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  • Thread starter CanadianNational
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Northern Light said:
Confirmation that Sears Scarborough Town Centre and Fairview locations are now slated for closure.

Not much left to pick off the bones. (with all due sympathy to front-line staff)

https://www.thestar.com/business/20...uding-fairview-and-scarborough-locations.html
Click to expand...

So what was the point of their Off-Price concept, the Queen West pop-up shop and What The Sears? renovations when there are no stores left to visit?
I highly doubt anyone in Toronto will make the trek out to the Boondocks to shop at the remaining stores. What a waste of time and money for everyone. Sears 2.0 "Culture of Wow", indeed.
 
Half measures. Sears Canada has seemed to get new a few young executives with new ideas, but there's no follow-through on them - probably because there's not enough energy or money to implement them, and Uncle Eddie skimming off as much as he can. That has all probably led to the revolving door of CEOs.
 
If it wasnt written on the walls that Sears Canada is dead before, it certainly is now. When they are closing 2 of their highest grossing stores in STC and Fairview, there is absolutely 0 percent chance of them turning it around irrespective of whatever retail analysts are saying.

To be honest I think most of them are being modest when they talk about Sears going down, but make no mistake about the fact that it's over.
 
Yep. It's over.

The other department stores closed, besides Scarborough Town Centre, Fairview Mall, Oakville Place, and Lime Ridge Mall are:

Nanaimo North Town Centre
Brentwood Town Centre in Burnaby
Kelowna
Polo Park, Winnipeg
Fairview Pointe-Claire (Montreal's West Island)
Avalon Mall, St. John's


Polo Park and Fairview Pointe-Claire are very strong malls in their markets. Polo Park is the most prestigious mall between Toronto and Calgary.

Sears Canada is dumping the rest of their best properties. It's over.
 
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Yup. https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/09/30/what-if-no-one-wants-to-buy-sears-canada.html

There's nothing left for anyone to buy at this point. I knew it was over when they started selling off leases for their most prominent locations a few years ago. I seem to recall one exec saying words to the effect that the stores were among their most successful, but the value of the lease was greater, so it made business sense. Well, if your most successful locations are still worth less than the leased space, isn't that basically admitting the business isn't operating as a going concern?
 
ShonTron said:
Polo Park and Fairview Pointe-Claire are very strong malls in their markets. Polo Park is the most prestigious mall between Toronto and Calgary.

Sears Canada is dumping the rest of their best properties. It's over.
Click to expand...

Yep. Re their Avalon Mall location, St. John’s was basically a captive market for them as the only traditional department store left in Newfoundland. During the oil boom a few years ago, this might have created an opening for Hudson’s Bay to come in, but it may be a longshot in the current economic environment there.
 
Well, this is interesting. Over the weekend, we learned that the landlords' various low-ball bids for the 11 leases at key malls like Fairview and Polo Park would generate more cash for these stores than Stranzl's bid. Also, it was a clear indication of what Canada's largest mall operators think about Stranzl's highly leveraged bid to keep the company going as an off-price retailer.

In this morning's Globe, Stranzl all but admits in a letter from his lawyer that his business plan doesn't work if these 11 leases are sold off.

I haven't been following that closely, but this morning's article is also the first time I'm seeing that they have a buyer for Corbeil. Surprised it wasn't sold ages ago.

Sears Canada sidelining bid to keep retailer afloat, executive chairman says
Marina Strauss, The Globe and Mail, 3 October 2017
 
Bruno Republic said:
Gah. That article is behind a paywall.
Click to expand...

Sorry. Here are some key quotes:

In a letter this week from his lawyer obtained by The Globe and Mail, Mr. Stranzl says Sears's decision to sell its "crown jewels" – among them its 11 best stores – and let go of 1,200 more employees was made without consulting him even though the stores were included in the bid he is leading on behalf of a management group to keep Sears running. Mr. Stranzl estimates the 11 Sears stores whose leases are now earmarked to be sold – if the court gives its blessing to the sale agreements on Wednesday – would contribute more than 90 per cent of earnings (before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) in the first year of his business plan to keep Sears and save thousands of jobs, the letter says.

Sears has been racing to close deals to sell its assets, making it more difficult for Mr. Stranzl's offer to get off the ground. Sears says it rejected his initial bid and a subsequent one because their financing and due diligence conditions were not firm enough.

Mr. Stranzl's management bid is the only one among about 70 that Sears received that contemplates the retailer continuing as a going concern, while the others would break it up and sell off assets in pieces to others.
Click to expand...

On Monday, Sears said it would ask Ontario Superior Court on Wednesday to approve an agreement to sell its profitable Corbeil appliance division. Late on Friday, the retailer filed a flurry of other deals. The company has not disclosed proposed sale prices.

The agreements include selling the 11 store leases, a distribution centre in Calgary (to Indigo Books & Music Inc.), rights to the Viking trademarks (to Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd.), its transport division, and three home services businesses. Sears will ask the court to give the nod to all those agreements.
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Mr. Stranzl asked for Monday's meeting with Sears and its advisers, suggesting his bid's purchase price would have to drop because of Sears's deals to divest its best assets.

His bid of about $300-million would be secured by inventory and owned properties and entail about $350-million in assumed debt, sources have said.
Click to expand...
 
Some key quotes of the article:

"Mr. Stranzl says Sears's decision to sell its "crown jewels" – among them its 11 best stores – and let go of 1,200 more employees was made without consulting him even though the stores were included in the bid he is leading on behalf of a management group to keep Sears running. Mr. Stranzl estimates the 11 Sears stores whose leases are now earmarked to be sold – if the court gives its blessing to the sale agreements on Wednesday – would contribute more than 90 per cent of earnings (before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) in the first year of his business plan to keep Sears and save thousands of jobs"

"Sears says it rejected his initial bid and a subsequent one because their financing and due diligence conditions were not firm enough."

"On Monday, Sears said it would ask Ontario Superior Court on Wednesday to approve an agreement to sell its profitable Corbeil appliance division. Late on Friday, the retailer filed a flurry of other deals."

"Agreements include selling the 11 store leases, a distribution centre in Calgary (to Indigo Books & Music Inc.), rights to the Viking trademarks (to Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd.), its transport division, and three home services businesses."

"His bid of about $300-million would be secured by inventory and owned properties and entail about $350-million in assumed debt, sources have said."

EDIT: Skeezix posted a pretty informative post above
 
Unfortunate that they'd essentially dead. I actually liked the Fairview Mall location (for pricing, not the shopping experience). I guess the renovation didn't really take off. Too little, too late.
 
Paige Ellis at BNN has been live tweeting today from the Sears court hearing. Highlights so far:

  • Stranzl submitted a new bid yesterday. Sears' lawyers believes that cash crunch means they have only days to consider bid.
  • If the bid fails, liquidation likely to start Oct. 19.
  • Court adjourned discussion of sale of Viking trademarks to Canadian Tire. No word yet on other assets like Corbeil, etc.
  • No word yet on the 11 leases.
  • Communications among stakeholders (monitor, landlords, terminated employees, etc.) apparently terrible.
ETA:
  • In the afternoon, the court approved the sale of the 11 leases (and thus the closure of those stores), as well as the sale of the Calgary distribution centre to Indigo.
ETA2:
  • Next court date is Oct. 13, and that's how long Stranzl has to sell his bid. He has less than 10 days to make it work. Otherwise, liquidation.
ETA3:
 
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So, it seems that Sears could be having bankruptcy sales right at the start of the holiday season.
 
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