Joe Fresh is a Canadian fashion brand and retail chain created by designer
Joe Mimran
Joseph Mimran (born 2 December 1952) is a Canadian fashion designer and entrepreneur, best known for founding the Club Monaco and Joe Fresh brands. He was also an investor on the ''Dragons' Den'' television series.[Loblaw Companies Limited
Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners (including Loblaws), as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel. Loblaw operates a private ...]
. It was formed in 2006. The label includes adult and children's wear, shoes, handbags, jewelry, beauty products, and bath items.
Joe Fresh entered the U.S. market with permanent and
pop-up stores in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and the surrounding region, with an international flagship store located at
510 Fifth Avenue. In 2012, the brand also appeared in approximately 680
JCPenney
Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...
stores throughout the United States.
The JCPenney agreement was dismantled in 2015, with the companies making the decision not to renew their existing distribution agreement, which expired on January 30, 2016. The Fifth Avenue store closed in 2015.
History
Concept
In 2004, Loblaw approached
Joe Mimran
Joseph Mimran (born 2 December 1952) is a Canadian fashion designer and entrepreneur, best known for founding the Club Monaco and Joe Fresh brands. He was also an investor on the ''Dragons' Den'' television series.[Club Monaco
Club Monaco is a Canadian-founded low-end luxury casual clothing retailer owned by Regent, L.P. With more than 140 locations worldwide, the retailer has locations in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea, China, the U ...]
retail chain and the name behind the
Alfred Sung brand, with the idea of creating a new fashion line. Mimran had previously worked with Loblaw in developing its
President's Choice Home Collection of merchandise. While the company had offered children's clothing in its superstores, it had never participated into the adult market. "Out of our discussion came the idea of style at an incredible price."
Much, though, was left to Mimran's intuitive sense of what would sell:
... we had no idea what the consumer would want from a food store; we had no idea whether the prices would resonate, whether they wanted casual dress versus something dressier. Everything that was done at that time, we did it really without very much research. We just said let's build a line, let's design the stores, the marketing, the ounded dollarprice points. We went with bright colours and tasty colours because it was a food store, and all of these things were all done intuitively, and it worked.
Mimran noted that both "integrity of product design" and a "killer price point" were key, along with the practical considerations associated with selling a clothing line in a supermarket, since both the retail environment and merchandise "had to stand up to the wear and tear of shopping carts and the traffic flow."
Launch
In March 2006, Joe Fresh Style debuted at forty
Real Canadian Superstore
Real Canadian Superstore is a chain of supermarkets owned by Canadian food retailing giant Loblaw Companies. Its name is often shortened to Superstore, or, less commonly, RCSS.
Originating in Western Canada in the late 1970s/early 1980s, the b ...
and
Atlantic Superstore
Atlantic Superstore is a Canadian supermarket chain. The chain operates 54 stores in the Maritimes of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. It is owned by George Weston Limited through Loblaw Companies Limited, and operates unde ...
locations. With "fresh classics and colours," Joe took the "legwork out of everyday clothes shopping" by putting it in one convenient location.
News reports described the launch as "a big gamble"
for both the food retailer and designer. In fact, the branding represented the first time Mimran's name appeared on one of his labels. "Now, Mr. Mimran is finally being thrust into the public spotlight, becoming a brand in his own right." The use of "Joe," according to Mimran, was a very deliberate decision that gave the private label "instant credibility." Meanwhile, "Fresh" not only drew an association with the supermarkets where the clothes would be sold but also the line's simple, clean aesthetic.
One retail analyst expressed the view that consumers would be more likely to buy based on the line's style and in-store retail convenience rather than price point.
Sales
Seven months after the brand's launch, Loblaw reported that sales had exceeded the company's own projections. "Every one of our sales objectives that we have set, we have surpassed", noted Louise Drouin, senior vice president of general merchandise. Mimran also expressed his personal satisfaction with the brand's acceptance among consumers. "I've been involved with many projects over the years, and I can tell you the response to this has been overwhelming." But retail consultant, Dalan Bronson of the
J.C. Williams Group, was more cautious, contending that the jury was still out on the brand's long-term prospects, given the fickle nature of the fashion trade.
