1) Hudson’s Bay is due to liquidate all but six of its stores starting on Monday (24th)

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Tara Deschamps, March 21, 2025

Here’s how the process will unfold.

Which stores are part of the liquidation?

Hudson’s Bay wants to liquidate all but six of its stores. It has 80 stores under the Hudson’s Bay banner, as well as the three Saks Fifth Avenue stores and 13 Saks Off 5th locations in Canada that it owns through a licensing agreement.

Those stores are divided between 32 locations in Ontario, 16 in B.C., 13 each in Alberta and Quebec, and two in each of Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan.

Saks Fifth Avenue’s Canadian sites are split between Ontario and Alberta, while Saks Off 5th has stores in Ontario, B.C., Alberta, Quebec and Manitoba. U.S. stores are not part of the liquidation.

Which stores will stay open?

The six stores being saved – for now — are the flagship location on Yonge Street in Toronto, as well as a store in the city’s Yorkdale mall and another at Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ont. 

The remaining three are in the Montreal area, the downtown location as well as the Carrefour Laval mall and Pointe-Claire, Que. stores.

Could this change?

The company was able to pull some stores out of liquidation because sales have been so high since its creditor protection case began earlier this month.

However, if it doesn’t find a long-term solution, Hudson’s Bay lawyer Ashley Taylor said the six locations could eventually be liquidated as well.

On the other hand, if it secures additional financing, he said the company may be able to save additional stores.

What is the timeline for liquidation?

The retailer says it intends to start the liquidation on Monday and wrap it up by June 15.

It would vacate the stores entirely by June 30.

How deep could discounts be?

Hudson’s Bay hasn’t said. When Nordstrom left Canada in 2023, liquidation sales began with discounts of five and 10 per cent, surprising some shoppers. 

The discounts grew steeper as time went on — but much of the merchandise was sold early on, leaving a limited selection of items behind.

Will the Bay’s “stores within a store” be included in the liquidation?

It depends. Hudson’s Bay lawyer Elizabeth Pillon told court on March 17 that some of these stores within a store have asked for inventory to be removed, but others are interested in participating in liquidation. She did not name which vendors fall into which group.

What happens to Hudson’s Bay gift cards?

The company will stop accepting gift cards after April 6 and has already stopped selling them. As of Feb. 1, Canadian customers had outstanding gift cards worth a total value of about $24.2 million.

What happens to Hudson’s Bay Rewards?

The loyalty program has been paused while the creditor protection process continues. More than 8.2 million Canadian customers hold about $58.5 million in unused points.

Will the company accept returns? 

Hudson’s Bay says purchases at its liquidating locations will be final sale.

What happens to staff?

The liquidation places 9,364 jobs at risk, the bulk of which are in Ontario. 

Some 121 employees will be encouraged to stay on with a total of $2.7 million in monetary incentives paid by Sept. 30, Taylor said Monday. The company asked for the terms of this payment process to be sealed to maintain employee confidentially.

Employee lawyer Hatnay said the winding down of Hudson’s Bay will amount to one of the largest mass terminations in the country since Sears Canada folded.

What happens to worker pensions, benefits and severance?

The company’s pension plan had 4,000 active and inactive members with defined benefit entitlements and about 17,000 active and inactive members with defined contribution entitlements as of Dec. 31, 2024. Members of the pensions worked at Hudson’s Bay as well as its acquisitions Simpsons, Zellers and Kmart Canada.

The pension plan is “sufficiently funded and is able to satisfy its liabilities,” court documents say. 

Staff have been told their pensions are safe, but a supplemental retirement pension plan, which Hatnay said covers executives and senior managers, is underfunded by millions, as are some benefits funds, according to court documents.

What does this mean for Hudson’s Bay’s head office?

Hudson’s Bay leases an office tower in downtown Toronto on Bay Street, which is managed by a third party. It is not part of the liquidation.

2) ‘The loading dock was full’: Brands pull products from Hudson’s Bay amid liquidation

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Tara Deschamps, March 24, 2025

The Hugo Boss section sits empty at The Bay at Fairview Mall in Toronto on Saturday, March 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

When Olivia Glauberzon pulled up to the loading docks at two Hudson’s Bay stores last Wednesday, she had suitcases in tow and a plan to fill them with remaining product from After9, her company selling athleisurewear for moms.

As she got out of the car at the flagship downtown Toronto and Oakville, Ont., stores, she noticed she had plenty of company.

“The loading dock was full of small cars like mine, so that’s how I had a feeling there were a lot of vendors in the Bay that day doing what I was doing,” said Glauberzon.

She wanted to take back her apparel because she can make more by selling it herself rather than leaving it to be caught up in the Hudson’s Bay clear-out.

