Ottawa Hydro had a chance to talk with lounge guests about energy conservation.


Channel Communications (“larger-than-life” banners). Cayley is currently negotiating a portfolio-wide credit card contract.


Canadian trends At Ivanhoe, the specialty leasing team follows the trend advice of a fellow specialty leasing manager. Zeina Gharzouzi, specialty leasing and partnership manager at multiple centers in the Montreal area, is Ivanhoe Cambridge’s trend aficionada. According to her, retail sales have been stable in Canada and they expect to see a slight 2-3% increase by year’s end. She is noticing a growth in health and wellness products made with organic and toxin-free ingredients. Cell phones, watches, novelties and hair and beauty products are the top sellers across the Ivanhoe Cambridge portfolio. Morguard Investments, an integrated real estate firm based


in Mississauga, Ontario, is experiencing a growth spurt in specialty leasing programs with 16 permanent programs and one new outdoor program arriving in 2012 at Uptown Centre, a lifestyle center located in Victoria, British Columbia. With 158 RMUs across the portfolio, these programs were created when Jennifer Thomas, director of specialty retail leasing, formally began oversight in 2007. Thomas focuses on portfolio-wide national deal making, setting policies and procedures and training specialty leasing managers. Last year, Morguard launched a partnership with marketing


to achieve the objectives at each center. Thomas and the director of marketing work closely to drive deals and train staff. For example, last holiday season, the specialty leasing manager at St. Laurent Centre, in Ottawa, Ontario developed a partnership with the local hydro company. This company sponsored a “Holiday Lounge” in a vacant inline space. The store offered customers a place to relax, watch a movie, use free Wi-Fi; and


72 Specialty Retail Report n Winter 2011


Doing business in Canada One of the biggest challenges for U.S. retailers doing business in Canada is the government’s requirement that all retail packaging be bilingual (English and French). This can pose problems for retailers whose products have extensive instructions. Even English has slight


variations here. For example, in the United States, the word center is spelled “c-e-n-t-e-r” but Canadians use the British “c-e- n-t-r-e.” And of note to specialty retail: Retail merchandising units (RMUs) are referred to as merchandising retail units (MRUs).


Canada is the second largest country in the world in terms


of land area. Most of its population is clustered around the country’s southern edge and in four major areas: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and the province of Ontario. This presents a challenge for retailers. For both Ivanhoe Cambridge and Morguard training and coaching specialty leasing managers who are spread far and wide geographically is a difficulty they have to deal with. Thomas said she gets to “send all my specialty leasing


managers to Specialty Retail Report’s SPREE where we hold an annual corporate training meeting prior to the convention floor opening.” She looks forward to it each year, Thomas adds. Morguard uses Specialty Retail Report’s Visual Victories contest as a visual merchandising training program. Last year, one of their centers came in second place.


Transition to Canadian retail Calendar Club is an example of a U.S. retailer that has successfully expanded to the Canadian market. Several years ago, PSL joined forces with Indigo, a Canadian bookseller that had a significant market share of the holiday calendar business. In 1993, the three firms—PSL, Indigo and Calendar Club formed the Calendar Club of Canada partnership. Today they run over 200 locations throughout Canada (this year 60% are kiosk operations and 40% are temporary inline stores). John Edgar,


SpecialtyRetail.com


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