Holt Renfrew

Holt Renfrew was founded in 1837 in Quebec City by William Samuel Henderson as a small furrier-and-hatter shop, before going through multiple ownership and name changes in the 19th century to become Holt, Renfrew & Co. in 1908 under William G. Holt and George R. Renfrew. The brand expanded through the 20th century to become Canada's defining luxury department store, with the iconic flagship at the Hudson Bay Centre in downtown Toronto (Bloor Street West) anchoring the brand's position in the Canadian luxury market. The Holt Renfrew vocabulary settled around several distinguishing things: a buyer-led brand list anchored to the major LVMH, Kering, Richemont, Chanel, and Hermès luxury houses plus a particularly strong selection of contemporary independent designers (The Row, Khaite, Toteme, Bottega Veneta, plus emerging Canadian designers like Tanya Taylor, Sentaler, and the Mackage-and-Soia-Kyo network), the Holt Renfrew Men flagship concept (the brand's dedicated men's luxury floors), the iconic Holt Renfrew Café in the Toronto flagship, and the seasonal Holt Renfrew Project window-installation programme. Holt Renfrew is privately held by the Weston family (the Canadian retail-and-food family that also controlled Selfridges until the 2021 sale). The retailer operates approximately 7 flagship locations across Canada — Toronto (Bloor Street West, the flagship; Yorkdale), Vancouver (Pacific Centre), Calgary, Montreal (Holt Renfrew Ogilvy), Quebec City, Mississauga (Square One) — plus the Holt Renfrew e-commerce platform. The Bloor Street West Toronto flagship has been the defining luxury-retail destination of Toronto's Mink Mile (the Bloor-Yorkville luxury district) for over fifty years.