The story
Early history
The diversification of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) became necessary with the decline of fur trade in the latter half of the 19th century, and the Deed of Surrender in which ownership of the North-Western Territory and Rupert's Land was transferred from HBC to the newly established country of Canada in 1870. The first Hudson's Bay Company store opened in 1881 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with an inventory consisting of dry goods, groceries, and hardware. HBC reorganized into fur trade, lands sales, and retail divisions in 1910. With the guidance of a director from the British department store Harrods, they began construction of full-line department stores in 1913. This "modernization program" resulted in the "original six" department stores in Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta; Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia; Winnipeg in Manitoba; and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan.
Hudson's Bay Company made inroads to the provinces of Ontario and Quebec with its acquisition of the Montreal-based Morgan's department store chain in November 1960.
Following renaming to the Bay
Hudson's Bay Company adopted the name the Bay for its retail stores in 1965. The stores in Quebec continued with the Morgan's banner until they were renamed the Bay in 1972. That same year, Hudson's Bay purchased Ottawa's Freimans department store and moved from the former Morgan's building on Sparks Street to the Freiman building on Rideau Street, closer to competing Ogilvy's and Caplan's.
The Bay further expanded its presence in Eastern Canada by absorbing the Simpsons department store chain in 1991 and in Western Canada by taking over many former Woodward's outlets in 1993. The Toronto Queen Street flagship store was previously a Simpsons department store. In 1998, Hudson's Bay Company acquired the Canadian operations of Kmart and although the vast majority of the 112 locations either converted to Zellers or closed altogether, a few became The Bay stores. Former Kmart locations were turned into the Bay specialty outlets, with the exception of the location at Georgian Mall, which was converted to a regular Bay store. Following the acquisition of the former department store Simpson’s, Hudson’s Bay retained 30% of shares in Simpsons-Sears. This was later sold back to Sears Holdings.
In 1991, Hudson's Bay Company stopped selling fur. In 1997, the company reopened its fur salons, including a wider assortment of high-end designer furs. Fur salons included many exclusive fur designers, including Louis Féraud, Givenchy, Black Diamond Mink, and Grosvenor.
On 16 July 2008, following the death of CEO Jerry Zucker, the company announced that it had been purchased by the US firm NRDC Equity Partners, which owned Saks Fifth Avenue.
In August 2008, NRDC hired Bonnie Brooks as president and chief executive officer of the Hudson's Bay Company. As the result of market research, Brooks began to focus on bolstering high-end fashion as a growth segment, which included a major revamp of the chain's selection of labels, and a renovation and relaunch of The Room—a luxury women's department at the Queen Street location. During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the company used a heritage-oriented campaign to promote the Bay and an accompanying line of Olympic-themed apparel, which was considered to be a significant success. In 2010, the Queen Street location saw a 22% increase in year-over-year sales. In 2011, the Bay launched White Space—a new younger-skewing "contemporary" department—at selected locations.
Following renaming to Hudson's Bay
Hudson's Bay Company announced alongside its initial public offering that the Bay stores would be renamed Hudson's Bay beginning in October 2012, replacing the stylized yellow "B" used since 1965 with the Hudson's Bay wordmark and coat of arms. The new Hudson's Bay rebranding campaign was officially launched on 6 March 2013.
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On 31 August 2019, the company announced that all 15 of its Dutch locations would be sold by year end, the final chapter of HBC's European venture.
On 4 March 2020, American financier, Richard A. Baker, who had already been governor and executive board chairman of HBC since NRDC seized control, took over as CEO. Commentators noted that this was part of Baker's "consolidation of power" in an effort to sell off property it owned to benefit investors in the short-term. Doug Stephens noted that Baker's ambitions were about "about liquidating real estate holdings and converting any remaining assets to cash".
Hudson's Bay stores were temporarily closed beginning on 17 March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The stores began gradually reopening on 19 May.
In August 2021, HBC split the online business of Hudson's Bay into its own separate division. The online store was branded as the Bay, while the physical stores retained the Hudson's Bay name. In 2022, the two businesses were reunited in the same division.
In 2023, Hudson's Bay opened Zellers sections of up to 10,000 square feet (930 m2) each in 78 of its locations, using the store-within-a-store format.
Liquidation and closure of stores
On 7 March 2025, the Hudson's Bay Company filed for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. The company stated it failed to secure financing, as well as constant delays in paying suppliers. Saks Global, parent of the Saks Fifth Avenue stores in the United States and the Neiman Marcus retail chain, was not part of the filing for creditor protection and continues to remain operational.
On 14 March 2025, HBC announced that it intended to liquidate and shutter all 80 Hudson's Bay stores if no financing could be secured, as well as all 3 Saks Fifth Avenue and 13 Saks Off 5th locations in Canada, for a combined total of 96 locations to be shuttered. On 21 March 2025, an Ontario court approved the liquidation of 74 Hudson’s Bay, 2 Saks Fifth Avenue, and all 13 Saks Off 5th locations. Liquidation sales for those stores began on 24 March 2025.
Between 8 and 14 March, HBC recorded almost $21 million in sales, about $7.4 million more than expected. This allowed HBC to repay its $16-million debtor-in-possession loan. HBC had $950 million of debt that it owed to landlords, suppliers, banks, and governments. In total, it has almost 1900 creditors.
Six Hudson's Bay locations with higher sales were initially spared from the liquidation. This included the flagship stores in Toronto and Montreal, and the locations at Yorkdale, Hillcrest Mall, Carrefour Laval and Fairview Pointe-Claire. However, due to court rulings deeming it "low probability" to find a buyer to keep the remaining six stores afloat, HBC announced liquidation of all Hudson's Bay stores in April 2025, with final closures no later than 15 June. All Hudson's Bay stores permanently closed and ceased retail operation on 1 June 2025. Over 8,000 employees were laid off, which was nearly 90 percent of the retailer's workforce. Hudson's Bay kept a small percentage of its employees, nearly 1,000, in order to conclude fixture sales at its stores, who were also terminated when its distribution centres closed two weeks later. As of 16 June 2025, approximately 118 employees remain in order to wind down and dissolve the Hudson's Bay Company.
In May 2025, Canadian Tire acquired the Hudson's Bay's intellectual property pending court approval. Canadian Tire will pay $30 million for the deal, which includes the overall Hudson’s Bay brand, its stripes line, its coat of arms, and brands including Gluckstein, Distinctly Home, and Hudson North. HBC received 17 bids before closing a deal with Canadian Tire. At that time, there were also 12 bids for 39 of the Hudson's Bay store leases, of which Canadian Tire was one of the bidders.
Later in May 2025, businesswoman Ruby Liu placed bids for 28 store leases, pending court or landlord approval. The stores were located in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Liu planned to launch a new department store chain with the acquired leases. Liu's company Central Walk already owned three shopping centres in British Columbia: Tsawwassen Mills Mall, Mayfair Shopping Centre and Woodgrove Centre. On 23 June, the court approved Liu's acquisition of the 3 leases where Liu's company was the landlord. On 24 October, the court sided with landlords for 23 disputed store leases and rejected Liu's bid to acquire them. The judge cited her lack of experience at the leadership level representing a significant risk to the operational viability of launching and managing 25 large department stores in the contemplated timeline.
Ivanhoe Realties Inc. reached a deal to acquire one store lease at Metropolis at Metrotown, a shopping mall in Metrotown, Burnaby that its parent company, Ivanhoe Cambridge, already owned. The purchase price of the lease was $20,000.
In October 2025, Canadian Tire announced they will be marketing Hudson's Bay Point Blankets at their stores.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hudson's Bay (department store), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3