The rush to rescue merchandise came ahead of liquidation sales that began Monday at all but six of the department stores run by Canada’s oldest company, which filed for creditor protection earlier in the month.

The sales are expected to gut most of the retailer’s inventory by June 15 by offering discounts on everything from apparel to home goods and cosmetics.

Hudson’s Bay did not immediately respond to a request for comment on brands that took back merchandise from its 80 Hudson’s Bay, 13 Saks Off Fifth and three Saks Fifth Avenue stores, which are almost all being liquidated. 

However, lawyers for the retailer said last week in court that some brands were due to participate in the liquidation but others were fleeing. 

The selloff will see participating companies, who are about to have one less place to sell their wares, take a hit on how much they make on merchandise sold through Hudson’s Bay. Seeing heavily discounted products may even cheapen the consumer perception of their brand.

These factors are why Elisha Ballantyne, a Toronto-based retail consultant who has worked for Target, Walmart and Zellers, figured brands scrambled to take back their merchandise.

“If your agreement (with the Bay) was always that can’t go further than this discount or you can’t off-price my product, then you don’t want to see that happen at any time,” she said.

For brands that can stand to take the reputational risk of seeing high-end merchandise slashed in price, she said there is also a question of whether they will get paid for sales of their products.

Hudson’s Bay’s court filings show it has a 26-page list of creditors, including a who’s who of the fashion and houseware industries. Brands ranging from Ralph Lauren, Columbia Sportswear and Smeg are collectively owed millions.

Hugo Boss Canada is listed as being owed more than $3.1 million.

Over the weekend, The Canadian Press spotted naked mannequins and empty racks in a portion of the Fairview Mall store in Toronto dedicated to the luxury menswear brand.

Last week, the scene was much the same at the Toronto flagship at Yonge Street and Queen Street West, which is not part of the liquidation. 

“We are of course monitoring the situation very closely and are also in close contact with Hudson’s Bay,” Hugo Boss spokesperson Carolin Westermann said in an email, when asked about the brand’s apparent disappearance from Hudson’s Bay.

“But we ask for your understanding that we cannot provide any further details here at the moment.”

The Estée Lauder Cos. are also due to pull back from Hudson’s Bay stores, but its retreat appears to mostly be confined to its workforce.

A spokesperson for the beauty conglomerate said staff will no longer preside over its Mac counters come May 31. 

The company said the decision was timed to Hudson’s Bay’s recent filing for creditor protection but was meant to help it focus on “consumer-preferred, high-growth channels.”

“We remain deeply committed to our consumers and employees in Canada and will carry out this transition with the utmost respect and care for our teams,” the statement read.

Estée Lauder Cos. is listed in court documents as an unsecured Hudson’s Bay creditor owed more than $9.3 million. The same filing shows its Tom Ford beauty brand is owed about $368,900, while its Kilian, Le Labo and Editions du Parfum subsidiaries are owed roughly $40,000, $32,800 and $17,400, respectively.

For brands, especially ones with a luxury pedigree, liquidation discounts don’t only devalue their worth but can also put a dent in a company’s sales and relationships with other retailers that stock products from the business at full price, Ballantyne said.

“If you’re off pricing and clearing out Kitchen Aid, when that’s available at Walmart, at Best Buy, at Canadian Tire, it’s going to really hurt those other retailers,” she said.

In addition to Hudson’s Bay, Glauberzon’s brand After9 sold her items online and through other boutiques 

She thought it didn’t make sense to leave her leggings, sports bras and tank tops sold off at Hudson’s Bay because not only can she make a higher profit clearing out the merchandise herself, but she would also be “losing control over how much they could get discounted or marked down.”

 “The cost per unit because they’re made in Canada is $50… so I can barely handle a 50 per cent sell-off scenario, let alone like 60, 70, 80 per cent,” she said.

That Hudson’s Bay has wound up in a liquidation situation is no surprise to Glauberzon, who started selling her apparel in Hudson’s Bay in 2022, when the retailer approached with the opportunity, 

“It was so exciting. I drafted a whole business plan where really a lot of our revenue was like banking on that Bay relationship working out,” she said.

“I spent all my time in Queen Street. I was there four or five times a week, pumping the section anytime I could.”

Some of the Toronto-based company’s best sales days came when it hosted events at the Bay, where moms got a glam session and then posed for photos with their kids.

But things took a turn when she noticed store traffic dwindling and the Hudson’s Bay employee at head office who had been her liaison over the years left and Glauberzon wasn’t given a replacement.

When her contract was nearing expiry, she tried to contact head office many times but hasn’t had a response since February 2024 — more than a year ago. 

She left her products at the Bay, using a commission-based model where the retailer would pay After9 a percentage of what was sold, but stopped visiting the sales floor so often and redistributed her attention to other sales channels.

