Limited Brands Inc. (NYSE:LTD) is the only major retailer currently negotiating to lease the 30,000-square-foot former HMV location on Robson Street, several sources have told Business in Vancouver.
Limited Brands owns marquee brands Victoria’s Secret, Victoria’s Secret Pink, La Senza and Bath and Body Works.
Neither the company nor Morguard Investments Ltd. retail asset manager Bob Nicholson would comment on the rumours.
Limited Brands opened its first four Canadian Victoria’s Secret stores in 2009. It added four more in 2010 and another eight in 2011, including the first Metro Vancouver location at the Vancouver International Airport in November.
“Based on the success we have experienced in Canada, we plan to open an additional three Bath and Body Works stores, five Victoria’s Secret stores and two Victoria’s Secret Pink stores in Canada in 2012,” Limited Brands noted in its March 23 annual report.
“Victoria’s Secret is a major brand that is expected to come to the City of Vancouver,” Thomas Consultants managing principal and retail consultant Michael Penalosa told BIV.
Still, he is surprised that Victoria’s Secret would want a 30,000-square-foot location given that most of its stores are in the 5,000-square-foot range.
But Penalosa added that leasing the HMV space would make sense if the company wants to make it a flagship store with Victoria’s Secret on the main floor and a Victoria’s Secret Pink outlet downstairs.
Both he and Dig360 retail analyst David Gray doubt that Limited Brands would also add a La Senza boutique to the location.
“The visibility of the store becomes branding,” Gray said. “The Burrard and Robson site is one that can be a big sales store but not the most profitable location because it costs a lot to operate. It will attract brands that want to have a showpiece.”
He added that there are strong independent operators in the lingerie sector such as Diane’s Lingerie on south Granville Street and Scarlet Lingerie & Indulgence on Granville Street downtown.
However, the competitive sector has its casualties.
U.K.-based luxury lingerie seller Agent Provocateur expanded to Vancouver’s chic Alberni Street, across from Tiffany, in 2007 through franchisee Jean Florendo.
She held Canadian rights to the brand and had expected to expand Agent Provocateur to Ontario and Quebec. But Florendo’s KKBL No. 542 Ventures Ltd., which did business as Agent Provocateur (Vancouver), filed for bankruptcy in March 2009, and the store closed.
In March, Agent Provocateur opened a 150-square-foot corporately owned boutique in Holt Renfrew’s Pacific Centre location.
“Agent Provocateur’s closure might have been because of the cost of the space. Also, they didn’t brand themselves well,” Gray said. “A lot of these global brands have an overinflated sense of their name awareness, so they come in from out of country but they don’t think to build the brand.”
Insiders have told BIV that Victoria’s Secret has also been negotiating to lease a location at Pacific Centre.
“Right now, I’m not able to say that we do have a deal with Victoria’s Secret [at Pacific Centre],” Cadillac Fairview leasing representative Karen Hachey told BIV. “There are discussions across Canada for future deals.”
Limited Brands, which generated US$10.4 billion in sales in the fiscal year that ended January 28, has operated a La Senza location at Pacific Centre since it bought that Montreal-based company for $710 million in early 2007.
Limited Brands differentiates its lingerie by first targeting young women and teenagers with products at its 300-location La Senza chain.
It then encourages them to graduate into being customers at Victoria’s Secret Pink stores by the time they’re in college and then to buy more expensive Victoria’s Secret product lines such as Angels, Very Sexy and Body by Victoria.
La Senza’s competition at Pacific Centre includes the 41-year-old Vancouver based La Jolie Madame, which targets mature women with exclusively European-made intimate apparel. •
Express takes 8,200-square-foot space at Pacific Centre; American Eagle expanding
One company that Limited Brands Inc. (NYSE:LTD) formerly owned, Express (NYSE:EXPR), has chosen Pacific Centre for its first B.C. location.
Limited Brands sold 75% of Express in 2007. Between May 2010 and July 2011, it sold its 14.8% stake in Express and donated its remaining 10.2% to its charitable foundation.
Express, which is based in Columbus, Ohio, opened its first Canadian store in Toronto in September 2011. Since then, the apparel chain with more than 550 locations in the U.S. has been on a tear, opening another Toronto store and three in Calgary.
Express, which sells men’s and women’s clothing, will move to the 8,200-square-foot location in Pacific Centre that formerly housed women’s dress-seller Jacob.
Cadillac Fairview’s Karen Hachey said Jacob has already moved into a smaller 3,700-square-foot location in the mall.
Other moves at Pacific Centre include American Eagle expanding from its longtime 4,100-square-foot corner location to a larger 5,700-square-foot space.
Mexx plans to vacate its longtime 4,780-square-foot space in the mall later this month. •
