Vancouver's Aritzia Reached Its 2027 Revenue Goal a Year Early

Four years to the day after it unveiled the plan now ending, at its Support Office in Vancouver, Aritzia sets out the next one at an Investor Day on October 27, 2026. The 2022 plan ran to fiscal 2027, the year now under way. Its revenue goal was met a year early, as the company itself said in May.

That goal was net revenue of C$3.5 billion to C$3.8 billion in fiscal 2027, a pace of 15 to 17 per cent a year by the company's own calculation.

Net revenue in fiscal 2026, the year to March 1, 2026, was C$3.70 billion. "Having already achieved our Fiscal 2027 revenue target one year early, we look forward to sharing our next long term strategic plan in the fall," Jennifer Wong, the Chief Executive Officer, said in the May 7, 2026 results release.

On October 8, 2026 the company said it expects fiscal 2027 net revenue of C$4.78 billion to C$4.88 billion, growth of about 29 to 32 per cent, roughly twice the annual pace the 2022 plan assumed.

A Vancouver design house that now sells mostly in the United States

Aritzia was established in 1984 by the Hill family, and Brian Hill, a third-generation retailer, has led it from the start, according to its annual information form dated May 7, 2026. The first boutique opened in Vancouver's Oakridge Centre. The company describes itself as "a design house with an innovative global platform". It designs its clothing under its own exclusive brands, which account for nearly all of its net revenue, and sells it through its own boutiques and website. The assortment runs from t-shirts and sweaters to coats and dresses, and the annual information form lists its major trademarks as including Aritzia, Wilfred, Babaton, TNA, The Super Puff and Reigning Champ.

At March 1, 2026 it ran 68 boutiques in Canada and 76 in the United States, a network split almost in half between the two countries; by August 30, 2026 the count was 146, against 134 a year earlier, per the October 8, 2026 release.

The revenue leans much further toward the United States, which produced C$2.28 billion of fiscal 2026 net revenue, more than half, and by the second quarter of fiscal 2027 two dollars in every three.

The tilt was a stated aim of the 2022 plan. Ms. Wong, Chief Executive Officer since May 21, 2022, said that October the plan would see the company "more than double both our net revenue in the United States and our eCommerce business". The second-quarter MD&A, the management's discussion and analysis filed beside the statements, names the same three growth levers today: geographic expansion, digital growth and increased brand awareness.

The company expects to open 12 to 13 new boutiques this fiscal year, all but one of them in the United States, against the 8 to 10 a year the 2022 plan called for.

Mr. Hill is Founder and Executive Chair, the title on the company's leadership page read on October 19, 2026; the same page says Ms. Wong began at Aritzia in 1987 as a part-time sales associate. Entities Mr. Hill controls hold all of the multiple voting shares, which carry ten votes each against one for a subordinate voting share. As at May 6, 2026 that gave them approximately 16.00 per cent of the shares and approximately 65.57 per cent of the votes, per the annual information form. Valérie Hermann, who has led the Fashion and Luxury division of EPI Group since 2020, joined the board on October 8, 2026.

The subordinate voting shares began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on October 3, 2016, when entities controlled by Mr. Hill and an investment vehicle managed by Berkshire Partners sold them at C$16.00 in a secondary offering. They closed at C$149.08 on October 16, 2026, per TMX Money end-of-day data read on October 18, 2026. Maple's October 9 piece, C$97 Million of Tariff Refunds Sit Inside Aritzia's Record Margin, worked through the quarter's results in detail.

At home, Aritzia is outgrowing Canada's clothing stores

Both of Aritzia's markets grew in the quarter to August 30, 2026. Across them, net revenue was C$1.17 billion, up 44.1 per cent on the same quarter of 2025.

Canada is the older and smaller market. Net revenue there was C$390.4 million in the quarter to August 30, 2026, up 19.8 per cent, per the release. The United States produced C$779.4 million in the same quarter, almost exactly twice as much.

Clothing stores across the country grew more slowly. Statistics Canada reported on September 24, 2026 that sales at clothing and clothing accessories retailers in July 2026 were 5.5 per cent above July 2025, seasonally adjusted, in a preliminary estimate. The two figures are measured differently: one is a single month across every clothing retailer in the country, the other a 13-week quarter for one company. The comparison holds for direction and says nothing about market share.

In fiscal 2026, Canadian net revenue rose 23.4 per cent to C$1.43 billion, per the May 7 release. The second-quarter MD&A adds that in comparable sales, which count only boutiques and channels trading in both periods, "all channels and all geographies generated positive double-digit growth."

