Revillon Frères
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Revillon Frères (Brothers Revillon) was a French fur and luxury goods company with stores in Paris, London, New York and Montreal at the end of the 19th Century. In 1903, the company decided to set up a network of fur-trading posts in northern Canada to compete with the Hudson's Bay Company.
In 1909, Revillon Frères had forty-eight stores in its Eastern Arctic division while the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) had fifty-two. Competition in Canada between these companies ended in 1936 when the HBC bought out Revillon Frères. The company continued to operate in the luxury fur business in France, and in 1982 merged with the publishing group, Les Éditions Mondiales.
In the 1960s the Revillon company of France negotiated a buy-out of New York's preeminent fur manufacturing company, Grauer Furs. Grauer Furs had been started by Austrian immigrant William Grauer and taken over by Grauer's two sons, Abraham and Herman. The Grauer's had been acquiring furs from the annual fur auctions in Frankfort, Germany. In 1970, under Revillon ownership, Herman Grauer negotiated the partnership with Saks 5th Avenue, and Revillon would supply Saks with its fur collection until 1995 when Saks changed suppliers.
Many of the Inuit villages in Nunavik, in northern Quebec, Canada, are located on sites originally occupied by Revillon Frères trading posts.
Revillon Frères financed the 1922 film Nanook of the North, filmed near one of their trading posts at Inukjuak, Quebec on northeastern Hudson Bay.
There is a Revillon Frères Museum in Moosonee, Ontario which has been closed for several years.
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