Sears Canada Inc. (more commonly referred to as "Sears") is a retailer, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, that operates in all provinces and territories across Canada with a network of 188 corporate stores, 180 dealer stores, 67 home improvement showrooms, 112 Sears Travel offices and a nationwide home maintenance, repair, and installation network. Sears also has a general merchandise catalogue with over 2,200 catalogue merchandise pickup locations. There is a Sears location within a 10-minute drive of 93% of Canadians. About 50,000 associates are employed throughout the company.

Sears of the United States owns 54.3% of Sears Canada common shares; the remainder of the shares are publicly traded. As of March 31, 2005, the majority ownership stake was officially transferred to Sears Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: SHLD).

Sears Canada began its operations as Simpsons-Sears Limited, a catalogue retailer, in 1952. The company was formed as a joint-venture between the Robert Simpson Company (Simpson's), an existing Canadian department store retailer, and Sears, Roebuck & Co. of the United States. The purpose of the joint-venture was to take over the existing Simpson's catalogue operations, and to build new stores in markets that were not already served by existing Simpson's stores.

In 1973-1974, Simpsons-Sears opened its first stores in metropolitan areas already served by Simpson's (although in suburban areas well away from the downtown Simpson's stores). So as to avoid confusing customers, these new stores were opened under the Sears banner.

The Hudson's Bay Company acquired Simpson's in 1978. Due to federal competition laws, the Hudson's Bay Company was required to divest itself of its interest in Simpsons-Sears, and the chain was formally renamed Sears Canada (though some Sears stores continued to informally carry the hyphenated name into the 1980s). As part of the split, Sears and Simpson's were not allowed to build stores within 20 miles of each other for 20 years. This left Sears Canada with no stores in the downtown areas of major cities until this agreement expired. The Hudson Bay Company eventually converted all Simpson's store to The Bay banner by 1991, and the Simpson's name has disappeared from Canada's retail landscape.

In 1995, Sears Canada opened Sears Whole Home furniture stores located in power centres, and renamed them Sears Furniture and Appliance stores in 1999, to reflect the addition of major appliances. In 2003, Sears Canada again renamed their Furniture and Appliances store to Sears Home stores. This change was intended to reflect their broader appeal for customers seeking a one stop experience for re-making their home decor. The stores' product line was expanded to include Home Installed Products and Services such as floor coverings, customer drapery, and other installed home related products in many locations.

In 1998, Sears Canada's website, www.sears.ca became an active channel, allowing customers to order from a selection of over 500 products. By 2001, the website became Canada's most popular retail internet destination with over a million orders placed that year.

In 1999, Sears Canada acquired The T. Eaton Company Limited. With this acquisition, Sears Canada acquired a number of Eaton's stores and the trademark name. For the first time in its history, Sears Canada held the leases to a number of prime downtown locations Toronto (Eaton Centre and Yorkdale Mall), Vancouver Pacific Centre, Victoria, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Calgary(all former Eaton's stores). Sears had intended to obtain the former downtown Montreal store, although it lost out to the incumbent Les Ailes de la Mode.

Sears relaunched "eatons" in November 2000 as a seven-store upscale mini-brand, with locations in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Ottawa. This operation was unsuccessful, however, and Sears converted the eatons stores to the Sears brand in 2002. Many said that the eatons stores were too upscale and/or too thinly scattered across the country for the mini-chain to have ever been profitable and worthwhile. The retail environment has changed with more of the population shopping at big box outlets and/or speciality stores squeezing out the middle market which is the base of the traditional department store.

In 2005, Sears Card services was outsourced to JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., but the Sears points system was retained by the retailer. In January 2006, Sears Holdings Inc, the parent company and majority shareholder of Sears Canada Inc. made a bid to purchase the remaining shares to take the company private.

Sears Canada also owns 100% of SLH Transport. Originally started to provide dedicated delivery service to all Sears Canada locations, it has since expanded to become a full service for hire Transportation Company. SLH Transport at one point had terminals located in every major region in Canada. However, in late June of 2006, the Windsor Terminal was closed with very little notice to the four drivers who worked there. The Barrie Terminal is slated to close in early August, 2006. The workers in Barrie have yet to be informed of their imminent demise. These closures, along with the sale of many of the companies trucks, have had a serious effect on the morale of those working in the companies headquarters. It is widely seen as a sign of the failure of the Network Management initiative implemented by the company in June of 2004 in a desperate response to a dismal fiscal loss in 2003. Carlos Benia, Network Manager, is widely held responsible by those who work at SLH for the extreme failure of SLH under the new 'Network' regime.

See also

• List of Canadian department stores

External links

• Sears Canada
• SLH website