On Statistics Canada's preliminary estimate, Canadians spent more on clothes in July than a year earlier, and more again at Aritzia over its quarter. Ms. Wong put the quarter down to "broad-based strength across geographies, channels and product categories."

A tariff refund, reported on its own line

The second quarter included a refund of U.S. tariffs, which Aritzia presented on a separate line of its statement of operations. On February 20, 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. On March 4, 2026 the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection to liquidate, or re-liquidate, certain import entries without regard to those duties, according to the second-quarter MD&A. Liquidating an entry settles the final duty owed on it.

Aritzia recorded C$97.4 million of refunds received in the quarter to August 30, 2026, before tax, and net income of C$201.7 million including them; its adjusted net income, which excludes the refunds among other items, was C$156.0 million, up 122.1 per cent from C$70.2 million a year earlier, per the release.

Maple's October 10 piece, A US Court Struck the Tariff, and C$97 Million Came Back, followed the refunds through the courts.

Gross margin, the share of each sales dollar left after the cost of the goods sold, was 48.7 per cent in the quarter to August 30, 2026 without the refund, which Aritzia excludes from its own adjusted figures, up from 43.8 per cent a year earlier. That is also above the 44.9 per cent the company reported for fiscal 2026.

The outlook leaves refunds out entirely: "This outlook does not include any benefit from tariff refunds," the October 8 release says. The company attributes its first-half margin gain primarily to a higher initial mark-up, which is the margin set when goods are first priced, to spreading store occupancy and other fixed costs over more sales, and to lower markdowns. The costs that remain are in its own words too: the gain was "partially offset by the impact of additional tariffs and the elimination of the de minimis exemption", the U.S. rule that had let low-value parcels in without duty.

Inventory was C$714.9 million at August 30, 2026, up 35.8 per cent on a year earlier. Stock grew more slowly than second-quarter sales and faster than the 23 to 27 per cent growth the company guides for the third quarter. A softer season would show there first, through markdowns. Ms. Wong described the quarter's sales as "driven by high demand for our Summer and Fall collections, supported by optimal inventory positioning."

The expansion is paid for out of cash

Aritzia had C$528.1 million of cash and cash equivalents at August 30, 2026, enough to pay for the roughly C$250 million of net capital spending it plans for fiscal 2027 twice over, and no long-term debt on its statement of financial position. Its revolving credit facility, a standing line it can draw and repay, totals C$300.0 million, runs to October 8, 2030 and was undrawn at August 30, 2026, per the interim financial statements.

The larger commitment is rent. A lease liability is the rent a company has committed to pay on its stores over the remaining lease terms, discounted to today's value. Aritzia's lease liabilities were C$1.18 billion at August 30, 2026, more than twice its cash, and they are the cost of the boutique network the plan depends on.

The business also produces cash. Free cash flow, the company's non-IFRS measure of the cash its operations generate after lease payments and capital spending, was C$214.3 million in the 13 weeks to August 30, 2026, a figure that includes the refund cash.

Some of that cash has gone back to shareholders. Under its normal course issuer bids, the exchange-approved programs for buying its own shares in the market, Aritzia repurchased C$191.6 million of subordinate voting shares in the first half of fiscal 2027, close to the C$205.7 million of free cash flow, refund cash included, it generated in those 26 weeks after a slightly negative first quarter, and a further C$80.0 million from August 31, 2026 to October 7, 2026, per the release.

The next plan starts from an outlook already published

The new targets are the Investor Day's to announce. The 2022 plan carried targets for revenue, profit margin, boutique openings and online sales; the company has described the new one only as its "next long term strategic plan".

The starting point is in the second-quarter release. Third-quarter fiscal 2027 net revenue is guided to C$1.275 billion to C$1.325 billion, growth of about 23 to 27 per cent, slower than in the second quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA, the company's non-IFRS measure of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, is expected at about 20.0 per cent of fiscal 2027 net revenue, against 17.8 per cent in fiscal 2026; the 2022 plan set about 19 per cent for fiscal 2027.

Ms. Wong's account of the weeks since August 30 is in the same release: "Our momentum has continued into the third quarter, driven by the positive response to our Fall product and growing affinity for our brand." She said she looks forward "to sharing how we plan to build on this momentum" at the Investor Day.

Aritzia reached the revenue goal of its 2022 plan a year early, and on October 27 it sets out the next one.