CANADIAN TIRE’S PARTY CITY BUYOUT PART OF A TREND TO CAPTURE “MICRO-SEASONAL” SALES

The sale of Party City’s Canadian retail business to Canadian Tire Corp. marks Canadian Tire’s serious entry into a new niche that targets birthdays, anniversaries and other life events at a personal level.

In addition to taking over its 65 retail stores, Canadian Tire will make a selection of Party City offerings available through its namesake banner both online and instore—either through dedicated aisles or a store-within-a-store format.

The deal was also a watershed for Canadian Tire’s Triangle Rewards program as the company seeks to make the most of its Triangle data while unifying its banners. “We’ve been looking at the party supply category for a while now and we’ve been putting our data to work,” MacDonald told analysts, adding, “Party City customers skew younger and spend 60 percent more at Canadian Tire than our average Triangle Rewards member each year.”