Hudson’s Bay to liquidate all but 6 stores starting Monday
After a week spent seeking a lifeline, an Ontario court has given Canada’s oldest company permission to start liquidating all but six of its stores on Monday.
The Friday approval from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne allows the retailer to begin selling off inventory at most of its 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th shops in Canada.
“This is the art of the possible, and we are where we are today. In my view, there is no other alternative,” Osborne said Friday.
The six stores being saved from the liquidation sale include a flagship location on Yonge Street in Toronto, as well as a store in the city’s Yorkdale Mall and another farther north in Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ont. The remaining three are in Montreal, the Carrefour Laval mall and Pointe-Claire, Que.
The company didn’t say how deep discounts will be during the liquidation, running until June 15. It will vacate all liquidating stores by June 30.
But the move to save six locations could save some of the 9,364 jobs that would have been lost had the company needed to liquidate all of its stores, which was the plan until recent sales exceeded expectations.
“If a solution can be found, there is an opportunity to pull additional stores out of the liquidation. But if a restructuring solution is not found very quickly, [the six] will be added to the liquidation sale,” Hudson’s Bay lawyer Ashley Taylor said in court on Friday.
The ruling marks a glimmer of hope for the company, which filed for creditor protection on March 7. The request showed the company was facing significant financial challenges and was desperately in need of cash to keep making even basic payments that sustain the business.
While the retailer suffered from reduced consumer spending, trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada and a post-pandemic slide in downtown store traffic, Hudson’s Bay deferred payments to landlords and suppliers and eventually had to resort to seeking financing, which pushed it toward liquidation.
The possibility of the 355-year-old company disappearing triggered a flurry of sales in recent days from customers looking to snap up apparel, home goods and Hudson’s Bay’s famed point blankets which date back to 1779, when the fur trade was in full swing.
Earlier this week, its Toronto flagship location on Queen Street West was close to selling out of items bearing the brand’s iconic green, red, yellow and indigo stripes. Sales were so strong between March 8 and 14 that the company made $21 million, beating its own estimates by about $7.4 million, court documents show.
After more than 350 years in business, Canada’s oldest company is teetering on the brink of collapse — but who’s to…
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