furniture stores

Sears 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

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 & Co. 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.

The Hudson's Bay Company acquired Simpson's in 1978. Due to 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.

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.

In 1999, Sears Canada acquired The T. Eaton Company Limited. With this acquisition, Sears Canada acquired a number of Eaton's stores and the trademark name. For the first time in its history, Sears Canada held the leases to a number of prime downtown locations 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" 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.

In 2005, Sears Card services was outsourced to JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., but the Sears points system was retained by the retailer. 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.

Recent news

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 priviledges by Sears Holdings Limited.^[2]

See also

• List of Canadian department stores

News links

1. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2006/08/08/sears-tues.html?ref=rss
2. ^ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060809.wr-sears09/BNStory/Business

External links

• Sears Canada