Telus, the national communications giant, will close all 59 Blacks Photography stores in August, the firm announced today (Tuesday, June 9, 2015). This would include the location in the Sunnybrook Plaza. Telus said it has not been able to “realize profitable growth,” as Luiza Staniec, spokeswoman for the firm parent, put it. The shutdown of the stores, most of them in Ontario, will leave 485 employees without jobs, and Telus will try to find them positions at its other outlets, such as Telus and Koodo stores, she said.
BELL SOURCE ELECTRONICS
The Telus move leaves Bell Canada as the last man standing in the phone-conglomerate electronics business. It’s large store in Sunnybrook Plaza and others elsewhere will have been tough competition for Telus. The relationship between the two firms has been close. Some analysts have speculated they could see a merger of Bell and Telus someday. Telus tried to find a buyer for Blacks but wasn’t able to find a suitable suitor, she said. Telus bought Blacks in 2009 for $28-million, closed almost half the stores and invested in improving the outlets as the industry moved quickly to digital alternative Telus will report the financial consequences of shutting down Blacks in its next quarterly results release, expected in August.
