Founder of Indigo Books and Music, Heather Reisman, outside their locations at Sherway Gardens, in Toronto, on Sept., 10, 2020.Christopher Katsarov/(Christopher Katsarov/The Globe
Heather Reisman, who built Canada’s largest book seller even as Amazon reshaped the business around her, is stepping away from her role as chief executive of Indigo Books & Music Inc., with the promotion of Peter Ruis to the top job.
Mr. Ruis joined Indigo as president in February of last year before being appointed to the CEO role on Monday.
But the announcement is not a retirement for the company’s founder. Ms. Reisman, 74, will take on the role of executive chair and “will continue to drive Indigo’s vision and growth strategy while also remaining deeply involved in the business,” according to a statement the company released on Tuesday.
“Heather’s role will be around the future vision for the business, the long-term point of view,” Mr. Ruis said in an interview. “My role is the day-to-day, running the business, the operational strategy, and really executing against that broader vision.”
That vision includes international expansion, Mr. Ruis said, noting that Indigo’s sole U.S. store, in New Jersey, is currently its best-performing location. The company plans to build more stores in the United States, and possibly in Europe over time, he said, as well as expanding its global e-commerce sales.
“We hope to double this business over the next five to 10 years and make it truly international,” Mr. Ruis said.
But in the near term, the Toronto-based retailer is still recovering from the effects of the pandemic, which decimated retail sales. And the company was struggling before the global shock of COVID-19, recording a net loss in the fiscal year ended March 30, 2019. It continued to lose money through fiscal 2020 and 2021, before reporting a profit of $3.3-million on revenues of $1.1-billion in its most recent fiscal year ended April 2.
Indigo is also grappling with shifting consumer habits and macroeconomic pressures, including supply chain snags, higher fuel costs and inflation. These factors contributed to a wider net loss in its first quarter this year compared to last. The company is preparing for the crucial holiday period, which is typically when Indigo makes most of its money for the year.
Indigo also announced on Tuesday that its chief customer and digital officer, Andrea Limbardi, has been appointed president.
Ms. Reisman opened the first big-box Indigo bookstore in Burlington, Ont., 25 years ago, on Sept. 4, 1997. In 2001, the company merged with Chapters, becoming the largest book retailer in the country.
Like other bookstore chains, Indigo faced increasing competitive pressure from the explosive growth of Amazon. For many years, Indigo has coped with those changes by expanding its focus, selling general merchandise such as housewares, children’s toys, candles, pens and accessories including wallets and scarves. In the past two years, this strategy has accelerated with the launch of more private-label brands – such as a homeware line called OUI, paper and stationery brand Nota, apparel and accessories collection Love & Lore, and kids’ furniture and decor line Mini Maison.
General merchandise now makes up nearly half of Indigo’s sales, and Mr. Ruis said he believes such products help to draw customers into stores more frequently than books, which are easier to buy online.
“COVID accelerated a lot of changes across the industry,” retail industry consultant George Minakakis said. “If I were in their shoes, I’d say you’re going to have to scale back the number of stores. There are just too many of them. And how are you going to enhance the experience so people really, really want to come back and shop?”
Drawing people into stores is a priority: While retail traffic has improved over the past year, it is still 20 per cent to 30 per cent lower than it was three years ago, Mr. Ruis said, but he expects further recovery as people return to offices more frequently.
In the early days of the pandemic, Indigo closed 15 of its smaller-format stores, and has since pared back another 10 locations: As of the first quarter, the retailer had 172 stores across Canada.
“I’m still a great believer in stores,” Mr. Ruis said. “It’s obviously going to be, still, a digital revolution, but we’ve got 170-odd stores, and I think we’re going to build some more over the next five years.”
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HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.
Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.
The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.
Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
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