I n c u m b e n t n o . 1
Holt Renfrew
B
y the end of 2016, Holt Renfrew
Pacific Centre promises to be
40,000 square feet bigger and
even more luxurious than it
currently is. In addition to significantly
expanded jewellery, leather goods, foot-
wear and menswear collections, the store
will have a 1,000-square-foot apartment
for private showings plus an 80-seat Holts
Café tailored to Vancouver tastes.
As Holt Renfrew's Toronto-based
president, Mark Derbyshire, puts it,
Vancouver is a cosmopolitan city with
a distinct sense of style. "Luxury isn't
new to Vancouver. But I think we're
raising the ante on luxury in Vancouver
through what we're doing in this shop."
Holts sees itself as Canada's destina-
tion for specialty luxury retail, which
sets it apart from other stores. "We've
never seen ourselves as a department
store," says Derbyshire. "We see our-
selves as a specialty luxury shop that is
able to bring you unique experiences.
Our aspiration isn't about being the
biggest. Our aspirations are about being
the place where you feel comfortable—
a place that will challenge you on the
curation of product, on the experience,
on the architecture, on the in-store
experience with the sales associate."
The customer experience is designed
to be identifiably Holts yet different
in each location. While all the shops
should still feel like Holt Renfrew, says
Derbyshire, the experience in Vancou-
ver should be different from the experi-
ence in Montreal or Calgary or Toronto.
"We've built a shop there that I believe
reflects Vancouver. So it's gone and
looked at the world but it's done that
through the eyes of Vancouver.
"We've called the city home for
a very long time and made some big
investments over the last decade—and
there's lots more great things to come."
h
o
l
t
r
e
n
f
r
e
w
Brand promise
Canada's
destination for
luxury retail
190,000
Square
footage of
Vancouver
store
renovation complete
late 2016
Full-line stores
(including Vancouver)
7
500
numBer of
vancouver
employees
Brand promise
Canada's
destination for
luxury retail
UPPING UPSCAlE
Holt Renfrew's
Vancouver Apartment
will look much like
Toronto's (pictured here)
septemBer 2015 BCBusiness 59
