Sears Canada
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| File:SearsCan logo1934x750.jpg | |
| Company type | Public (TSX: SCC) (54.3% of common stock owned by Sears Holdings Corporation) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1952 (joint venture of Simpson's and Sears) |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, appliances, housewares, tools, and electronics. |
| Website | http://www.sears.ca/ |
Sears Canada Inc. TSX: SCC (more commonly referred to as "Sears") is a retailer, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, that operates in all provinces and territories across Canada with a network of 188 corporate stores, 180 dealer stores, 67 home improvement showrooms, 112 Sears Travel offices and a nationwide home maintenance, repair, and installation network. Sears also has a general merchandise catalogue with over 2,200 catalogue merchandise pickup locations. There is a Sears location within a 10-minute drive of 93% of Canadians. About 50,000 associates are employed throughout the company.
Sears Holdings Corporation of the United States owns 54.3% of Sears Canada common shares; the remainder of the shares are publicly traded. As of March 31, 2005, the majority ownership stake was officially transferred to Sears Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: SHLD). Sears Holdings is attempting to buy back the outstanding shares of Sears Canada, with expectations of concluding the deal in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Corporate history
Simpsons-Sears
Sears Canada began its operations as Simpsons-Sears Limited, a catalogue retailer, in 1952. The company was formed as a joint-venture between the Robert Simpson Company (Simpson's), an existing Canadian department store retailer, and Sears, Roebuck and Company of the United States. The purpose of the joint-venture was to take over the existing Simpson's catalogue operations, and to build new stores in markets that were not already served by existing Simpson's stores.
In 1973-1974, Simpsons-Sears opened its first stores in metropolitan areas already served by Simpson's (although in suburban areas well away from the downtown Simpson's stores). So as to avoid confusing customers, these new stores were opened under the Sears banner.
Hudson's Bay acquisition of Simpson's
The Hudson's Bay Company acquired Simpson's in 1978. Because of federal competition laws, the Hudson's Bay Company was required to divest itself of its interest in Simpsons-Sears, and the chain was formally renamed Sears Canada (though some Sears stores continued to informally carry the hyphenated name into the 1980s). As part of the split, Sears and Simpson's were not allowed to build stores within 20 miles of each other for 20 years. This left Sears Canada with no stores in the downtown areas of major cities until this agreement expired. The Hudson Bay Company eventually converted all Simpson's store to The Bay banner by 1991, and the Simpson's name has disappeared from Canada's retail landscape.
Sears Whole Home and Sears.ca
In 1995, Sears Canada opened Sears Whole Home furniture stores located in power centres, and renamed them Sears Furniture and Appliances stores in 1999, to reflect the addition of major appliances. In 2003, Sears Canada again renamed their Furniture and Appliances store to Sears Home stores. This change was intended to reflect their broader appeal for customers seeking a one stop experience for re-making their home decor. The stores' product line was expanded to include Home Installed Products and Services such as floor coverings, customer drapery, and other installed home related products in many locations.
In 1998, Sears Canada's website, www.sears.ca became an active channel, allowing customers to order from a selection of over 500 products. By 2001, the website became Canada's most popular retail internet destination with over a million orders placed that year.
Eatons
In 1999, Sears Canada acquired The T. Eaton Company Limited. With this acquisition, Sears Canada acquired some of the assets and the trademark name of the bankrupt chain. For the first time in its history, Sears Canada held the leases to a number of prime downtown locations in Toronto (Eaton Centre and Yorkdale Mall), Vancouver (Pacific Centre), Victoria, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Calgary(all former Eaton's stores). Sears had intended to obtain the former downtown Montreal store, although it lost out to the incumbent Les Ailes de la Mode.
Sears relaunched eatons (with the lowercase "e" logo) in November 2000 as a seven-store upscale mini-brand, with locations in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Ottawa. This operation was unsuccessful, however, and Sears converted the eatons stores to the Sears brand in 2002. Many said that the eatons stores were too upscale and/or too thinly scattered across the country for the mini-chain to have ever been profitable and worthwhile. The retail environment has changed with more of the population shopping at big box outlets and/or speciality stores squeezing out the middle market which is the base of the traditional department store.[1]
New Chairman and Sears Card
In August 26, 2004, Sears Canada Chairman and CEO Mark A. Cohen's contract was terminated and he was replaced by Brent Hollister. Cohen, formerly a vice-president of the US parent Sears, received a $12 million severance package. A minor furor later erupted shortly after when Cohen posed in an ad for Harry Rosen, allegedly undercutting his former employer's menswear lines.
In 2005, Sears Card financial services was outsourced to JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. with Sears receiving $3 billion CDN for the sale, while Sears points system was retained by the retailer. Sears also paid a special dividend upon the completion of the transaction. CEO Brent Hollister said that the move would allow Sears to refocus on its retail operations; as the chain had been lately relied heavily on its financial services division.
Privatization
In January 2006, Sears Holdings Inc, the parent company and majority shareholder of Sears Canada Inc. made a bid to purchase the remaining shares to take the company private. Sears Canada CEO Brent Hollister and the board opposed the move.
Pertaining to the ongoing attempt of privatization on behalf of its parent company, Sears Holdings Limited; a recent ruling by the Ontario Securities Commission, made in August 2006, has stalled progess on this front.[1] While the ruling does not dispel the future possibility of the privatization of Sears Canada, it does pose a significant obstacle by ruling three major shareholding blocks ineligible to vote as the blocs were given extraodinary privileges by Sears Holdings Limited.[2]
On November 14, 2006 Sears Holdings' move to privatize Sears Canada at a bid of $17.97/share fell through by voting amongst the minority shareholder groups. Currently Sears Holdings owns 46% of the total shares of Sears Canada Inc. and there are no statements indicating a new higher bid would be made in the future by Sears Holdings.[3]
See also
References
- ^ "OSC stalls Sears buyout". CBC News. 2006-08-08. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
- ^ McFarland, Janet (2006-09-08). "Sears Holdings smacked by OSC ruling". Globe and Mail Update. Retrieved 2006-01-06.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Shaw, Hollie (2006-11-15). "Shareholders block privatization of Sears Canada". Financial Post. Retrieved 2007-01-06.