Hudson’s Bay, Canada’s oldest retailer, has applied for creditor protection and intends to restructure its business.
The department store dates back to 1670, and he said it was facing “tremendous” pressures, including gentle consumer spending, trade tensions between the United States and Canada, and a pandemic decline after the pandemic hit in downtown store traffic.
“Although this is a necessary step to strengthen the foundation and ensure we remain an important part of the Canadian retail landscape, despite forcing other retailers to exit the market amid challenges throughout the sector,” Hudson Bay President and CEO Liz Rodbell said in a press release.
“It’s more important now than ever that Canadian businesses are protected and successful.”
The company’s clumsy footprint covers 80 locations ranging from clothing, household goods to cosmetics and furniture.
Through a licensing agreement, it also owns three SAKS Fifth Avenue stores and 13 SAKS at its fifth location in Canada, which will continue to operate.
Saks Global has the location of SAKS in the United States and the Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores have nothing to do with creditor protection applications.
As part of the filing, Hudson Bay said it is exploring several strategic options to strengthen its business and that it will not make a promise but is committed to retaining work where possible.
The company has been in a deterioration over the past few years as it closed several stores and carried out several rounds of layoffs.
In planning previous cuts, it cites “challenging headwinds”, which makes it necessary to cut its workforce and exit from the store rebuilding of the Oakridge Park mall in Vancouver.
Signs of trouble on store floor
Hudson Bay’s return is evident throughout the department store floor.
When it closed the food truck market in its crown location west of Queen Street in Toronto, it casually filled food counters and display boxes with an increasing number of Zellers merchandise instead of reshaping the wings.
Even recently, grocer Pusateri’s and coffee supplier Nescafé took a break and cleared the store further, which appeared to be in disrepair, with escalators often destroyed and many departments begging for some TLC.
Last year, Hudson’s Bay made some tweaks to its portfolio, bringing Target’s Kid cat & Jack and returning Womenswear Banners Ann Taylor and Loft to Canada. However, some people feel that the change does not work.
“I’m just trying to see what’s going on and cricket,” Liza Amlani, co-founder of the retail strategy group, told Canadian media last summer.
“No one. The product is downgraded, tracks and tracks too much, which tells me, either buy teams [or] The planning team has no idea what Canadian clients are looking for. ”
Amlani’s comments were posted on Hudson’s parent company HBC experienced a glimmer of hope last summer as it bought Neiman Marcus and its Bergdorf Goodman Banner for $2.65 billion.
HBC’s plan is to combine the luxury department store with Saks Fifth Avenue and to become the fifth chain owned by a new entity called Saks Global.
As part of the deal, e-commerce giant Amazon and software giant Salesforce are expected to become investors in SAKS Global.
Some Neiman Marcus staff were fired as HBC prepares to consolidate its U.S. office space and cut banners on its Dallas flagship store.
Meanwhile, its recent Canadian rival Simons is in growth mode and has a $75 million expansion plan. The 185-year-old dry goods store-turned-resident store chain will open in Toronto’s Yorkdale and Eaton Center Malls, which has long been the host later this year.
For sale to NRDC Equity Partners in 2008
HBC Modern History The architect behind much of modern history is American real estate giant Richard Baker, whose National Realty and Development Corp. Equity Partners purchased Hudson Bay from the legacy of late South Carolina businessman Jerry Businessan in 2008 for $1.1 billion.
Baker made the company public in 2012, simply reversing the route through a bid to acquire it, having to sweeten it twice before it accepts it in early 2020.
Under the privatization vote, Baker faced criticism for the stock decline when HBC took the helm and did not make better use of the company’s real estate, including several precious locations in high-traffic shopping districts.
After the privatization approval, he admitted there was work to be done and said he would start with a new website in Hudson Bay.
“The patient capital and a long-term perspective will be needed to fully unlock HBC’s potential at the intersection of real estate and retail,” he said in March 2020.
