Dylex Limited was one of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's largest

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

s during the 1970s and 1980s, where it operated a number of specialty retail stores, including women's wear, men's wear, and family stores, including BiWay, a large, and now defunct, Canadian discount chain.

History

Dylex was formed in 1966 as a holding company for the purchase of

Tip Top Tailors Tip Top Tailors is a Canadian retail clothing chain, selling primarily menswear: suits, tuxedos , casual wear, sportswear and outerwear; as well, most stores have an in-house tailor (provides tailoring for clothing purchased within the store). T ...

through a partnership between Jimmy Kay, a decorated

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veteran and businessman, and Wilfred Posluns, a former stockbroker. The company name was an acronym for "Damn Your Lousy Excuses." It absorbed Posluns' company and Kay's Fairweather stores. From the start the company maintained retail and manufacturing operations. After a year, the company's sales at its meanswear stores had reached $37 million. In 1984, Dylex purchased 50% of NBO Stores Inc., a 28-store chain of men's clothing discounters founded in

Yonkers Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

in 1971 as National Brands Outlet by Leon Atkind. In 1988, it purchased the remaining 50% from Atkind for $25 million () in cash. At the time, the company was generating $100 million-a-year in sales.

Operations

The company's strategy was to purchase clothing stores but to leave the running of the company in its current management's hands. The company later purchased

Harry Rosen Inc. Harry Rosen Inc. is a Canadian retail chain of 17 luxury men's clothing stores. A privately owned company, Harry Rosen accounted for 40 percent of the Canadian market in high-end menswear in 2008. Founded by Harry Rosen in 1954, as a single sto ...

from its founder,

Harry Rosen Harry Rosen, CM (born 1931) is the founder and executive chairman of the Canadian luxury men's wear store Harry Rosen Inc., which in 2015 was Canada's largest upscale menswear retailer. Early life Born and raised in Toronto to a Jewish family, ...

. Rosen later bought back his company in 1992. The company recorded explosive growth during the 1970s and 1980s - operating 17 chains with more than 2,700 stores in the United States and Canada at its peak. In 1980, its annual sales reached $650 million.

Divisions

At one point, the company had five business divisions: BiWay, a major discount basic apparel and general merchandise, Thriftys (denim and other jeanswear and accessories),

(mid-priced men's suits and sportwear), and its women's wear group, made up of Fairweather (women's career and casual clothing), Big Steel Man (aka Big Steel and in its final days Steel) and Braemar (women's tailored clothing and accessories). The company operated 638 stores across Canada. In 1999, Dylex created a new chain offering off-price brand name clothing and accessories named Labels, in an attempt to have a chain competing with the current leader of that category,

Winners Winners Merchants International L.P is a chain of off-price Canada, Canadian department stores owned by TJX Companies. It offers brand name clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, fine jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. Products are at a ...

. This new venture was not successful, and by the end of 2000, the chain was purchased by the

TJX Companies The TJX Companies, Inc. (abbreviated TJX) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Discount store, off-price department store corporation, headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was formed as a subsidiary of Zayre, Zayre ...

Inc (operators of the

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American department store chain, selling at prices generally lower than other major similar stores. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in ...

and

TK Maxx TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The stores operate throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, totalli ...

stores in the United States and Europe), and then folded into their Winners/

HomeSense HomeSense (stylized as Homesense in Europe and the United States) is a Canadian chain of discount home furnishing stores owned by TJX Companies. It originated in Canada in 2001, and was expanded to Europe in 2008 and the United States in 2017. O ...

chain. BiWay Stores accounted for 54% of fiscal 2000 revenues; Thriftys, 14%; Fairweather, 12%; Tip Top Tailors, 12%; Braemar, 7%; and Labels, 1%.

Demise

Co-founders Posluns and Kay eventually developed bad blood and the company's expansion into the United States, which was funded by heavily leveraging its purchases, proved to be the beginning of the end for the company. Kay left the business in the early 1990s. In 1995, the company sought bankruptcy protection. In 2000, the company sold its Thriftys, Braemar and National Logistics divisions to

American Eagle Outfitters American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., also known as American Eagle, is an American lifestyle, clothing, and accessories retailer headquartered at SouthSide Works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1977 by brothers Jerry and Mark Silverma ...

. The remainder of the company were sold off by 2001.

Biway

BiWay was acquired by Hardof Wolf Group, a

shell company A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or s ...

for the United States-based

McCrory Stores McCrory Stores or J.G. McCrory's was a chain of five and dime stores in the United States based in York, Pennsylvania. The stores typically sold shoes, clothing, housewares, fabrics, penny candy, toys, cosmetics, and often included a lunch coun ...

, a dollar store chain owned by

Meshulam Riklis Meshulam Riklis ( he, משולם ריקליס; 2 December 1923 – 25 January 2019) was an Israeli financier and businessman. Early years Born in Istanbul to a Russian-Jewish family, Riklis grew up in Tel Aviv, and attended the Herzliya Hebrew ...

. The Fairweather chain was purchased by a private Canadian investment consortium. McCrory had announced its intentions to convert all of the BiWay stores into a dollar store chain to be named Dollar Zone, named after their chain of dollar stores in the United States. These plans did not go through however, and in August 2001, all BiWay stores, save for a few Toronto area locations, were shuttered for good and Hardof Wolf left with all of the employees' money. The courts finally forced Hardof Wolf to pay back some of the money it owed to the employees. This court case set precedent in Ontario bankruptcy case law. It was later reported that Riklis had drained money from Dylex to be used in other Riklis owned companies.

Revival

In December 2018, it was announced that the BiWay chain would be revived as "BiWay $10 Store" beginning with a new 7,500 square foot location in August 2020 in Toronto. These plans are however on hold after the death of its founder.

References

{{reflist Clothing retailers of Canada Defunct retail companies of Canada Companies based in Toronto Retail companies established in 1966 Retail companies disestablished in 2001 1966 establishments in Ontario 2001 disestablishments in Ontario