Saks Fifth Avenue on Monday announced the forthcoming opening of three Saks Off 5th locations in Canada, in Halton Hills, Ottawa and Mirabel.
It’s been a little over two years since Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) acquired Saks and the new stores will respectively replace an existing HBC Toronto Premium Outlets space, be placed within a Hudson’s Bay that’s currently under renovation and replace HBC’s Premium Outlets Montreal location.
The development marks the continuation of HBC’s North American expansion. Soon after it acquired the Saks nameplate, it opened two Saks Off 5th stores in Toronto (one of which shares a space with Hudson’s Bay’s flagship store) and it now expects to open a total of 25 more across Canada by the end of 2018.
Shoppers should expect to see new Saks Off 5th at Tanger Outlets in Ottawa, Vaughan Mills in Toronto, CrossIron Mills in Calgary and Outlet Collection at Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Jonathan Greller, HBC’s president of outlets, is confident that the new locations will thrive. “These new stores are situated in successful retail locations and we are eager to introduce Canadians to the Saks Off 5th brand when we launch in 2016,” he said.
HBC is optimistic about the future of Saks Off Fifth in Canada, despite other retailers’ struggles to bring American brands up north.
In 2014, after opening 100 stores in Canada at once, Target lost more than $4 billion after taxes. The Minnesota-based retailer failed to connect with Canadian consumers, often receiving complaints that prices were too high, and by April 12 it had closed all of its doors.
Nordstrom, too, is taking things slowly as it branches out into the Canadian market. It recently opened its second store and plans to have six locations by 2017—a much smaller and perhaps more realistic goal than HBC.