Reitmans | “The best kept secret in the country”, according to its new CEO

At the head of Montreal retailer Reitmans since September, Andrea Limbardi responds without hesitation when The Press asks him about his first impressions of the family business founded almost 100 years ago. “It’s the best kept secret in Canada,” she says.

“We need to be less humble in our marketing approach. Family businesses are generally less comfortable talking about what they do well. There are a number of things to change. It starts from in-store training to the image of the stores which must correspond to the message. It’s a 360-degree job,” says the first person not a member of the Reitman family to run the company which will celebrate its centenary in two years.

Reitmans has come under fire over the past year for what some observers see as a lack of message delivery.

Andrea Limbardi intends to remedy the situation. Quarterly conference calls will now be organized alongside the unveiling of financial performance, most likely starting in the spring, she emphasizes. Financial targets should then be presented. The new CEO also says she has already started establishing relationships with investors.

Andrea Limbardi’s business acumen and understanding of consumer behavior were points raised by board chairman Stephen Reitman when he was appointed last year. His expertise in applying digital strategies will be required at a time when artificial intelligence applied to e-commerce is increasingly popular.

The former president of the Indigo bookstore chain says she spent her first months at the helm of Reitmans visiting the company’s stores in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal to talk with customers and interact with employees in order to ” understand » the organization.

“It coincided with the holiday season, so it suited me because we never make changes during the months of November and December in retail. You have to be there 100% for the customers. »

“An opportunity for sales growth”

Andrea Limbardi declined to comment on Indigo, a company where she spent 21 years and which was the victim of a cyberattack last year and which has seen several executives leave in recent months.

The observation she has made since arriving at Reitmans is simple. “I see an opportunity for sales growth,” she says.

If Andrea Limbardi prefers to remain discreet about what she intends to do to promote sales because the strategy is in preparation, she nevertheless emphasizes that for the RW & CO brand, for example, sales of men’s clothing are on the rise and that there is a real demand from men to have more options.

Andrea Limbardi says he wants to invest in Reitmans’ current brands and notes that sales of Hyba-branded sportswear are also increasing.

Several stores also need to be renovated. Investment is needed in the distribution center and in the digital side, which means that shareholders wanting share buybacks and a dividend policy may have to wait a while longer. Andrea Limbardi says that different value creation initiatives continue to be analyzed.

“We have to find a balance to ensure we have the greatest possible value,” maintains the manager born in Pierrefonds and raised in Beaconsfield, in the West Island of Montreal.

“Online sales remain higher than before the pandemic. We need to invest in our website. There are many things we can do to improve the online customer experience. »

“Changing address wouldn’t be so simple”

The real estate assets, that is to say the head office and the distribution center of the Saint-Laurent borough, are also subject to an evaluation. “But the demand is not very strong for buildings of this size in this location. Changing your address would not be so simple,” says the woman who now lives in Little Burgundy, near the Atwater market.

Asked to comment on the value of the company, Andrea Limbardi believes that the real value is not reflected in the current share price which hovers around $2.50. “The company’s book value is over $5.50 per share, cash alone is about $2 per share, and the company has no debt. »

The operator of the Penningtons, RW & CO and Reitmans brands has returned to the radar screen of certain investors after calling on the Creditors Arrangement Act to clean up its balance sheet and streamline its operations during the pandemic.

During the restructuring process, stores were closed, brands abandoned (Thyme Maternité and Addition Elle) and leases renegotiated.

The stock was delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange at the end of July 2020 before being listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange a few weeks later.