MONTREAL — Supermarket giant Loblaw Cos. has launched a line of designer fashions to challenge competition from Wal-Mart Canada.
The line is named Joe Fresh Style after designer Joseph Mimran, the name behind the Club Monaco and Caban labels, as well as Holt Renfrew fashions. The line bowed last week at 40 Loblaw superstores across Canada.
The new collection will include 400 items for women and men with a top price of $35, converted from Canadian dollars, which rivals the low price points of mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart and Zellers. The line will be manufactured in Canada and China.
“Our goal with Joe Fresh Style was to create a line of clothing that is accessible and affordable to Canadians,” said Mimran, who is now under exclusive contract with Loblaw. “The level of style, quality and fit is extremely high and complemented by outstanding value.”
Loblaw has sold children’s apparel at its stores for the last five years, but this is its first move into adult clothing, just as Wal-Mart is about to open its first Canadian superstores. The company said the new line will be simple and elegant, with an Asian influence inspired by designer Alfred Sung, who has been associated with Mimran since their days at Club Monaco.
The adult apparel will take up 5,500 to 10,000 square feet of selling space, including dressing rooms, at 40 Loblaw superstores. The line will eventually be available in all 80 superstores across the country.
Loblaw has more than 1,000 corporate and franchised stores in Canada. Most are not large enough to carry the full line, but may carry some of the more popular items such as tops.
New pieces will arrive every four weeks to keep the assortment fresh and the line will be completely replaced every eight weeks.
“The price points are in our view right on the money in terms of where they need to be to compete in the discount store segment and with specialty retailers such as Reitmans,” analyst Keith Howlett of Desjardins Securities, Toronto, said in a report.
With sales of about $23.6 billion and 130,000 full- and part-time employees, Loblaw is Canada’s largest supermarket chain and one of its largest public companies, part of George Weston Ltd. That company’s chairman, Galen Weston, owns Holt Renfrew, Brown Thomas in Ireland and Selfridges in England through his private company, Wittington Investments.