[
]
Product line
In 2007, Loblaw began expanding the line to include sleepwear, lingerie, and children's wear, "and quickly became the top seller of kid's clothing in the country." Swimwear and sunglasses were added in 2008, and in 2009 Joe Fresh Beauty debuted with an array of reasonably priced cosmetics at $8 or less. By then, the brand had become the second-biggest-selling clothing label in the country, according to market research. A ''Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...
'' magazine article noted Joe's appeal amongst a wide range of consumers:
Since its inception, Joe Fresh has been a smash hit with suburban soccer moms. But experts have been a little surprised by how many young urbanites, regulars at Holt Renfrew and other high-priced boutiques, are willing to snap up $29 cable-knit sweaters and $49 skirts without the slightest hint of shame. Many, in fact, openly boast to friends about their great finds.
Within its first year and a half, Joe Fresh had chalked up $400 million in retail sales.
As a believer in "vertical retailing," Mimran typically oversees every stage in the Joe Fresh design, production, sales and marketing process – in contrast to the traditional retailer, who buys wholesale and marks-up in order to make a profit. The result is a product line branded under its own label, sold in its own retail outlets, and priced without reference to wholesale margins. Managing all aspects of the process not only allows Mimran to be competitive on pricing but also innovative in terms of design and manufacture:
In addition to peppy, nicely made, current-but-not-runway-slavish sportswear, there are avant-garde signature pieces. The jewel of the fall collection is a bell-shaped neoprene coat—in orange, naturally—inspired by a vintage Balenciaga
Balenciaga SA ( ) is a luxury fashion house founded in 1919 by the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga in San Sebastian, Spain. Balenciaga produces ready-to-wear, footwear, handbags, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to C ...
, which will retail for $99. Balenciaga, he explains, was able to achieve antigravity shapes through the use of expensive, double-weave fabrics that aren't available anymore. "We first showed it in wool, but the wool wasn't really capturing the shape. So, I thought, why don't we try neoprene?" he says. "It's like an art piece and sculptural and at the same time, it's so brand correct."
Expansion
In 2010, Joe Fresh moved beyond the supermarket aisle with the opening of its first stand-alone store, located in downtown Vancouver. Months later, Loblaw announced its intent to open twenty dedicated outlets across Canada, six to be completed by year's end. Although media reports speculated that the brand would remain strictly a Canadian phenomenon, in 2011, Loblaw announced its most ambitious plans yet for Joe Freshfour retail outlets slated for metropolitan New York City with "an international flagship store" on Fifth Avenue. Mimran declared it the right move at the right time. "We felt it was time to make the first step into the international market with a store in the American fashion capital, and one of the most exciting cities in the world, New York." But in confirming the brand's entry into the American market, Loblaw president Allan Leighton pointed out that it was "very much a pilot project."[ One retail analyst, Kaileen Millard-Ruff of market researcher Synovate Canada, referred to the opportunities and pitfalls faced by Canadian retailers who head south of the border in hopes of staking a claim:
]
"Joe Fresh definitely has an opportunity there, and the U.S. is looking for more cheap chic," she said. "And the designs don't look cheap, they look more sophisticated. It all comes down to whether Loblaw will put in the cash to do it properly, because in New York you have to look like a big thing to be a big thing... that's everything on execution from the space, to product, to fixtures, to lighting. Fifth Avenue is not the cheapest real estate around."[
]
But while Loblaw management was cautious in tone regarding Joe's entry into the American market, Mimran spoke ambitiously, envisioning as many as 800 stores across the U.S. in five years, with the possibility of taking the label beyond North America, into Europe and Asia. He noted that Joe Fresh already competes successfully with international brands at home in Canada. "Today, if you have a proposition that resonates, it can work across cultures and borders." Mimran also expressed the view that considering the enormous sales volume of the brand in Canada, to not attempt an entry into the U.S. market and beyond would be a matter of "shortchanging ourselves."
New York
In July 2011, New Yorkers were given a sneak preview of Joe Fresh fashion with the opening of a 600-square-foot pop-up summer store, replete with a wall display of brightly coloured flip-flops
Flip-flops are a type of light sandal, typically worn as a form of casual footwear. They consist of a flat sole held loosely on the foot by a Y-shaped strap known as a toe thong that passes between the first and second toes and around both side ...
, at the Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
resort of East Hampton Village. New York City's first glimpse of Joe followed in the fall with the October opening of a temporary "holiday store" on Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...
