TORONTO — Photography chain Blacks is shuttering all of its 59 stores in Canada after nearly 70 years of selling pictures, albums and frames to capture treasured family moments.
Parent company Telus said the closures will take effect Aug. 8 and affect about 485 employees, most of whom work in Ontario.
“Technological innovations have changed the way Canadians take and share photographs, with fewer of us using retail photo outlets,” company spokeswoman Luiza Staniec said in a statement.
“Despite the positive momentum and financial improvements our Blacks team has delivered over the last year, we have been unable to realize profitable growth and it would take considerable investment to adapt Blacks to ongoing change.”
Staniec said an unspecified number of the laid-of employees will be offered jobs at Telus or Koodo head offices, as well as at retail outlets or call centres, while others would be offered a “transition package.”
Headquartered in Toronto, Blacks was founded in 1930 and sold appliances. Its first speciality camera store opened in 1948.
Since then, it has changed hands several times.
Telus Corp. (TSX:T) bought Blacks in September 2009 for $28 million from ReichmannHauer Capital Partners, which had purchased the chain two years earlier for an undisclosed price.
In July 1993, Fuji Photo Film Canada purchased Blacks and its 210 stores for $65 million from Scott’s Hospitality, which was primarily a food business.