Zellers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Zellers, Inc. | |
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| Type | Discount department store |
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| Founded | 1931 |
| Headquarters | Brampton, Ontario |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Clothing, grocery, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares. |
| Website | www.zellers.com |
Zellers Inc. is Canada's second largest chain of discount department stores (after Wal-Mart), with 282 locations in communities across Canada.[1] Zellers is headquartered in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ontario, and is a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company ("HBC").
The company competes on an average price level on par with Wal-Mart, and can be compared to Target in the United States.
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[edit] History
The company was founded in 1931 by Walter P. Zeller as "stores for thrifty Canadians". The chain began with twelve stores. In 1978, Zellers was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company, at which time it was headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. In 1991, Zellers acquired the 51 stores of the Towers Department Stores/Bonimart chain, and converted them to Zellers stores. In 1998, Hudson's Bay Company acquired Kmart's Canadian division, and merged it with the Zeller's division to create a larger combined chain under the Zellers name. Many Kmart locations were closed, and selected sites became full Zellers outlets. Zellers also took over Kmart's Canadian head office in Brampton, Ontario at this time.
Wal-Mart surpassed Zellers to become Canada's largest department store in about March 1997.[2] Ever since Wal-Mart's entry into Canada, Zellers has had a difficult time competing, and the chain has faced declining sales and profits.
On February 28, 2006, Zellers was taken private when South Carolina businessman Jerry Zucker finalized a takeover bid on the Hudson's Bay Company.
[edit] Current operations
Today, Zellers has over 35,000 employees and it is a division of Hudson's Bay Company. The average store size is 94,000 square feet (8,700 m²). Zellers Select stores are designed for smaller markets with populations under 25,000, and the stores average 45,000 square feet (4,200 m²). Since 1998, over 50% of all stores have been renovated to the latest prototype. 228 Zellers stores have pharmacies, and 247 have a restaurant (either Zellers Family Restaurant, Zellers Family Diner, or the newest concept, Neighbourhood Market Cafe).
Over the past three years, Zellers has expanded its product assortment in the majority of stores to include big ticket items, patio furniture, electronics and ready-to-assemble furniture.
In the past few years, Zellers has made a notable push to drive sales through use of exclusive, private label merchandise. In a strategy similar to Target's, Zellers sells Mossimo, Cherokee, Sportek, "Stuff by Duff", Gloria Vanderbilt, Airwalk, House & Home, Wabasso "Design Ideas", Alfred Sung Home, Truly, MarketSquare, Beaumark, Home Studio and many other labels that can only be found in their stores in Canada. Private brands now represent over 30% of Zellers sales.
The Neighbourhood Market is Zellers' expanded section of grocery items that goes beyond just selling dry snacks and other food. Frozen and dairy aisles, including ice cream, and frozen pizza, have been added to create an easy one-stop shopping experience. This may seem unusual to many customers, and was practically unheard of in a mass merchandiser in Canada until recently. In these stores, the food assortment has been expanded by 50%. Due to the success of this format, Zellers had plans to roll out Neighbourhood Market to 30 stores by the end of 2004. Besides the stores with this new concept, the company expects to have at least another 40 stores with at least some dairy and refrigerated products, along with boxed and canned goods. Many analysts speculate that this action is in response to Wal-Mart's success in Canada. Already, about 85 Wal-Mart stores have expanded food offerings of their own, known as 'The Grocery Shelf'. Whenever a new store is built, or an old one renovated, Zellers will make Neighbourhood Market part of it. In spite of all of this, Zellers says it doesn't expect to take things to the point where it has all of the same products as a full grocery. In 2004, 24 stores were renovated to this latest prototype, and there were plans to renovate another 27 stores in 2005.
At the end of fiscal year 2003, Zellers had sales of $4.625 billion and average sales of $198/ft² ($2,131/m²).
In 2004, there were media reports that the American Target Corporation was investigating the purchase of some or all of the Hudson's Bay Company, with some columnists suggesting that Zellers might face purchase the same way Woolco was bought out by Wal-Mart in the early 1990s.
In early April 2005, three Zellers stores unveiled a new, state-of-the-art shopping cart system produced by Pflow, known as the "Cartveyor". It is designed to move carts between floors of multi-level stores and is placed in between the "up" and "down" sides of the escalator.
HBC announced in late May 2005 that as part of their sales growth plan, "The Big Ticket strategy" will be expanded to 97 Zellers stores across the country, after being piloted at select locations in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. Nine stores will offer a small assortment of appliances, 83 will offer appliances and mattress sets, and five will offer a full assortment of appliances, mattress sets and furniture. HBC is also expanding brands previously only sold at the Bay to Zellers, such as Jockey International and London Fog.
Zellers also used to have a teddy bear mascot used in their children's section named Zeddy.
[edit] Trivia
- Square One Shopping Centre, located in Mississauga, Ontario is home to Canada's largest Zellers store at 163,000 square feet. The store is also in the same mall as Canada's largest Wal Mart.
- Zellers and the Bay are major tenants in the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta.
- Zellers in store restaurants used to be named "The Skillet". Some older stores may still use this name today however the majority stores use "Zellers Family Restaurant" or "Zellers Family Diner" name.
- Zellers had started a customer loyalty program called "Club Z" in 1986. Program members earned points on the purchases they made in the store. Today, the Club Z program has evolved into the HBC Rewards program where customers can earn points for their purchases at all HBC stores and other partners.
[edit] Advertising slogans
- "Where everything starts with Z" (1970s and 1980s)
- "Where the lowest price is the Law" (1980s and 1990s)
- "Where the Lowest Price is the Law, and More"
- "Where the Lowest Price is the Law, Everyday"
- "Truly Canadian" (1998 - 2002)
- "Better and Better" (2001-2003)
- "Great things for Canada" (2005 - present. Hbc corporate slogan often used in conjunction with Olympic merchandise/campaign at all banners)
- "Everything from A to Z" (Present)
