Montreal-based retailer SSENSE has a worldwide following not only for its curated collection of streetwear and luxurious style but in addition for its distinct perspective—cool, assured and leading edge.
It’s an unmistakable vibe that’s constant in any respect contact factors: on its clutter-free web site and app, at its David Chipperfield-designed flagship retailer in Old Montreal and in its unassuming company headquarters within the Garment District. “Our office is very understated, which is a lot of what we’re about,” says chief individuals officer Julie Forman.
An early adopter of a less-is-more aesthetic, SSENSE long-established its open-concept area in a brutalist model. It was designed by native agency Atelier Barda, which created customized fixtures like concrete Chabanel chairs that sit amid dozens of tropical crops in black resin planters.
You gained’t discover any blue-chip art work on the white partitions or any nook places of work or different standing signalling; members of the C-suite share the identical area as each different employees member, and the flashiest factor about it’s its unobstructed view of the town, stretching from Olympic Stadium to St. Joseph’s Oratory.
In the twenty years since CEO and co-founder Rami Atallah created the e-commerce platform as a part of his graduate thesis in laptop engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, SSENSE has change into a world-class retail chief, attaining a $5 billion valuation in 2021.
Its style choices—which give attention to luxurious homes like Balenciaga, Gucci and Saint Laurent and rising manufacturers like Jacquemus and Chopova Lowena—have been rounded out by extra classes, together with pet merchandise, housewares, personal-care gadgets, tech and kidswear, over the previous 4 years.
Since transferring to its present tackle from a earlier area just a few blocks away in 2013, the corporate has expanded throughout three storeys of the constructing, taking over a complete of 16,000 sq. metres.
The a number of teams that work there vary from authorized, finance, HR, merchandising, advertising and marketing and customer-experience personnel to a tech workforce of 300 dev-ops and information engineers, quality-assurance testers, user-interface designers and product consultants.
During the pandemic, renovation plans have been reconfigured to accommodate a hybrid work mannequin, which was formally put in place final 12 months. Most of the corporate’s 1,800 workers—who’re primarily based in Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Dallas and London—work remotely, however these primarily based regionally can select when to make use of the workplace.
“It’s really about letting employees decide how to spend their time and when they need to collaborate in person with colleagues,” says Forman, who joined SSENSE final 12 months after working at organizational-consulting agency Korn Ferry.
The firm’s actual property workforce created open areas with versatile seating configurations, like communal tables, cell desks and window counters with stools, in addition to areas devoted to conferences, together with an auditorium that seats as much as 500, and a quiet space for deep work.
There are additionally a whopping 39 on-site pictures studios, with much more situated on the firm’s success centre 10 kilometers away. In these energetic areas, a cacophony of music and upbeat chatter fills the air as photographers seize as many as 1,500 brand-new merchandise per day for the web site.
In quick, it’s a style lover’s paradise. “It’s probably the largest closet in Montreal,” says Forman.
This article seems in print within the Spring 2023 problem of Canadian Business journal. Buy the problem for $7.99 or higher but, subscribe to the quarterly print journal for simply $40 a 12 months.
Source: canadianbusiness.com