. But it was with the unveiling of stores at Bridgewater New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, and Garden City, New York, that Joe began ringing in sales at its first permanent U.S. outlets. New York City's first permanent Joe Fresh store, located in Manhattan's Flatiron District
The Flatiron District is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, named after the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Generally, the Flatiron District is bounded by 14th Street, Union Square and Green ...
, opened in November 2011. Mimran, present for the grand opening of a new Joe Fresh boutique at 110 Fifth Avenue, acknowledged the crowded nature of the New York's low-price high fashion market, but contended there's always a place for a new player with integrity:
The fashion industry allows newcomers. This is not an exclusionary industry. I think if you get beat it's not because of the competition, it's because you are not good enough. Women do love to shop around, and they like to have a handful of brands that they like to frequent. It's not about one single brand. This is not the computer business, it's the fashion game. There isn't one department store, there isn't one specialty store. And what we've shown, especially in Canada, is we can play with international competition. So why can't we do it here?
Joe's new international flagship headquarters, located on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, opened in the spring of 2012. The New York ad campaign featured the slogan, "Irresistible fashion for Everyone. Affordable fashion for Anyone."
In July 2012, it was announced that Joe Fresh and JCPenney were teaming up to open close to 700 Joe stores in the retailer's outlets throughout the United States. Mimran described the move as "akin to a roll-out but done very quickly" and noted that it would give Joe Fresh national exposure. March 2013 saw the launch of 681 Joe Fresh stores throughout JCPenney locations. The brand also became available online, featured on the JCPenney website.
Issues
On 24 April 2013, an eight-story commercial building called ''Rana Plaza'' collapsed in Savar
Savar ( bn, সাভার) is a city in central Bangladesh, located in Dhaka District in the Dhaka Division, division of Dhaka. It is the closest city from Dhaka. It is also a part of Greater Dhaka conurbation which forms the Greater Dhaka, D ...
, a sub-district near Dhaka
Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...
, the capital of Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. At least 1,127 people died and over 2,438 were injured. The building housed a number of separate garment factories employing around 5,000 people, several shops, a bank, and manufactured apparel for brands including the Benetton Group
Benetton Group S.r.l. () is a global fashion brand based in Ponzano Veneto, Italy, founded in 1965. Benetton Group has a network of about 5,000 stores worldwide. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Benetton family's holding company Edizio ...
, Joe Fresh,['Extreme Pricing' At What Cost? Retailer Joe Fresh Sends Reps To Bangladesh As Death Toll Rises - Forbes]
/ref> The Children's Place
The Children's Place Inc. is a specialty retailer of children’s apparel and accessories headquartered in New Jersey. It also markets apparel under the Children's Place, Place, Baby Place, and Gymboree brand names.
As of October 31, 2015, it o ...
, Primark
Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not u ...
, Monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
, and DressBarn
Dressbarn.com (branded as dressbarn) is an online retailer owned by Retail Ecommerce Ventures. Its predecessor is the former chain of women's clothing stores owned by Ascena which operated as Dressbarn from 1962 until 2019. Since 2020, it is owne ...
. The parent company of Joe Fresh, Loblaws, offered compensation to the victims of three months pay, totalling about $150 plus undisclosed long-term compensation. It has established a $3 million trust to compensate victims of the accident. Joe Fresh continues to manufacture its garments in Bangladesh, with one source stating that as of 2014 it has doubled production in the country. In 2014, Loblaws finally hired an employee to oversee its Bangladeshi operations and monitor working conditions. In 2015, a class action lawsuit asking for $1.85 billion in damages was filed against Loblaws alleging Loblaws was aware of the poor safety standards of Rana Plaza.
See also
*List of Canadian clothing store chains
This list of Canadian clothing store chains encompasses some, but not all, of the retailers located in Canada.
List
*Addition Elle
* Les Ailes de la Mode
* Arc'teryx
*Ardene
*Aritzia
* Beyond the Rack
*Bluenotes
*Boutique La Vie en Rose
*Browns ...
References
{{reflist
External links
joefresh.com
Joe Fresh official website
joefreshlife.com
Joe Fresh standalone blog
2000s fashion
2004 establishments in Canada
Products introduced in 2006
2010s fashion
Clothing brands
Clothing retailers of Canada
Clothing companies established in 2004
Loblaw Companies
Privately held companies of Canada
Shops in New York City
Retail companies established in 2004