Hudson's Bay Company

[Northern Light]

With rumours flying as to the future of Sak's in Canada.................

HBC is apparently in the running to buy US dept. store Kohl's. Maybe even the front-runner, with possible visions of expanding it to Canada.

Hudson’s Bay Co. likely front-runner in bid for Kohl’s: source

Canadian department store chain Hudson’s Bay Co. is the likely front-runner in a bidding war for budget department store Kohl’s, a source familiar with the matter told The Post.

nypost.com

Of course, HBC made similar noises about Lord and Taylor, did indeed buy it, and then proceeded to gut it...........but I digress.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

With rumours flying as to the future of Sak's in Canada.................

HBC is apparently in the running to buy US dept. store Kohl's. Maybe even the front-runner, with possible visions of expanding it to Canada.

Hudson’s Bay Co. likely front-runner in bid for Kohl’s: source

Canadian department store chain Hudson’s Bay Co. is the likely front-runner in a bidding war for budget department store Kohl’s, a source familiar with the matter told The Post.

nypost.com

Of course, HBC made similar noises about Lord and Taylor, did indeed buy it, and then proceeded to gut it...........but I digress.

Expanding/exporting a shrinking mode of retail - when they can barely run what they have here properly? Colour me unconvinced that this is anything but real estate/financial play.

AoD

 

[Student99]

With rumours flying as to the future of Sak's in Canada.................

HBC is apparently in the running to buy US dept. store Kohl's. Maybe even the front-runner, with possible visions of expanding it to Canada.

Hudson’s Bay Co. likely front-runner in bid for Kohl’s: source

Canadian department store chain Hudson’s Bay Co. is the likely front-runner in a bidding war for budget department store Kohl’s, a source familiar with the matter told The Post.

nypost.com

Of course, HBC made similar noises about Lord and Taylor, did indeed buy it, and then proceeded to gut it...........but I digress.

Genuinely curious- where do they get the money for these acquisitions... I've never thought of "The Bay" as all that popular or successful. What exactly is their moneymaker?

 

[Richard White]

Genuinely curious- where do they get the money for these acquisitions... I've never thought of "The Bay" as all that popular or successful. What exactly is their moneymaker?

Whatever it is, I'd be more concerned that their board allows it.

I get the distinct impression they are about to go the way of Gimbels given how many stupid acquisitions they are making.

None of their half baked ideas are working out with Target and Saks being notable examples.

Someone needs to be fired before the company is left to the history books.

 

[Northern Light]

Genuinely curious- where do they get the money for these acquisitions... I've never thought of "The Bay" as all that popular or successful. What exactly is their moneymaker?

HBC is now a private company; but its controlling shareholder is still Richard Baker.

Mr. Baker is the son of a Mall developer so has some money of his own. That said, his penchant is to generally buy things w/other people's money, including lots of debt.

The Prince of Lord & Taylor (Published 2011)

Anyone who thought Richard A. Baker was getting in over his head when he bought Lord & Taylor and the Hudson’s Bay Company must be reconsidering.

www.nytimes.com

When he bought Lord and Taylor, according the above article, he and his partners put down 25M of the 1.2B purchase price, borrowing 1B.
When he bought HBC for 1.3B (the 80% he didn't already own), he didn't spend $1 of his own money. He used 1B in debt and was backed to the tune of several hundred million from a Sovereign Wealth Fund in Abu Dhabi.

Since that time, HBC sold off Zellers leases to Target for 1.8B, he's also sold a lot of HBC's Real Estate off.

The Toronto store on Queen Street alone sold for 650M, the Vancouver store went for a similar number.
Meanwhile they also sold off the Manhattan flagship store of Lord & Taylor for 850M

The Bay as an operating company is not a big money maker, nor were any of the chains it has acquired. The value from Mr. Baker's perspective has always been the real estate.

 

[soundmuseum]

I'm not sure how recent the change is, but Sak's Queen Street is now only open from 11AM - 6PM every day. I'm not sure if that's a sign of how (badly) they're doing?
Meanwhile, The Bay has extended their opening hours to 10AM - 9PM every day except for Sundays 11AM - 6PM.

 

[Richard White]

I'm not sure how recent the change is, but Sak's Queen Street is now only open from 11AM - 6PM every day. I'm not sure if that's a sign of how (badly) they're doing?
Meanwhile, The Bay has extended their opening hours to 10AM - 9PM every day except for Sundays 11AM - 6PM.

