Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH to Debut in Canada with 3 New Stores

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Jerry Storch, Hudson’s Bay Co.

More than 20 years after Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5th hit the retail scene at an outlet mall in Pennsylvania, the luxury-value offshoot of upscale department store Saks Fifth Avenue will make its entrée into Canada. Toronto-based Hudson’s Bay Co.Jerry Storch Hudson’s Bay Co., owner of the Saks chain since 2013, will open three stores accounting for 95,500 square feet of retail space in Ontario.

Oh, Canada! “We continue to believe there is a substantial opportunity for Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks OFF 5TH in Canada,” Jerry Storch, CEO of HBC, said during the company’s fourth quarter 2014 earnings call in April. “We are excited about opening our first two Saks Fifth Avenue locations in Toronto in the spring of 2016 and anticipate opening as many as seven full-line Saks Fifth Avenue stores and up to 25 OFF 5TH locations in the coming years.”

One OFF 5TH store will sprout up in metropolitan Toronto at Vaughan Mills, offering 35,000 square feet of shopping space across from the Wonderland amusement park in Vaughan. A second location featuring 32,500 square feet is planned for the Outlet Collection at Niagara in Niagara-on-the-Lake, sited roughly 15 miles across the border from the OFF 5TH store in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The off-price designer fashions chain will also open at Tanger Outlets Ottawa, in Kanata, in a 28,000-square-foot space.

HBC is just getting started. “This [off-price] segment of the market continues to grow at a much faster pace than the rest of the retail industries, and we believe this represents a significant opportunity for us,” Storch continued during the call. “Within the segment, Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH is well positioned with a value proposition that delivers true fashion and real value. As a result, we will continue to add new store locations across North America and expand our online presence.”