Industry Retail CEO Larry Rosen (2000–) Founded 1954, Toronto, Canada | Headquarters Toronto, Canada Founder Harry Rosen Type Privately held company | |
Products High-end menswear and accessories Profiles | ||
Harry Rosen Inc. is a Canadian retail chain of 15 luxury men's clothing stores. A privately owned company, Harry Rosen accounts for 40 percent of the Canadian market in high-end menswear.
Founded by Harry Rosen in 1954, as a single 500-square-foot (46 m2) store in Cabbagetown, Toronto, Harry Rosen now operates stores in Toronto (Mink Mile (Bloor Street), Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Toronto Eaton Centre, First Canadian Place, Sherway Gardens); Mississauga (Square One Shopping Centre); Ottawa (Rideau Centre); Winnipeg (Polo Park); Montreal (Les Cours Mont-Royal); Laval (Carrefour Laval); Edmonton (West Edmonton Mall); Calgary (The Core Shopping Centre, Chinook Centre); and Vancouver (Pacific Centre, Oakridge Centre). There is an outlet store at Heartland Town Centre in Mississauga and at Tsawwassen Mills near Vancouver.
Harry Rosen stores offer several collections of fine menswear labels, including Armani, Brioni, BOSS Hugo Boss, Burberry, Canali, Dolce & Gabbana and Ermenegildo Zegna.
After working in a clothing factory and in a quality menswear store, Harry Rosen and his brother Lou open a small made-to-measure store on Toronto’s Parliament Street with a $500 down payment. By 1961, success allowed them to relocate to larger premises closer to their clientele on Richmond Street in Toronto’s Financial District. With little retailing in this area, skeptics criticize the move, but the store soon becomes a destination for customers from across Toronto, Canada, and the United States.
Rosen credits much of his early success to Stann Burkhoff. This customer of his, offered to create advertisements in exchange for two suits - one for him and one for his art director, Reid Bell. Burkhoff and Bell developed the extremely successful "Ask Harry" campaign. This campaign featured provocative text with simple, yet eye catching, graphics in a Canadian national newspaper, The Globe and Mail.
National growth began in 1981 when Harry Rosen opened the first store outside of Toronto at West Edmonton Mall. During this time, Harry Rosen began signing exclusive deals with top designers in Europe and the United States to sell their menswear in Canada. Many top designers still sell exclusively at Harry Rosen, with Tom Ford as the most recent addition.
In 1987, Harry opened a three-level, 32,000 sq ft (3,000 m2). flagship store on Toronto’s Bloor Street. The store became known for its exclusive collections of fine menswear. That same year, The Retail Council of Canada presented Harry Rosen with its first Retail Marketer of the Year Award. Harry Rosen then introduced the award-winning newspaper ad campaign featuring such celebrities as David Cronenberg, Norman Jewison, Christopher Plummer, Remy Shand, Rick Mercer and more in 1996.
Larry Rosen, Harry’s eldest son, joined the company in 1984, and after stints in store operations and buying, he became President and Chief Operating Officer in 1997. He was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 2000.
In 1997, harry magazine was launched. With two issues a year, this men’s lifestyle magazine covers fashion advice and offers readers guidance in many areas of their life.
In the fall of 2008, Harry Rosen unveiled an expansion of the Bloor Street flagship location in Toronto that represented the largest capital investment ever made by the company. This major storewide renovation added two new stories to the building, providing five floors of retail space within 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2). The chain’s flagship store at TD Square in Calgary is also doubling its size, and a second store was added in suburban Calgary at Chinook Centre in 2010.
Website
Harry Rosen began selling merchandise online on May 15, 2009 via its website. Shipping is limited to Canadian addresses.