To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if the Bay on Queen were to close in the near future.

It's an iconic store but whenever I go in there it's impossible to find anything I need. It's also too "out there" for most people.

The store itself is more of a tourist attraction than it is an actual Bay store in my opinion.

 

[Northern Light]

To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if the Bay on Queen were to close in the near future.

Not happening in the short/medium term.

The store itself is more of a tourist attraction than it is an actual Bay store in my opinion.

You mean the building? The interiors aren't all that exceptional.

 

[junctionist]

The Bay Queen Street is one of the few Bay stores that has had a good selection of men's clothing in the past 10 years. With that said, the Bay's selection in general has declined since the start of the pandemic. Something basic like a good quality pair of solid navy jeans with a contrasting stitch (e.g. orange stitching) can be difficult to find.

The website is annoying. For instance, when trying to narrow your search to a few brands, you have to click on each brand from the list in the sidebar. Each time you click on a brand, it reloads the results. A far better design would be to allow the user to hold the CTRL button and select multiple brands at a time before reloading. It feels like they're neglecting the small details that can make a big difference.

 

[Richard White]

The Bay Queen Street is one of the few Bay stores that has had a good selection of men's clothing in the past 10 years. With that said, the Bay's selection in general has declined since the start of the pandemic. Something basic like a good quality pair of solid navy jeans with a contrasting stitch (e.g. orange stitching) can be difficult to find.

The website is annoying. For instance, when trying to narrow your search to a few brands, you have to click on each brand from the list in the sidebar. Each time you click on a brand, it reloads the results. A far better design would be to allow the user to hold the CTRL button and select multiple brands at a time before reloading. It feels like they're neglecting the small details that can make a big difference.

I find the Bay on Queen to be a nightmare with all its little booths and sections for individual brands. In comparison, other stores have everything centralized in one location (Menswear, footwear, housewares).

As I said to @Northern Light the Bay on Queen is a tourist attraction. It is the store everyone wants to go to to say they were there like the department stores in NYC. Tourist visit here to say they were here, but would not go to other stores like Yorkdale, STC, what have you.

 

[junctionist]

I find the Bay on Queen to be a nightmare with all its little booths and sections for individual brands. In comparison, other stores have everything centralized in one location (Menswear, footwear, housewares).

As I said to @Northern Light the Bay on Queen is a tourist attraction. It is the store everyone wants to go to to say they were there like the department stores in NYC. Tourist visit here to say they were here, but would not go to other stores like Yorkdale, STC, what have you.

I don't find the booths to be that big of a deal. I think it's interesting that they've brought so many brands from around the world under one roof. I like how the store has a mix of low to high-end clothes. It's nice to compare the quality side by side. It's the Bay I typically go to because it's the easiest to access by bike.

Also, the Bay at Yorkdale gets plenty of tourists. Before the pandemic, you could find licence plates from around North America in the parking lot in the summer and hear people with American accents inside the store.

 

[Richard White]

I don't find the booths to be that big of a deal. I think it's interesting that they've brought so many brands from around the world under one roof. I like how the store has a mix of low to high-end clothes. It's nice to compare the quality side by side. It's the Bay I typically go to because it's the easiest to access by bike.

Also, the Bay at Yorkdale gets plenty of tourists. Before the pandemic, you could find licence plates from around North America in the parking lot in the summer and hear people with American accents inside the store.

I guess I just find the booths to be more hassle than they are worth. If I go to a store to buy jeans for example, I want to see every pair of jeans in one place to compare them. I don't want to go to 10 different places to buy one pair.

 

[Northern Light]

HBC is donating its Winnipeg flagship building to a Manitoba First Nations group. It will serve as a museum, cultural/administrative facility and ~300 units of affordable housing.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/sco-bay-redevelopment-1.6427100

From the above:

Additionally, there will be:

office space for Indigenous entrepreneurs
a health centre
a childcare facility
a seniors centre,
a memorial for residential school victims and survivors.

 

[Northern Light]

On the subject of Zellers, among other things..............announcements from HBC should be forthcoming very shortly.

 

[soundmuseum]

On the subject of Zellers, among other things..............announcements from HBC should be forthcoming very shortly.

Saks Fifth Avenue is being rebranded to Hudson's Bay, and Hudson's Bay is being rebranded to Zellers?