Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

Olympic-Size Aspirations: Holt Renfrew’s grand vision.

By Steve Kaufman

The world is coming to Vancouver. That’s a statement of fact: Canada’s westernmost metropolis will host the 2010 Winter Olympics. It also sets the context for an ambitious retail strategy: Holt Renfrew, Canada’s premier fashion chain, wants its new Vancouver store, which opened earlier this summer, to impress the flow of international visitors as a world-class store, the equal of fashion flagships in Paris, London, Tokyo or New York. “Holt’s wants to make a statement for the whole world to see,” says Mark Janson, partner of Janson Goldstein LLP (New York), the architecture and design firm entrusted with that global vision.

Holt’s expectations for the success of this store are not based purely on the coming Olympics. The Canadian economy is strong (the Canadian dollar, or “looney,” was nearly on par with the U.S. dollar recently, for the first time in 30 years) and Vancouver is riding the economic boom. Its location on the Pacific Rim makes it a trucking, railroad and shipping leader. And it thrives in Canada’s heritage industries – forestry and mining – as well as in its more contemporary businesses of software development, biotechnology and movie production. Plus, there’s a vibrant international tourism. And the luxury market is burgeoning.

None of the U.S. fashion kingpins – Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys or Bloomingdale’s – has a store in Canada. But there are branded boutiques and high-end specialty retailers dotting the country’s better shopping avenues, like Bloor Street in Toronto, Sherbrooke Street in Montreal and Robson Street in Vancouver. So each of Holt Renfrew’s nine artfully crafted department stores has a competitive standard to meet. Although the previous, smaller Vancouver store was one of the most productive in the Holt Renfrew chain, this new one, across the street from the old one, is raising the ante, which explains the more than $40 million the retailer reportedly spent on the store.