ALDO Groupe
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| Private | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Genre | Retail |
| Founded | 1972 |
| Founder | Aldo Bensadoun |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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| Products | Shoes |
| Divisions | ALDO/ALDO Accessories, Call It Spring/Spring, GLOBO |
| Website | Official website |
The Aldo Group (corporately styled The ALDO Group) is a Canadian retailer that owns and operates a worldwide chain of shoe and accessory stores. The company was founded by Aldo Bensadoun in Montreal, Quebec, in 1972, where its corporate headquarters remain today. It has grown to become a worldwide corporation, with nearly 2,150 stores under three retail banners: ALDO, Call It Spring/Spring and GLOBO. Stores in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland are owned by the Group, while international stores are franchised. The company once operated the now closed or rebranded banners. Little Burgundy (which it sold to Genesco), Simard & Voyer, Christian Shoes, Access, Pegabo, Transit, Stoneridge, Locale, Feetfirst and FIRST (which was the American version of Feetfirst).
ALDO shoes were founded in Canada in 1972 as a footwear concession within Le Chateau. The original group included stores in Montréal, Ottawa, Quebec City, and Winnipeg. Aldo Bensadoun known today as a global shoe giant built his empire starting in Montréal. After four generations, the Bensadoun family continues into the shoe industry. "Mr. Bensadoun never intended to follow in the footsteps of his father, a shoe retailer in Morocco and France, or his grandfather, a cobbler in Algeria" (Strauss, 2010). Aldo Bensadoun learned Italian to better communicate with his suppliers in Italy, and eventually he cut out the middleman who serviced him between Canada and European manufacturers (Strauss, 2010). The first freestanding ALDO store was opened in Montréal, in 1987. The brand expanded in the 1980s and 1990s, with stores operating under the name ALDO across Canada. Entering in the US market was going to be a challenge, this was a market where many Canadian companies failed to prosper. "It opened one store in 1990 in the decidedly unfashionable border town of Plattsburgh, N.Y., a mere hour's drive from the ALDO Group headquarters. The store served as a lab where ALDO tested its logistics, marketing and hiring in preparation for a broader American assault" according to Kuncharsky (2002). The first store outside of North America opened in Israel in 1995. The brand expanded in the 2000s into Saudi Arabia in 2001, England in 2002, and Singapore in 2003. Since then, the ALDO Group, with the ALDO and Call It Spring/Spring banners, has further expanded on the international market.
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Wikipedia