Retail | Simons sets his sights on Toronto

Simons is continuing its Canadian expansion with the opening of two new stores in downtown Toronto next year, while keeping an eye on the United States. The Quebec retailer makes online sales there, particularly in Florida, Texas, California and the northeast of the country, confirms its president and CEO, Bernard Leblanc.

But by fall 2025, the company will turn its full attention to Ontario. The arrival on American soil will not happen “in the near future”.

“This is another big step for us,” Mr. Leblanc immediately said during an interview with The Press by videoconference, while we could see behind him downtown Toronto, where he will officially announce the arrival of the green sign this Thursday.

The steps, first initiated by the former big boss, Peter Simons, took more than a decade before the company finally announced that it would open not one, but two stores in the Queen City. This is a $75 million investment that will generate approximately 400 jobs.

“We have to have the best location with conditions that are acceptable to us and to the landlords,” says Mr. Leblanc to explain why the project took more than 10 years to come to fruition.

And according to the president and CEO, the new stores will be in prime locations. The Yorkdale Shopping Center and the CF Toronto Eaton Centre, where Simons will set up shop, are respectively the first and second best performing shopping centers in the country in terms of traffic and revenue per square foot, according to Mr. The White. These two openings, planned for fall 2025, will bring the total number of locations across Canada to 19.

But why two stores in Toronto, when the retailer already has one in Mississauga, some 30 kilometers away? “For people in Toronto, Mississauga is not part of the heart of the city. People from the center do not naturally go to Mississauga. »

“The Toronto market is the second largest for us in online sales (behind Montreal). We already have a pool of customers. We still have a population density in Toronto. »

An eye on the United States

Although the retailer intends to continue expanding its tentacles across the country – Vancouver, where it already has one store, could well see another pop up – the plan to cross the border south is far from reality. be discarded. However, this is not “in the near future”.

“We made the decision to concentrate our efforts on Canada,” insists Mr. Leblanc. We still have work to do to raise awareness across the country. We want to further gain market share outside of Quebec. »

“We have our American website which continues to grow organically, by choice, because it can be very expensive to develop the American market because of the territory which is very, very vast,” he adds. That’s a lot of markets within a big market. »

The Quebec retailer ships orders daily to our neighbors to the South. “We take the time to see it evolve. It’s interesting to see how the consumer reacts. In web sales, we are starting to see centers of concentration, customers who come back to us. »

The northeast of the country as well as the states of California, Texas and Florida are the places where the company sends the most packages. The presence of a “Quebec diaspora” in these places explains this request, according to Mr. Leblanc.

Despite everything, it will not be tomorrow that Simons stores will appear on the American landscape. The big boss wants to take his time. “We have always been patient. »