Fashion Forward

Sadru Peerani used to sell cowboy hats for his dad during Stampede Week when he was a teenager in the early 1980s. Now he’s managing his family-run business, Formans Fashion Group, selling high-end clothing to Calgary’s well heeled

Feb 1, 2007

by Tracy Hyatt

In 2003, Formans bought the CIBC heritage building on First Street and uprooted the 46-year-old business to Victoria Crossing. One of the first upscale retailers to move to the now uber-trendy neighbourhood, the store invigorated the street’s retail mix. Last year the company and its clients donated coats to those less fortunate in the area, proving that while fashion may come and go, corporate responsibility is never out of style.

AV: Why did your family go into the retail business?
SP: We’re an entrepreneurial family. Before coming to Canada in the ’70s, we lived in East Africa and my father and grandfather had a farm down there, a bakery and a car dealership. But as the Idi Amin crisis spread across East Africa, we had to leave everything behind, fleeing with our lives and family.

What did you learn from growing up in East Africa?
I realized that things come and go. So what you try to do is define the kind of organization you want to have. You can have wealth, but what’s the point of wealth without a sense of connectivity, a sense of humanity?

What trends do you see in the retail industry?
The menswear industry is in a very interesting state right now. Because of market forces, smaller organizations can no longer afford the rents in the mall, yet they rely on mall traffic to really drive their business. So you have a couple of choices: stay in the mall and continue to grow or move to a smaller location in a strip mall, where you have to transform the nature of your business from walk-by to a destination store. That’s a huge jump for a lot of companies to make.

Your decision to open up a store in Victoria Crossing raised a few eyebrows. Why on earth would you open a store there?
The street had a really bad reputation but I had spent quite a bit of time in the area and decided that the future was here. I believe First Street is going to become the Bloor Street or Rodeo Drive of Calgary. Within a three-block radius of our store, there’s $1.6 billion of development underway.”

Wasn’t it a risky move buying your own building?
If Formans was ever going to have a future, we needed to have some equity, some real estate. Many successful retailers are the ones that have real estate. When times get tough, these businesses can at least rely on their real estate to make the equation work and somehow survive through the tough times. Control of that little piece of real estate opens up so many opportunities because it allows you to survive while you employ long-term strategies.

On the philanthropic front, what got you interested in donating coats to those less fortunate?
I believe in contributing heavily to the community, which gives you your sustenance, your birth. We thought it would be a wonderful way for our clients to also give back to the community. We started in the fall of 2005 and we have already doubled the number of coats collected over what we did last year.

What do you say to all those business owners who were in the area before all this development happened? Aren’t they being muscled out?
The Victoria Crossing BRZ [business revitalization zone] has had discussions with many of them and it is trying to assist those who have decided that they want to upscale their business and target a different market. I think every business owner can survive. Take a look at Queen Street in Toronto. There’s a real mishmash of different elements. This can work.