“It’s not really the revenue that makes this sad for us,” she said.

“It’s more that we’re losing an in-person shopping experience for moms.”

3) (Updated) Hudson’s Bay likely to find lots of buyers for assets like leases, stripes: experts

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Tara Deschamps, March 25, 2025

Retail experts expect Hudson’s Bay to see little love for Zeddy but a whole lot for its store leases and trademark stripes as it starts soliciting buyers for its assets.

Canada’s oldest company, which is on the brink of failure as it liquidates all but six stores and hunts for a way to stay alive, was scheduled to start seeking buyers for its most prized possessions this week.

The search will unfold in two parts: one for leases and another for the retailer’s remaining assets.

It’s not clear from court documents what the non-lease assets are and Hudson’s Bay did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the sales process, but experts believe the processes allow for a wide range of offers.

They expect the retailer’s brands — Stripes, Hudson North, Gluckstein and Zellers — to be for sale.

Many agree that the company’s most lucrative assets are its leases, which cover gigantic spaces in high-traffic neighbourhoods and anchor tenant spots in shopping centres.

While it’s unlikely another retailer will want to take over all that space, experts say there are bound to be takers if the property is broken up into smaller units or offered for residential use.

“Nobody’s going to step in and take all those locations in one fell swoop,” said Carl Boutet, chief strategist at Montreal-based retail advisory company Studio RX.

“Slow and intentional. That’s the name of the game right now, especially in this environment.”

He expects residential developers, entertainment businesses and other retailers to be among the parties that express interest in the leases by the April 7 deadline. Binding bids will be due May 1 with a final decision to be made sometime after. 

Another hot item will be the company’s stripes. Hudson’s Bay’s green, red, yellow and indigo branding dates back to 1779, when the company with fur trading origins adapted the motif from point blankets bearing only gold stripes that were traded by settlers in the 1600s.

The company has since splashed the stripes across everything from coats and Barbie dolls to bath towels and candles.

Grant Packard, an associate professor of marketing at York University who previously held a vice-president role at Indigo Books & Music Inc., said neither the stripes nor the blankets will die because they’re both so iconic.

“The blanket is going to be around in some shape or form in the future,” he said. 

“We’re not going to lose it.”

He imagines another Canadian brand like Roots or Red Canoe will try to make an offer that keeps the stripes alive but in a smaller form, like a specialty shop within larger stores.

Elisha Ballantyne, a Toronto-based retail consultant who has worked for Target, Walmart and Zellers, agrees the stripes have potential to fit into “a shop-in-shop” concept at a retailer like Canadian Tire or Hudson’s Bay’s rival department store La Maison Simons. 

She thinks a buyer could expand the stripes branding across a whole host of other products and take advantage of the growing buy Canadian sentiment.

“Right now, with the pro-Canadiana, people want to support that,” she said. “I think that’s probably going to be one of the best assets that (the Bay) has.”

Its housewares brand Gluckstein, a partnership with interior designer Brian Gluckstein, as well as apparel line Hudson North and its Distinctly Home bed and bath products may also be of interest to buyers. 

“Everything has a price,” said Boutet. 

“There’ll be liquidators that’ll be coming in and probably picking up some inventory in volume to get a special deal, but will they continue that brand afterwards? It’s going to be a real challenge.”

Anyone wanting such assets from the Bay has until April 7 to express an interest through a process separate from the lease monetization efforts. If several competing bids come in, court documents show the company will hold auctions around May 16 and the winner will be expected to seek court approval by May 30.

Hudson’s Bay hasn’t said what it is looking for in potential buyers, nor how much it wants to fetch.

If the Zellers brand sells, Boutet imagines it won’t be for much because the subsidiary lacks the success it had decades ago. Zellers dates back to the 1920s but Hudson’s Bay purchased a majority stake in it in 1978. 

It shut down most Zellers stores by 2013 but Hudson’s Bay revived the chain in 2022 through shops within Bay stores that mostly sold goods from Australian brand Anko. Plush versions of its teddy bear mascot Zeddy were also on offer. 

The Bay operated some promotional food trucks to drum up attention for Zellers when it relaunched, but they paled in comparison to the diners the company once owned in stores.

“Maybe somebody says, ‘If I can get it for $1, maybe I’ll try something with it and open a diner called Zellers or something,'” Boutet mused.

Anyone who tries to revive the traditional retail side of the business selling home goods will have a tougher time, Ballantyne said, because Walmart dominates the discount market Zellers plays in.

“(A bidder) would have to be someone who really understands retail and that you can’t compete on the lowest price anymore because that’s Walmart’s angle,” she said.

“There’s nostalgia for it, but the challenge was Zellers wasn’t really competing well against Walmart at the time, so why would they now?”