Grafton Fraser Inc. plans to add about 70 new Jones New York stores across Canada within the next decade including many new stores in B.C., the company’s CEO, Dave McGregor told Business in Vancouver July 30.
“Richmond Centre would be an opportunity,” McGregor said on the phone from London, England. “There’s Metropolis at Metrotown. We could go to Oakridge or Park Royal. Many shopping centres are very important in their communities and do not have the Jones New York brand.”
It’s a dramatic turnaround for the Jones New York brand, which, until earlier this year, was readying to be extinguished.
The brand’s former owner, private-equity firm Sycamore Partners, announced in January that it would close all 127 Jones New York retail stores, including 35 in Canada.
It then sold to Authentic Brands Group, in early May, the right to sell Jones New York branded clothing via e-commerce.
Grafton Fraser then announced July 29 that, as part of a complex three-way transaction, it had bought the brand’s 35 Canadian stores as well as the right to sell Jones New York clothing through a Canadian online store.
Grafton Fraser is otherwise known for operating 110 Tip Top Tailors stores and 60 other stores branded variously George Richards Big & Tall, Mr. Big & Tall and Kingsport – all in Canada.
It had sold Jones New York clothing for men in those stores. The 35 Jones New York stand-alone, brick-and-mortar stores are all exclusively for womenswear. One change will be that menswear will start appearing in both new and existing Jones New York stores “where there is sufficient real estate,” McGregor said.
The 92 Jones New York stores in the U.S., which Grafton Fraser did not buy, remain slated to close later this year.
“Jones New York is one of the most important ladieswear stores in Canada,” McGregor said. “It’s also one of the most important menswear brands. My background is in department stores and it was always one of the most important brands in those stores.”
McGregor said the Jones New York brand was suffering in the U.S. but was profitable in Canada.
He then reflected back to 2008, just as the global economic downturn was taking hold. He was a vice-president at Linens n Things and was in charge of closing about 120 of that brand’s stores even though the company’s Canadian division was profitable.
He could not bear to see the same thing happen with Jones New York.
The three current Jones New York stores in B.C. are in New Westminster, Port Coquitlam and Richmond.
“The retail strategy at Jones New York in the past was not to be in the A-Class and B-Class shopping centres,” he said. “To have only three stores in the province of B.C. and one in the province of Alberta means that we have an easy opportunity for expansion.”
