Simpsons-Sears

Sears Canada Inc.

Formerly called	Simpsons-Sears (1952–1984)
Type	Public
Traded as	: SCC
Industry	Retail
Fate	Liquidation
Founded	1952
Headquarters	Toronto Eaton Centre Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Brandon G. Stranzl (Executive Chairman until October 16, 2017) Becky Penrice (Executive Vice-President & Chief Operating Officer)
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewellery, beauty products, appliances, housewares, tools, electronics and toys.
Revenue	$3.146 billion (2015)
Net income	-$67.9 million (2015)
Total equity	$554.2 million (2015)
Number of employees	11,240 (2017)
Parent	Simpsons (1952–1978) Sears (1952–2005) Sears Holdings (2005–present)
Website	sears.ca

Sears Canada Inc. is a Canadian retail chain in the process of liquidation until January 2018. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company's roots were in Simpsons-Sears—a joint venture between the Simpsons retail chain and the U.S. Sears chain—which operated a national mail order business and co-branded Simpsons-Sears stores modelled after the U.S. Sears chain. Following the purchase of Simpsons by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1978, the joint venture was dismantled, and the Simpsons-Sears stores became solely owned by Sears. In 1999, Sears Canada acquired the remaining assets and locations of the historic Canadian chain Eaton's. From 2014, Sears Holdings owned a 10% share in the company.ESL Investments was the largest shareholder of Sears Canada.

In 2016, the retailer had a network that included 140 corporate stores (including full-line, Sears Home and Outlet stores), 71 Hometown stores, over 900 catalogue and online merchandise pick-up locations, 69 Sears Travel offices and a nationwide repair and service network. The company also published a general merchandise catalogue until the last quarter of 2016 and offered shopping online at sears.ca.

After filing for creditor protection in June 2017, Sears Canada announced that they would be closing 20 full-line locations, 15 Home stores, 10 Outlet stores and 14 Sears Hometown stores. The store closings will result in 2,900 employee layoffs. These stores officially closed on Sunday, October 1, 2017. In September 2017, Sears Canada announced the closing of 10 additional stores, in addition to the 59 store closings previously announced in June. On October 10, 2017, Sears Canada announced it would seek court approval to shut down all of its remaining stores in Canada and layoff of 11,240 remaining staff. This was granted by the Ontario Superior Court on October 13.

Liquidation sales began in late October 2017. Sears stores are expected to close on January 21, 2018.

Sears Canada began its operations as Simpsons-Sears Limited, a catalogue and mid-market suburban retailer, as a joint-venture between the Simpsons Limited (the Robert Simpson Company Limited), a Canadian department store chain, and Sears, Roebuck and Co. of the United States. In 1952, General Robert E. Wood, the Chairman of U.S. retailer Sears, sent a letter to Edgar G. Burton, President of the Robert Simpson Company of Toronto, proposing a partnership between their two companies in order to serve the Canadian market. The deal to create Simpsons-Sears Limited, a Canadian catalogue and department store chain separate from the Simpson's chain, was signed on September 18, 1952 and the terms were 50-50. Each company invested $20 million and had equal representation on the new company's Board of Directors. The new company was to have two main objectives. The first was to expand Simpson's mail order business, which was sold to the new company. The second goal was to build a string of stores modelled on Sears, Roebuck's format across the country.