Hudson’s Bay Says It Expects to Liquidate

By Rob Bates | March 18, 2025

Hudson’s Bay, the iconic Canadian retailer that’s been in business for over 350 years, is warning that it will liquidate unless it secures alternative financing.

After filing for creditor prediction earlier this month, the department store chain said in a statement issued Friday that “it has only secured limited debtor-in-possession financing that will require the full liquidation of the entire business. A store-by-store liquidation process will begin as soon as next week.”

Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), which has 88 stores throughout Canada and employs more than 9,000 people, added that it still hopes “key stakeholders, particularly its landlord partners, will engage to explore a viable alternative restructuring path that could preserve jobs, tenancy in retail locations, and a company with deep historic significance before it is too late.”

In HBC’s March 7 bankruptcy application, chief financial officer Jennifer Bewley acknowledged that the company had long faced serious challenges. Not only has the growing popularity of e-commerce hurt Hudson’s Bay sales, but the COVID-19 pandemic reduced foot traffic at its downtown locations, as local office employees shifted to remote work, she said.

Since 2008, Hudson’s Bay Company has been owned by NRDC, the holding company controlled by real estate magnate Richard Baker. In 2013, Baker combined HBC with two other department store acquisitions, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor. (Lord & Taylor eventually liquidated.)

Last year, Saks acquired Neiman Marcus, and HBC was spun off into a separate business.

“[That] transaction significantly reduced the funded debt obligations on Hudson’s Bay’s Canadian business, which then became separately financed with stand-alone credit facilities,” Bewley wrote in the filing. “Most recently, the ongoing trade tensions with the United States, the threat of tariffs, retaliatory tariffs, and the newly imposed tariffs have made it extremely challenging for Hudson’s Bay to raise incremental financing and monetize its real estate assets.”

Approving the bankruptcy application, Ontario Superior Court Justice Peter J. Osborne wrote, “Put simply, Hudson’s Bay is out of money and cannot meet its financial obligations as they come due…. It has not paid rent at several of its leased stores, and a number of its trade creditors have not been paid.”

Given the retailer’s fame and longevity—its founding predated Canada’s independence—Osborne felt compelled to add: “It is hard not to have a sense of melancholy when considering the application before me. Hudson’s Bay is the oldest company in North America and a very prominent Canadian department store. It was founded in 1670. Now, approximately 355 years later, it is insolvent.”

(Photo courtesy of Hudson’s Bay)