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Business
Le Chateau's bankruptcy comeback: Canadian retailer returns online – CTV News
TORONTO –
In its heyday, Le Chateau had nine stores along a roughly three-kilometre stretch of Ste-Catherine Street in Montreal.
The Canadian retailer was a staple of nearly every mall and shopping district in the country, with 240 locations at its peak.
“The more sales we made, the more stores we opened and the more stores we opened, the more sales we made,” says Franco Rocchi, a Le Chateau executive that started with the clothing brand four decades ago as a sales clerk at one of the Ste-Catherine Street locations.
“That was the retail formula back then and it worked. It was all about brick and mortar — not only for Le Chateau but for Aldo, Gap and others throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. We were in every primary market, secondary market and tertiary market.”
Le Chateau defined edgy clubwear, formal dresses and fashionable office attire for decades in Canada, but started facing increasing competition from foreign retailers like H&M and Zara in the early 2000s.
By 2014, Le Chateau was losing money. But the company had a plan: Close 100 stores over five years, with a return to profitability in 2020.
“We did it the honourable way,” Rocchi says. “We had leases, we had handshakes, we had good relationships with our landlords. We thought we could navigate the five-year plan.”
But the exit strategy the retailer spent half a decade working toward hit a major snag.
“The plan included a turnaround, a return to profitability,” Rocchi says. “But the irony was that magic year we worked towards for five years was 2020.”
Pandemic shutdowns not only shuttered the retailer’s stores throughout 2020. Proms, weddings, galas and parties — key drivers of the retailer’s dress sales — were outright cancelled.
Le Chateau filed for creditor protection in October 2020, joining the ranks of dozens of big-name retailers that buckled under the weight of COVID-19 restrictions.
In June, Suzy’s Inc. — the company behind women’s clothing brand Suzy Shier — stepped in to buy Le Chateau’s intellectual property and now it’s making a comeback with the online launch of an evening wear collection ahead of the holidays.
The so-called glamour capsule unveiled Tuesday offers shoppers a hint of what to expect with the brand’s official relaunch under its new owner set for spring.
Rocchi — now senior marketing director of Suzy/Le Chateau — says the curated, limited-edition collection highlights the brand’s focus on high-fashion occasion wear.
“Even as we were going through the challenge of closing stores, we actually started to see significant success in our dress business,” he says. “We were seeing year-over-year growth in our occasion business. We found our sweet spot, which was beautiful dresses at a great price point.”
The full collection planned for 2022 will include footwear, accessories and menswear, with women’s dress wear available in select Suzy Shier stores across the country.
“We will have stores within stores at about 35 Suzy locations across the country,” Rocchi explains. “It won’t just be Le Chateau products pushed into Suzy stores. It will be a clearly demarcated beautiful shop, so customers will know it’s Le Chateau.”
He adds that there will be no “cannibalization” between the brands, as Suzy Shier is focused on casual, weekend and work wear.
“We like to say our customers can wear Suzy by day and Le Chateau by night,” Rocchi says.
Indeed, the Suzy Shier website appears divided in half, with a model wearing a sweater and items like warm hats and gloves on one side, while a model is dressed in an evening gown on the other side along with items like sparkly “party tops.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2021
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Business
Oil Firms Doubtful Trans Mountain Pipeline Will Start Full Service by May 1st
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Oil companies planning to ship crude on the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada are concerned that the project may not begin full service on May 1 but they would be nevertheless obligated to pay tolls from that date.
In a letter to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), Suncor Energy and other shippers including BP and Marathon Petroleum have expressed doubts that Trans Mountain will start full service on May 1, as previously communicated, Reuters reports.
Trans Mountain Corporation, the government-owned entity that completed the pipeline construction, told Reuters in an email that line fill on the expanded pipeline would be completed in early May.
After a series of delays, cost overruns, and legal challenges, the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline will open for business on May 1, the company said early this month.
“The Commencement Date for commercial operation of the expanded system will be May 1, 2024. Trans Mountain anticipates providing service for all contracted volumes in the month of May,” Trans Mountain Corporation said in early April.
The expanded pipeline will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000 bpd to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia on the Pacific Coast.
The Federal Government of Canada bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) from Kinder Morgan back in 2018, together with related pipeline and terminal assets. That cost the federal government $3.3 billion (C$4.5 billion) at the time. Since then, the costs for the expansion of the pipeline have quadrupled to nearly $23 billion (C$30.9 billion).
