Sears in Canada

Sears Canada Inc. was the Canadian subsidiary of the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1953 until January 14, 2018, and 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 until October 19, 2017. 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 stores closings resulted 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 that it would seek court approval to shut down all of its remaining stores in Canada and lay off 11,240 remaining staff. Approval was granted by the Ontario Superior Court on October 13, 2017. Liquidation sales began on October 19, 2017. The remaining Sears stores closed on January 14, 2018. Store fixtures and equipment from the closed stores were sold until January 26, 2018.