Zellers is set for another relaunch. Here’s what the new owners have in store

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Zellers is making a comeback — again.

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The discount retailer that’s died and been revived several times since its 1928 beginnings will get another relaunch Thursday at Londonderry Mall in Edmonton.

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The latest iteration will stick with the original’s emphasis on affordable family offerings but will pare back the kinds of merchandise sold and rethink the hulking properties Zellers once occupied.

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The new retailer will take over much smaller spaces and be stocked with men’s, women’s and kids’ apparel, as well as home goods, luggage and seasonal items, but ditch other Zellers categories like toys and pharmaceuticals.

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At the heart of the operation will be value because “that’s the one thing that never goes out of style,” said Joey Benitah, Zellers’ chief operating officer, in an interview with The Canadian Press ahead of the brand’s relaunch.

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His family has been a fixture in Canada’s retail market for the last 50 years. It’s owned clothing chains like Fairweather and International Clothiers as well as houseware brands Bombay and Bowring. In 2019, Joey and his sister Rachel launched Wyrth, a home decor store targeted at millennials with locations in the Greater Toronto Area.

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Les Ailes de la Mode Inc., a company the family owns that shares its name with a department store they once ran, acquired the Zellers name, its logo and the rights to mascot bear Zeddy, loyalty program Club Z and the Zellers portrait studio in August. Benitah wouldn’t confirm what his family paid for the rights, but court documents have suggested it could have been $100,000.

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The trademarks were bought from Hudson’s Bay, which had owned the trademarks and operated sections dedicated to the brand in its stores before HBC collapsed under the weight of $1.1 billion in debt in March.

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The chance to add Zellers to the family’s collection of brands felt like a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Benitah said.

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“We’ve always loved the brand,” he said. “We’ve always understood the value and the storied history that the brand has.”

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The family’s connections and experience in the retail world helped it move from idea to reality within three months, though the Londonderry location will be more of a teaser than final concept because Benitah is taking a phased approach to the relaunch.

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That means he will start with a few key brands and product categories and keep adding as the chain grows.

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While he hasn’t revealed how many stores he hopes to open, he said he “absolutely plans on bringing Zellers back to every major market across Canada in a relatively short time.”

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He has initially targeted former HBC properties and has been signing leases with landlords for single floors or portions of the space the department store once held that measure no more than 50,000 square feet.

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“We don’t need 250,000 square feet, 200,000 square feet. That’s not our vision for the future of Zellers,” Benitah said. “There’s a lot of space in these former Hudson’s Bay stores that we’re not going to be occupying.”