Canadians will respond to what is fresh and different about the company’s product assortment. “They do have upscale, but they certainly have a lot of product that is affordable and, to a certain extent, unique, especially their own product. That is what people are looking for, unique products, unique experi- ences, and Simons is there.” But Peter Simons understands that nothing can be taken for granted in today’s tough retail environment. Store closings have been piling up on the Canadian retail landscape as com- panies flame out, scale down, pull back or curtail operations as part of creditor protection. “Business is a fragile thing,” he says. “It is like a great orches-
tra or a great hockey team. In the end it is a lot of people coming together to accomplish something. It takes nurturing and can break down easily. You can be wiped out pretty quickly.” And much of the rationale behind the company’s upcoming expansion is that scale is needed to support the design and technology initiatives that are integral to any retailer for today’s competitive mix and for the future. Collaboration with design- ers for special products requires production and fee minimums
that can be obtained through bigger runs covered by a larger base of stores, Simons explains. The company is also busy growing its own in-house brands. The technology side is more complex as the company invests
heavily in both online shopping and fundamental manage- ment functions. “The key success factors for a business like ours are changing
very rapidly — I think that is the bottom line,” says Simons. “People are the core of our business, and fashion and design and creativity are very important elements, but if you have all those and you don’t have a sophisticated approach to your information systems, or professional management in terms of your financial planning, I don’t think you are going to survive in the future. “As a business grows, the decisions become bigger, the envi-
ronment is much more competitive and different aspects of running a world-class retailer are a lot more demanding than they used to be,” adds Simons. “It’s becoming more sophisti- cated, you have to access more mathematical tools, you’re writing more complex algorithms to run your business, you’re
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MAY 2015 | CPA MAGAZINE | 31
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