Loblaw Companies is opening two new Joe Fresh Style locations in downtown Toronto. The retail stores, which offer "fresh and affordable style" for urban consumers, will be housed in former Caban stores adjacent to Loblaws.

The "cheap chic" clothing, designed by Club Monaco co-founder Joseph Mimran, has been available since March at Loblaw Real Canadian Superstores across the country.

At least one retail analyst is puzzled by this latest move. "Putting in two more stores sounds like a very cautious way of moving when you consider the number of stores there are in the total Loblaws network," says Rick Wolfe, a retail consultant at PostStone Consulting in Toronto. "It puzzles me that they don't start to roll it out to the bigger Loblaws-branded stores."

Loblaw's announcement of the Joe Fresh store openings came on the heels of a management shakeup announced last week. John Lederer stepped down as president "by mutual agreement" and resigned as director of the company.

Mark Foote, formerly president of Canadian Tire, was named president and chief merchandising officer; and Galen G. Weston takes over his father's role as executive chair. Joe Jackman remains executive vice-president of marketing.

Loblaw, which began an ambitious restructuring plan last year, continues to suffer from supply chain woes and profit declines. "Everybody is re-evaluating Loblaws at the moment, including (former CEO) Richard Currie," says Wolfe. (In an article in the Globe and Mail last Saturday, Currie said the "delineation of responsibilities could at best be described as fuzzy.") These comments suggest "there are big questions about the future of the company," says Wolfe.

" In the context of the bigger news on Loblaws, I think that they're distracted from Joe Fresh. I don't think they have a really intense focus on Joe Fresh at this point."

Loblaw turned down a request for an interview.

© 2006 Marketing Magazine