The retailer Hudson’s Bay, Canada’s oldest continuously operating company, has begun liquidating nearly all of its stores.
According to combined media reports, the company – which dates to 1670 – filed for creditor protection earlier this month. It owes $950 million to nearly 2,000 secured and unsecured creditors, including the brands Adidas Canada, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal Canada, Levi Strauss Canada, Michael Kors Canada, Nike Canada and Ralph Lauren.
On Friday, the company received permission on Friday from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne to begin liquidating the inventory at 74 of its 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, along with three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th stores in Canada. The six stores that will remain operational include its flagship location on Yonge Street in Toronto.
The liquidation sales will run until June 15 and the company will vacate the soon-to-be-shuttered locations by June 30.
“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,” said Hudson’s Bay lawyer Ashley Taylor in court on Friday.
The court also granted the company the right to “terminate or temporarily lay off any of their employees as they deem appropriate” – a move that will impact some 9,000 positions. Furthermore, the court also granted the company permission to put its leases with landlords for sale, with the goal of generating proceeds to pay off its debts.
Hudson’s Bay retained the right to remove some locations from the liquidation list if it can secure a deal.
“This is the art of the possible and we are where we are today. In my view, there is no other alternative,” Judge Osborne said.
Photo: Canmenwalker / Wikimedia Commons