The expansion project has faced continuous delays over the years. In one of the latest roadblocks in December, the Canadian regulator denied a variance request from the project developer to move a small section of the pipeline due to challenging drilling conditions.
The company asked the regulator to reconsider its decision, and received on January 12 a conditional approval, avoiding what could have been another two-year delay to start-up.
Business
Tesla profits cut in half as demand falls
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Tesla profits slump by more than a half
Tesla has announced its profits fell sharply in the first three months of the year to $1.13bn (£910m), compared with $2.51bn in 2023.
It caps a difficult period for the electric vehicle (EV) maker, which – faced with falling sales – has announced thousands of job cuts.
Boss Elon Musk remains bullish about its prospects, telling investors the launch of new models would be brought forward.
Its share price has risen but analysts say it continues to face significant challenges, including from lower-cost rivals.
The company has suffered from falling demand and competition from cheaper Chinese imports which has led its stock price to collapse by 43% over 2024.
Figures for the first quarter of 2024 revealed revenues of $21.3bn, down on analysts’ predictions of just over $22bn.
But the decision by Tesla to bring forward the launch of new models from the second half of 2025 boosted its shares by nearly 12.5% in after-hours trading.
It did not reveal pricing details for the new vehicles.
However Mr Musk made clear he also grander ambitions, touting Tesla’s AI credentials and plans for self-driving vehicles – even going as far as to say considering it to be just a car company was the “wrong framework.”
“If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy I think they should not be an investor,” he said.
Such sentiments have been questioned by analysts though, with Deutsche Bank saying driverless cars face “technological, regulatory and operational challenges.”
Some investors have called for the company to instead focus on releasing a lower price, mass-market EV.
However, Tesla has already been on a charm offensive, trying to win over new customers by dropping its prices in a series of markets in the face of falling sales.
It also said its situation was not unique.
“Global EV sales continue to be under pressure as many carmakers prioritize hybrids over EVs,” it said.
Despite plans to bring forward new models originally planned for next year the firm is cutting its workforce.
Tesla said it would lose 3,332 jobs in California and 2,688 positions in Texas, starting mid-June.
The cuts in Texas represent 12% of Tesla’s total workforce of almost 23,000 in the area where its gigafactory and headquarters are located.
However, Mr Musk sought to downplay the move.
“Tesla has now created over 30,000 manufacturing jobs in California!” he said in a post on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
Another 285 jobs will be lost in New York.
Tesla’s total workforce stood at more than 140,000 late last year, up from around 100,000 at the end of 2021, according to the company’s filings with US regulators.
Musk’s salary
The car firm is also facing other issues, with a struggle over Mr Musk’s compensation still raging on.
On Wednesday, Tesla asked shareholders to vote for a proposal to accept Mr Musk’s compensation package – once valued at $56bn – which had been rejected by a Delaware judge.
The judge found Tesla’s directors had breached their fiduciary duty to the firm by awarding Mr Musk the pay-out.
Due to the fall in Tesla’s stock value, the compensation package is now estimated to be around $10bn less – but still greater than the GDP of many countries.
In addition, Tesla wants its shareholders to agree to the firm being moved from Delaware to Texas – which Mr Musk called for after the judge rejected his payday.
Business
Stock market today: Nasdaq futures pop, Tesla surges after earnings with more heavyweights on deck
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Tech stocks rose on Wednesday, outstripping the broader market as investors welcomed Tesla’s (TSLA) cheaper car pledge and waited for the next rush of corporate earnings.
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose roughly 0.6%, coming off a sharp closing gain. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up 0.2%, continuing a rebound from its longest losing streak of 2024, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.1%.
Tesla shares jumped nearly 12% after the EV maker’s vow to speed up the launch of more affordable models eclipsed its quarterly earnings and revenue miss. That cheered up investors worried about growth amid a strategy shift to robotaxis and the planned cancellation of a cheaper model.
The results from the first “Magnificent Seven” to report have intensified the already high hopes for Big Tech earnings, that the megacaps can revive the rally in stocks they powered. The spotlight is now on Meta’s (META) report due after the market close, as the Facebook owner’s shares rose after the Senate voted for a potential ban on rival TikTok. Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) next up on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Boeing (BA) reported better than expected first quarter results before the opening bell with a loss per share of $1.13, narrower than the $1.72 estimated by Wall Street. Shares rose about 2% in morning trade.
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