Blacks to shut all stores
A national photography retailer with a long history in Niagara will soon shutter.
On Tuesday, Canadian telecom giant Telus Corp. announced it will close all its Blacks stores across Canada by early August.
It said Black’s Photography, founded in the 1930s, has struggled as technology has changed the way customers take and share photographs.
Telus, one of the country’s three biggest telecom companies, said it will close the 59 stores, most of which are in Ontario, by Aug. 8.
“We have been unable to realize profitable growth and it would take considerable investment to adapt Blacks to ongoing change,” Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said in a statement.
Pen Centre marketing director Rick Woodward said Blacks has been in the Pen Centre for as long as he has worked there — about 20 years. There was also a store at Niagara Square.
“It’s a pretty tough retail environment we seem to be living in today,” Woodward said. “It seems to be part of a number of closures of Canadian retailers.”
As for its traditional business — developing photographs — “I guess people just don’t do that anymore,” Woodward said.
It’s a pretty tough retail environment we seem to be living in today. It seems to be part of a number of closures of Canadian retailers.” Pen Centre marketing director
Rick Woodward
“Or the number that bother having photographs developed (or printed digitally) are diminishing significantly.”
People with digital images are “doing it at home, or just not printing and just using social media sites to upload images … or for other people to see them,” he said.
“It is sad to see Blacks go. They’ve had a long tenure here, for sure.”
Contacted by phone, a store employee referred all questions to head office.
A message to Black’s head office, in part to confirm the number of people working at Black’s in St. Catharines, was not returned.
About 485 workers Canadawide will be affected by the closures, but Telus said it will offer them positions elsewhere in the company or transition packages.
Canada’s biggest photography chain opened as a home appliance store in 1930s Toronto, run by the late Eddie Black.
In 1969, Black’s went public on the Toronto stock exchange, with 200 stores across Canada.
The Black family sold the chain to Scott’s Hospitality in 1985, which in turn sold it to Fuji Film in 1995 for $65 million.
In 2007, Reichmann Hauer Capital Partners bought Black’s (now called Blacks without the apostrophe). The chain struggled to keep pace with the rise of digital photography and dwindled to 113 stories.
Telus bought Blacks in 2008 for $28 million. Despite attempts to rebrand the chain and use it to sell mobile phones, Blacks continued to bleed money.
The company said Tuesday it could not find a buyer for the chain and would close its remaining 59 locations, mostly in Ontario, on Aug. 8. A spokeswoman said it hopes to employ some of its Blacks workers at Telus and Koodo stores.