Two Vancouver fashion houses that share the Edward Chapman name as part of their brands are each celebrating being in business 125 years.
And, despite having what has sometimes been a fractious relationship, the owners of each business plan to put memories of a bitter lawsuit behind them and use lessons of longevity to survive for decades to come.
Edward Chapman Woman appears set for expansion; owner John Rea told Business in Vancouver that he is debt-free, that each of his three stores is profitable and that he is considering opening a new store or having suppliers open stores within his Granville Street store at West 10th Avenue.
Edward Chapman Ltd. owner Edward Chapman, in contrast, told BIV that if he were to make any changes to his single-store business, it would be to downsize from the current 6,420-square-foot store on West Pender Street to a store with less than a quarter the space.
The only reason he is staying for now in what he calls “way more space than we need” is that he owns the 17,000-square-foot building, which houses the store and is designed for a single tenant.
Chapman’s focus has recently been more on his other ventures, such as owning and managing various commercial and rental properties. So his biggest lesson on survival is to diversify business holdings.
Both Edward Chapman Woman and Edward Chapman Ltd. trace their origins to 1890, when Chapman’s great-grandfather, who had the same name, bought the Page Ponsford Bros. clothing store and rechristened it after himself.
Chapman then sponsored Rea’s grandfather, Ernest Rea, to immigrate to Canada from Ireland in 1910 and work at the business.
Subsequent generations of both the Chapman and the Rea families worked in the business.
The fork in the road came in 1959. That’s when the Rea family agreed to focus on selling women’s clothing through a new corporate entity that would use the Edward Chapman brand.
The Chapmans agreed to restrict clothing selection at the original company to menswear.
Things worked well for decades, but when the current Edward Chapman bought out siblings and, in 2002, decided to sell both men’s and women’s clothing, the action prompted Rea to sue him.
(John Rae points to some entries in an old ledger, which tracked all sales, and was passed down from his grandfather, Ernest Rae | Glen Korstrom)
Rea won the lawsuit and was awarded court costs, but the ordeal still dealt him a financial blow.
“Do you know what court costs are?” Rea asked during an interview in the basement of his 5,500-square-foot flagship store at the corner of West 10th Avenue and Granville Street. “They’re a mathematical formula. It’s a fraction of what you actually spend.”
Rea, who started working in the business in 1976 and bought the venture from his uncle in 1980, estimates that even after getting paid for court costs, the legal action cost him $500,000. He would do it again, he said, out of principle and out of respect for his uncle, and previous owner, Davie Rea, as well as his grandfather.
Chapman, however, maintains that the judge erred and that there was never any agreement that Edward Chapman Ltd. would not sell women’s clothes in the future. Regardless, Chapman has stuck to selling menswear.
Rea swallowed the $500,000 hit in 2006, when he operated five stores: one in West Vancouver, two at Oakridge, one at the corner of West Pender and Howe streets and the flagship on South Granville.
At that time, big change was just around the corner.
When the global economic downturn started to take hold in 2008, Rea had embarked on a rebranding campaign – one aimed at recasting the company’s fashions as “ageless and modern.”
He changed his company’s name to the current Edward Chapman Woman from Edward Chapman Ladies Shop.
He also spent more than $600,000 to renovate stores and develop other components of his new brand, such as an altered logo, new bags and other modifications.
“Our whole direction was refocused on reinvesting and reinventing ourselves,” he said.
Rea persisted with the rebranding even though the economy was in the tank and his stores were losing money.
“I believed that if we went ahead with the rebranding, that when the economy did return, our level of brand awareness would be much more recognizable,” he said.
One of the lessons that came out of those tough times, he said, is that it’s important to avoid getting sidetracked by circumstances.
“Don’t try to control what you can’t control,” Rea said. “For example, don’t blame the weather.”
One of the things that he could control was whether to shut stores. Rent hikes made the Oakridge stores unviable, so Rea closed them.
He also closed his West Pender Street store.
He liked the demographics and lease costs in South Surrey, so he opened a store in that area’s Grandview Corners.
Rea also repositioned his West Vancouver store and made it a franchise of German designer Gerry Weber, who is one of his largest suppliers.
Several other suppliers want to open stores within his Granville Street store, he said – something that would likely mean that he could return or swap unsold merchandise more easily.
“We’ve come out the other side,” Rea said. “We’re debt-free and profitable and the opportunities are there.”
Chapman, meanwhile, is staying the course and admits that his real estate businesses are far more profitable than his retail venture.
A rent hike prompted him to close the Edward Chapman store in Kerrisdale in 2012. He has no plans to change operations at his West Pender Street store.
“I wouldn’t call the store a side venture,” he said. “It’s a big part of my family heritage and history. It’s important, but in this day and age, making money as an independent clothing retailer, it’s tough.” •
