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Portolano Canada Shuts Its Doors
Portolano Products Canada Manager Sandra Shay in the Portolano mini-museum formerly located in Prescott, April 2024.
By David Graham
Portolano’s outlet store in Prescott has closed down, marking the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Portolano Products (Canada) was the company’s only Canadian distributor and was a bonded warehouse shipping premiere quality leather and cashmere fashions worldwide. It had been a mainstay in Prescott since 1986 and was the sole remaining outlet store of its kind in eastern Ontario.
Manager Sandra Shay says it was time to switch from bricks and mortar to an online-only store. “We’re divesting and re-organizing. We have a New York office and I will run a website for Canada. We don’t need the old brick building and warehouse anymore to do the job, even though it’s beloved in this town.”
There’s a lot of history in that old building located at 840 Walker Street. James Elliott, a skilled carpenter, built Prescott’s first carpentry shop and planing mill on the site in 1890. Elliott Brothers later manufactured wooden spools for electrical wires and burial caskets.
Children playing hide and seek in those caskets is just one of the tales heard by Karen Price, who curated the Portolano mini museum, with help from the Grenville County Historical Society. “When we set up the museum at the store we heard stories about how successful Portolano and earlier, the Fischl Glove company was, at bonding with the community. It was more than just a local business that grew. Founder Louis Fischl brought over 200 Czech and Italian Jews in the late 30s and early 40s to work here in Prescott. They escaped the Nazis and thrived, working at a company that emphasized top quality work.”
Portolano mini-museum, formerly located at Portolano Canada outlet store, 840 Walker Street, Prescott.
The human touch that went into glove making ended in the late 1960s. Rising costs forced Fischl to become a wholesaler but the company was finished by 1985.
Enter the Portolano family, experts in tanning and gloving in Italy since 1895. Due to customer demand in North America for quality leather gloves, Portolano Products established operations in New York and Toronto. In 1986 the company bought the old factory at 840 Walker Street and built a new warehouse next door. Timing and location were everything, says Ms. Shay, who has managed the operation since 1990. “We were a bonded warehouse, keeping product without paying duty. We added products like cashmere apparel and shipped all over the U.S., Australia, the world.”
But times, and business, have changed. Ms. Shay says, “Portolano’s now has a big warehouse in Mt. Vernon New York. Customers can’t wait 72 hours for us to clear a product through customs channels. Sellers never touch a product and customers go directly to web sites.”
The closing of the Portolano’s outlet brings back memories of other closures in Grenville County, including RCA Victor, Newell Manufacturing, Hathaway Shirts and Ferrox Iron. Markets change. Technologies change. Customer needs change. Making things by the hands of skilled tradespeople is from a bygone era. And it’s something that is missed.
But treating customers like royalty will be emphasized by Ms. Shay as she develops the next stage of her career. “I’m doing what I enjoy. I am re-developing the Portolano Canada web boutique that will offer that feeling of specialness and prove you can sell very high quality gloves on the internet.”
Artifacts and information from the Portolano mini museum will be distributed to the Prescott Museum and Visitor Centre, along with the Grenville County Historical Society and some previous owners.
Enter the Portolano family, experts in tanning and gloving in Italy since 1895. Due to customer demand in North America for quality leather gloves, Portolano Products established operations in New York and Toronto. In 1986 the company bought the old factory at 840 Walker Street and built a new warehouse next door. Timing and location were everything, says Ms. Shay, who has managed the operation since 1990. “We were a bonded warehouse, keeping product without paying duty. We added products like cashmere apparel and shipped all over the U.S., Australia, the world.”
But times, and business, have changed. Ms. Shay says, “Portolano’s now has a big warehouse in Mt. Vernon New York. Customers can’t wait 72 hours for us to clear a product through customs channels. Sellers never touch a product and customers go directly to web sites.”
The closing of the Portolano’s outlet brings back memories of other closures in Grenville County, including RCA Victor, Newell Manufacturing, Hathaway Shirts and Ferrox Iron. Markets change. Technologies change. Customer needs change. Making things by the hands of skilled tradespeople is from a bygone era. And it’s something that is missed.
But treating customers like royalty will be emphasized by Ms. Shay as she develops the next stage of her career. “I’m doing what I enjoy. I am re-developing the Portolano Canada web boutique that will offer that feeling of specialness and prove you can sell very high quality gloves on the internet.”
Artifacts and information from the Portolano mini museum will be distributed to the Prescott Museum and Visitor Centre, along with the Grenville County Historical Society and some previous owners.
