Aritiza To Become A Public Company

Since their inception and being in business for over 30 years, Aritiza which is a fashion retail store – specializing in ladies fashion wear and access, from ages 15 to 45 –  has decided to switch from being a privately owned company to a public entity. Their first store to be ever opened was in Vancouver’s Oakridge shopping mall. Their first paperwork which included the signing of a preliminary prospectus with regulators was a baby’s step in ensuring their shares are listed and start trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Ever since it was established in 1984, the company has expanded to 75 stores, with 58 stores not only in Canada but also 17 other stores in the U.S. It has made a name for itself since 2012 in the e-commerce world. It was disclosed in the filing that the chain store had $542 million net revenues and $41 million net income for this monetary year. They are hoping to have their revenues double by 2021, to approximately $1.2 billion.

At a time like this, while other clothing retailers are trying to put their head above water, struggling through the competition and while others close down their stores, Aritzia has decided to turn a blind eye and has gone public despite the heat. The fashion retailers want to open 25 new stores in the upcoming five years in order to expand their revenues. They hope to also have their stores expanded and hopefully have their online business increased in 2021 from 12 percent to 25 percent.

The co-founder of Retail Advisors Network, Bruce Winder said that the fashion retail shop has done their best to strive through the storms that have struck down other fashion retailers and they have “done well on brand management and sub-brands.” He commended them for “careful growth strategy and having “their operation for being solid.” Eleven years ago, most of their stakes were sold by Aritzia to private equity fund managed by Boston-based Berkshire Partners. The CEO and founder, Brian Hill currently has a stake. The owners want to manage the company via various voting bonds. There will be no proceeds received by the company as they said, and there was no say on the amount of the subordinate voting shares cost mentioned in the prospectus.