging U.S. retail market, I’m proud to see one of our own doing well here.
2. Friendly staff who know their stuff.
I recently needed a specific dress really fast and “normal” delivery policies wouldn’t allow it. That didn’t deter a manager in their crazy-busy Soho, New York store from making sure I got it quickly.
3. Great prices. Their merchandise isn’t super-cheap, but it offers quality and style that lasts more than a few weeks, or months. There’s price, then there’s value. The old metric, cost-per-wear, kicks in and definitely applies here.
4. Comfortable clothing. Their knits are sturdy enough to keep their shape but giving enough to weather a 90-degree summer day.
5. Style.
There’s a wide range of offerings, from a sports bra to the black pleated ankle-length McFadden-esque dress I bought on sale, (under their minimalist Babaton label), to attend an elegant Toronto wedding this summer.
6. Variety.
You can find a great scarf, pair of leggings, long skirt or tank top. Thanks to their 10 in-house brands, there are florals, prints, slinky T-shirts, a silk dress.
7. Age-neutral.
Women ages 16 to 60 like the range of their styles. Carefully hired and trained associates greet older shoppers warmly, a rare and welcome break from many of their more-costly and better-known competitors.
8. Thoughtful design.
Many of their pieces come in limited colors, and many neutrals, like ballet pink, black, gray, olive or burgundy, making it easy to put pieces together, season to season, year to year — hello, repeat business!
9. Machine-washable and packable.
Before a June trip to Ireland last year, I bought four Aritzia dresses, which roll up to nothing and can be thrown in the washing machine. I’m still wearing them, often, a year later.