The chief executive officer of The Aldo Group Inc. says he no plans to take the company public.

​“We will never go public,” David Bensadoun told BNN Bloomberg’s Paige Ellis. “We’re a family-owned business and we enjoy being a privately-held company. Being on the public markets is not something we aspire to.”

The comments come amid a tepid market for initial public offerings in Canada, as recently demonstrated by GFL Environmental Inc.’s decision to cancel its IPO earlier this month.  

Bensadoun, who has served as CEO of the shoe retailer since April 2017, offered some optimism when it comes to the Canadian retail landscape, saying this country is better protected from the retail "apocalypse" than the United States.

He added Aldo is always looking for new stores but noted it is also hoping to “prune” its locations in the “over-stored” United States.

“We’re looking at pruning the portfolio, and there will be stores that will close,” Bensadoun said. “But we’re always looking for new ones and we’re always looking to see which [locations] should close.”

“I think the U.S. will be an area where we will be more critical with our portfolio pruning – our management of the stores.”

Aldo, which was founded by Aldo Bensadoun in Montreal in 1972, now operates 3,000 stores in more than 100 countries.