Holt Renfrew

Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (doing business as Holt Renfrew and colloquially Holt's) is a Canadian luxury department store chain founded in 1837 by William S. Henderson. The original William Ashton & Co. store in Quebec City, Lower Canada (now Quebec) operated as a fur shop. The company serviced the greater North American and European markets with its mail order catalog beginning in the late 1800s, and was appointed Furriers in Ordinary to several members of the British royal family from 1886 to 1921. The present-day Holt Renfrew name comes from the additions of business partner George Richard Renfrew in 1862, and company president John Henderson Holt in 1900. The company became a full-line retailer with the opening of the multi-level Sherbrooke Street store in Montreal in 1937. It was acquired by Wittington Investments (owned by the Weston family) in 1986, and was affiliated with the European department stores Selfridges, Brown Thomas, and de Bijenkorf until the Weston family divested of the Selfridges Group in 2022. As of 2024, Holt Renfrew operates six department stores in four Canadian provinces, including the flagship store at the Holt Renfrew Centre on Bloor Street West in Toronto and the former Ogilvy store (now Holt Renfrew Ogilvy) on Saint Catherine Street in Montreal. Holt Renfrew and Simons, both founded in the 1800s in Quebec City, are the only Canadian department stores operating as of June 2025. Holt Renfrew is comparable to American department stores Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.