DSW Opening its First Canadian Stores in August

DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse will open its first two stores in Canada this August as a part of a partnership with Town Shoes Limited. The two Toronto area discount shoe stores are in Heartland Centre in Mississauga and Woodland Hills in Newmarket. Both are about 20,000 sq. ft.

Concurrent with DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse Canada’s August 7 grand openings, the retailer will also launch its Canadian e-commerce site.

DSW acquired a 44 percent stake in Canada’s Town Shoes in April this year. At the time, DSW CEO Mike MacDonald commented, “We have looked at Canadian entry options for some time and decided to acquire an existing operation with a long track record of success and to use this operation as a base from which we can establish the DSW brand in Canada. Our partnership provides us a unique opportunity to bring DSW into Canada through Town Shoes’ platform. We hope to share best practices in sourcing, operations, inventory management, and omni-channel integration to our mutual advantage.”

Bruce Dinan, president and CEO of Town Shoes Limited, said in a statement today, “It’s no surprise that the DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse brand already enjoys healthy consumer awareness and demand here and we believe that the breadth of product assortment and value will be very compelling. We are excited to open our first two stores and look forward to continuing to serve our nation of shoe lovers.”

Town Shoes operates 182 stores in Canada under three banners: The Shoe Company, Shoe Warehouse and Town Shoes.

DSW operates 410 stores in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The company also supplies footwear to 359 leased locations in the U.S. under the Affiliated Business Group.