Dollarama

Dollarama Inc.

Company type	Public
Traded as	TSX: DOL S&P/TSX 60 component
Industry	Retail
Founded	1992
Headquarters	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Key people	Larry Rossy, Founder Peter Kowalczyk, President and CEO.
Products	Cleaning supplies, Toys, Candy, Grocery, Gifts, Healthcare products, Kitchenware, Stationery, Party Supplies, Hardware.
Revenue	$1.420 billion CAD (2009)
Net income	$116.8 million CAD
Website	www.dollarama.com

A standalone Dollarama store in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood.

Dollarama in Richmond Hill, Ontario

Dollarama is a chain of over 1000 dollar stores across Canada. The company is headquartered in Montreal and, since 2009, has been Canada's largest retailer of items for three dollars or less. Dollarama has stores in every province of Canada; Ontario has the most stores.

History

The first Dollarama store was opened at the shopping centre "Les promenades du St-Laurent" in Matane. Lawrence Rossy was head of the then-parent company of Dollarama, the now-defunct Rossy S Inc. discount store chain (not to be confused with Rossy Michael, another discount chain). He founded the privately held chain in 1992 and created a profitable business that became very successful. By the late 1990s, Dollarama had became by far the primary source of revenue for the Rossy family. As such, the Rossy S division was closed with all of its stores either closed or converted into Dollarama stores.

In November 2004, 80 percent of the chain was sold for $850 million US, to a private equity fund, Bain Capital, of Boston, Massachusetts.

In 2013, Dollarama was planning to expand its market to Latin America, and made an eight-year agreement to share its business expertise and provide sourcing services to Dollar City, a Salvadoran chain of dollar stores in Central America.

Business practices

Many items are priced at $1.00 or less (usually 69¢), and initially almost all items were priced as such. In early 2009 Dollarama began to introduce items priced up to $2.00 (including $1.25 and $1.50 price points). Due to the positive response from consumers to the multi-price point strategy, the stores subsequently introduced items at $2.50 and $3.00 in August 2012. This price level increase allowed the chain to acquire products from a greater variety of sources, including closeout sales. and adjustments may eventually happen to all prices.

Payment in Dollarama stores was once by cash only, until Interac debit cards were added as a payment option beginning in 2008. Gift cards began to be offered in 2011. As of 2015, all Dollarama stores additionally support contactless Interac Flash payments.

Many of the Dollarama stores are located where there once were BiWay stores, a defunct chain of Canadian discount retail operations intended to compete with retailers such as Zellers, Kmart and Wal-Mart. Zellers and Kmart closed after a series of dubious financial transactions involving a new owner of the parent operation.

Amongst Canadian dollar store chains, Dollarama has pioneered by sourcing customized products from manufacturers, evidenced by the numerous in-store items which have Dollarama's name printed on the product labels. In mid-2009 it joined other retail chains in rolling out its own store brand, "D". Unlike most dollar/discount stores, it sources products directly from manufacturers, rather than local distributors.

See also

• A Buck or Two
• Your Dollar Store with More

External links

• website
• CNW: Dollarama, press releases