TORONTO — Indigo Books & Music Inc. says Peter Ruis has been promoted to chief executive, replacing founder Heather Reisman, as the retailer grapples with changing consumer habits after two pandemic years.
The company announced Tuesday that Reisman will become executive chair and will remain “deeply involved” in the business.
“Having worked with Peter closely over the last 20 months, I have full confidence that Peter is the right leader for Indigo and that he will be instrumental to both our future success and to sustaining the core values and culture that have underpinned this organization since its founding,” Reisman said in a news release.
Ruis was president of Toronto-based Indigo before taking over the top job on Monday.
He was also appointed as a member of Indigo’s board of directors.
“I am honoured and delighted to be taking on the new role,” Ruis said in a release.
“I would like to pay tribute to Heather’s 25 years of creating and running this incredible brand and look forward to our new partnership as we shape the future.”
Indigo also announced Andrea Limbardi, the retailer’s chief customer and digital officer, has been appointed president.
The leadership change comes several weeks after the company reported a loss of $25.4 million its first quarter in spite of double-digit sales growth in both its print and general merchandise categories, compared with a net loss of $21.9 million in the same period one year earlier.
Indigo attributed the loss to macroeconomic conditions including supply chain disruptions, higher freight costs and inflationary pressures.
The company’s first-quarter loss also reflected the federal government’s ending of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy.
While Reisman launched Indigo with a store in Burlington, Ont. in the mid-1990s, after seeing an opportunity in Canada for large-format bookstores, she has spent recent years transforming its brand and product base.
Indigo has been offering a curated selection of items outside of books, from housewares to toys, for several years now.
Tamara Szames, a retail industry advisor at The NPD Group research firm, sees the company going further, with even more of a focus on items for the home, entertaining and gifting.
Books, she said, will be more of “starting point” than a complete strategy for the company.
In the shorter- to medium-term, Szames sees Indigo positioned for growth, even though consumer shopping patterns have started to shift, with a pullback in industries like consumer technology and video games and more spending in industries such as beauty, footwear and apparel.
She’s noticed there is still a focus on toys and items for the home, all of which bodes well for Indigo.
“When we look at where Indigo’s positioned, they’re positioned very well in some of those maintaining and rebounding industries,” she said.
With e-commerce hitting a plateau after getting a major boost in the earlier days of the pandemic, there is also more opportunity to provide customers with an experience in store, Szames added.
“Consumers are looking for new reasons to touch and to feel, and that’s bringing them back into stores,” Szames said.
“E-commerce now is really about replenishment, discovery, kind of finding a different path to purchase, but we’re definitely seeing that return to brick-and-mortar in 2022.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2022.
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