July - Mindfield

HOURLY LABOUR
MARKET INSIGHTS
JULY 2015 EDITION
HOURLY LABOUR MARKET INSIGHTS
JULY 2015 EDITION
This report is primarily focused on the hourly labour market in North America, giving an overview of key trends, insights and
news articles surrounding this segment.
In July, Canadian employment had little change with +6,600 jobs added and an unemployment rate holding steady
at 6.8% for the sixth consecutive month. Compared with 12 months earlier, employment increased by 161,000 or
0.9% as a result of more full-time work. Within July, employment increased among men aged 25 to 54, while
there was little change within the other demographic groups.
The US unemployment rate remained steady at 5.3% which in addition to last month, is the lowest rate since May
2008. The increase in employment was led by Retail Trade adding 36,000 jobs in July, and a total of 322,000 jobs
over the last 12 months.
EXPANSION
Dufresne Group, largest operator of
Ashley Furniture HomeStores in North
America, is looking to expand into
Southwestern Ontario with 16 stores.
Currently they operate 17 locations in
Canada and 33 Ashley stores in the
USA.
BC-based grocer, Save-On-Foods, is
looking to expand its Canadian
footprint by opening 3 locations in
Winnipeg next fall. This will create 400
to 500 jobs for local residents.
Aesop, an upscale skin care brand
from Australia, has opened two new
Canadian locations in Vancouver and
Toronto. A third location is set to
open in Montreal soon.
Sprint adds 1,435 co-branded
Radioshack stores in July making it one
of the largest retailers in the USA with a
total of 4,500 locations. About 300 stores
will be completely renovated.
Outdoor sporting goods retailer,
Cabela's, is opening a location in
Calgary later this year. They are
looking to fill about 200 positions at
this location.
Dick's Sporting Goods created a
new banner in the women's
activewear market, Chelsea
Collective. These stores will
operate as small boutique shops
and the first two locations are set
to open in Virginia and Pittsburgh in
August.
HOURLY LABOUR MARKET INSIGHTS
JULY 2015 EDITION !
RETRACTION
American Apparel is restructuring and
planning to cut costs by $30M to
turnaround the business over the next
18 months. This will result in closing
stores and layoffs, however exact
numbers have not been disclosed.
Loblaw Companies will close 52
unprofitable stores across all of its
banners over the next year. No details
pertaining to which locations and
banners have been released.
ACQUISTION
Canada's easyhome Ltd. acquired all
14 Canadian Rent-A-Center (RAC)
locations. Additionally, easyhome
signed a 3 year non-compete clause
with RAC after selling its US locations
to the American leasing company.
Struggling retailer Comark’s 300 stores
were recently acquired by Pacific West
Commercial Corporate. Resulting in
3,000 employees at Ricki's Bootlegger
and cleo stores across Canada that will
not be laid off.
In order to compete effectively against
US home-renovation companies,
Quebec-based Rona has purchased all
20 of its franchise locations in Quebec
and Ottawa. Now Rona operates 233
corporate locations and 275 affiliate
stores in Canada.
Grafton Fraser Inc, private owner of
chains like Tip Top Tailors and Mr. Big &
Tall, acquired all 35 Canadian locations
of Jones New York. However all US
Jones New York locations are to close.
DOWNTOWN
Sherson Group Inc. entered
bankruptcy protection as it tries to
restructure. They are Canada's largest
shoe retailers, owning 48 Nine West
shoe stores and the Canadian rights to
Anne Klein, Bandolino, Easy Spirit, and
Enzo Angiolini.
Le Chateau is facing tough
competition and looking to
restructure and realign their stores.
Le Chateau has closed 15 Canadian
stores over the last 3 years.
UK clothing retailer, French
Connection's presence is slowly
disappearing. Losing momentum, this
brand currently has 5 locations open in
Canada, 3 of which are in the Greater
Toronto Area.
HOURLY LABOUR MARKET INSIGHTS
JULY 2015 EDITION !
EXECUTIVE CHANGES
Miguel Almeida is the new EVP, Digital
at Lululemon. He moved from
Walgreens where he was most
recently the Group VP of Digital
commerce and mobile solutions.
Jim Dores, CEO of Thrifty Foods retired
at the end of July and will be replaced
by Lorne MacLean who was the SVP
Operations and Optimization at Sobeys.
Ronald Boire, CEO and President of
Sears Canada Inc has left the company
to explore other job opportunities in
the USA. He is replaced by Brandon
Stranzl who will fill in as the temporary
Executive Chairman.
Eric Williams has been promoted from
EVP of Operations to COO at CKE
Restaurants. CKE Restaurants is the
holding company of banners like Carl's
Jr., Hardee's, and Green Burrito
chains.
FRANCHISE
Hurricane Grill & Wings is expanding
throughout the USA. Three locations
recently opened in Florida, Iowa and
Marland, raising the total operating
retail count to 72 locations.
Smoothie King is expanding its reach
to Chicago and New Jersey, and has
plans to open 105 new locations across
the US. Currently the smoothie
franchisor has 700 locations.
Over the next several years, Dunkin'
Donuts has plans to open 51 new
restaurants in Virginia and West
Virginia.
GPS Hospitality acquires 60 Burger
King Restaurants in the state of
Michigan. All of these locations come
from TEAM Schostak Family
Restaurants and raises GPS
Hospitality's BK store count to 196 in
the USA.
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