TORONTO (May 6, 2013) — Canadian Tire Corp. plans to open a "Canadian Tire Cloud Computing Centre" in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in October.
The 28,000-sq.-ft. site will house a digital content warehouse, application lab, testing lab and high performance data center and will serve as the core digital hub for the company, Canadian Tire said.
The center will provide the retailer and its subsidiaries with 20 times more computing power and 10 times more network bandwidth than its existing technology infrastructure, the company said. The center will add 50 employees in its first year.
The operation also will feature an "App Factory" that will develop advanced digital solutions for in-store and online shopping.
"The center is a foundational piece to the digital work we're implementing across the family of companies. As retail evolves into e-tail, the center will accelerate this revolution," said Eugene Roman, Canadian Tire's chief technology officer. "The applications we are developing will power improvements to back-end operations as well as enhance the customers' in-store shopping experience and turbo-charge their interaction with our brands online."
Canadian Tire said it has been investing in technology to improve store operations and digitally power customer interactions in-store and online, including recently launching an interactive online catalog.
Canadian Tire's family of companies includes Canadian Tire Retail, Mark's, Sport Chek, Sports Experts, National Sports, Atmosphere, Partsource, Gas+ and Canadian Tire Financial Services, with more than 1,700 retail outlets and gasoline stations across Canada.