Sylvia Valente, of Oakville, looks at a purse in the mirror at the Hide House. Originally known as the Olde Hide House, the leather goods retailer is closing after 165 years in Acton.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Globe and Mail
Once famous in Toronto and surrounding areas for ads exhorting shoppers that “it’s worth the drive to Acton,” leather goods retailer The Olde Hide House is closing its doors.
The store, located in a 125-year-old former warehouse about 70 kilometres west of Toronto, has sold items such as leather jackets and accessories, shearling coats, and furniture since 1980. And over the past two years, sales have dipped as customers with affordability challenges have cut back on big-ticket discretionary purchases.
“We have noticed a lot of people are not making the drive to the store any more,” said Erin Wonch, an employee with the company for more than 20 years. The Hide House will launch a clearance sale this Friday of $5-million worth of inventory, managed by liquidation companies Danbury Global Ltd. and A.D. Hennick & Associates Inc.
Youki Kawami, a maintenance worker at the Hide House in downtown Acton, organizes leather hides.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Globe and Mail
Liquidators have been busy this year and last, as a pullback in consumer spending has meant some retailers needed to offload unsold items, while others went out of business. A year ago, another prominent advertising fixture of the eighties and nineties, furniture retailer Bad Boy, shut down and liquidated its inventory.
“Certain items are pricey and people just haven’t had the funds,” Alex Hennick, A.D. Hennick chief executive officer, said.
The Hide House is a family-owned business that traces its roots to a tannery established in 1844. In 1856, when the Grand Trunk Railway began running through the town, businessman George Beardmore bought the operations, built a new plant, and expanded operations. The shipping and receiving warehouse next to the train tracks, known as the “Hide House” for the raw hides and finished leathers stored within, was built in 1899. (It changed hands over the decades, and was used as a factory making military uniforms and underwear during the Second World War.)
The 30,000-square-foot brick building was remodelled and became a retail store in November of 1980. For more than a decade, shoppers could also stop for a steak at the on-site restaurant, Jack Tanner’s Table.
This is not the first time the Hide House has run into financial trouble. In 1993, under previous owners, the company laid off dozens of employees and sought protection from its creditors, citing “continuing economic malaise.” The business reopened after restructuring. Then in 2008, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, after mild weather deterred customers from buying winter coats, and a soaring Canadian dollar drove others to shop south of the border. An expansion to Toronto, with two stores in the city, also failed. The business was sold to new owners at that time, who have now decided to close.
A shopper walks past the Hide House in downtown Acton on Oct. 30.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Globe and Mail
Another challenge has been worsening traffic in the Greater Toronto Area, which means a drive to Acton that may have taken 45 minutes a couple of decades ago is now likely to be an hour or more, Mr. Hennick said. And as online sales have grown, The Hide House resisted moving into e-commerce. “There are a lot of alternatives,” he said. “They don’t make quality like this, is the thing.”
For Acton, with its history in the tanning industry giving it the nickname Leathertown, the loss of the store will be sad news for many locals, said employee Ms. Wonch, who was born and raised there. The store drew in visitors over the years, and its commercials gave a small town with a population of less than 10,000 a bit of regional celebrity.
“Every time people ask where you’re from, and you say Acton, people always say, ‘It’s worth the drive,’” Ms. Wonch said.