Young women’s apparel retailer to open Chicago flagship

Canada’s Aritzia Inc. is expanding its Chicago footprint as it targets both brick-and-mortar and online expansion.



The fashion retailer will open a flagship on Rush Street in Chicago this fall. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company already operates a store in the Windy City, at Water Tower Place.



Aritzia recently made its Los Angeles debut, opening a 10,000 sq.-ft. flagship at Westfield Century City. The company plans to open three to four new stores during the remainder of its fiscal year, including the repositioning of an existing San Francisco location into a flagship on Market Street.



Aritzia is on roll. The vertically-integrated retailer reported that its same-store sales increased 11.5% in the fourth quarter, for its 10th consecutive quarter of positive comp growth. For the full year, same-store sales rose 16% and revenue increased 23.0% to C$667.2 million.



"Our strong fourth quarter and full year performance demonstrates our ability to drive consistent profitable growth,” said CEO and founder Brian Hill. “We achieved double digit comparable sales increases in each quarter of fiscal 2017, reflecting continued momentum in our Canadian and U.S. retail stores, as well as outstanding performance in our e-commerce business. Looking ahead, we remain focused on driving revenue growth by expanding our store base in North America, targeting substantial growth in our e-commerce business, and continuing to create innovative product assortments with new brands and extensions of our existing brands."



At the end of fiscal 2017 (February 26, 2017), Aritzia operated 60 stores in Canada and 19 stores in the United States.