Holt Renfrew

Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited 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 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.