Hudson’s Bay stores to offer new retail brands
TORONTO — The chief executive of Hudson’s Bay Co. outlined Thursday his vision to transform the classic department store model by bringing a host of new retail brands and stores to this country, and fanned rumours of a possible deal with Japanese fashion giant Uniqlo.
“Every day we are dreaming about what exciting brands we can bring to Canada — there are lot of them — and we fully intend to do it,” Richard Baker said in an interview after the company posted fourth quarter and annual results. “We have been all around the world talking to people. There are discussions going on and we’ll announce them as we make (the deals).”
Baker, a veteran real estate investor, has not been afraid to scrap underperforming areas of his cavernous department stores to make way for more robust categories and even other hot retail chains. Executives of the newly public company have set ambitious sales per-square-foot targets at Hudson’s Bay, renamed recently to the classic banner from “The Bay.”
To that end HBC, which also includes Home Outfitters and the Lord & Taylor chain in the U.S., has expanded its deal with the U.K. chain Topshop in Canada with five new stores to open this year, and will launch the country’s first Kleinfeld Bridal boutique at its flagship Toronto store in 2014. Baker said the company is about a third of the way through renovations on its store network. Retail sales were $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter, up 6.7 per cent from $1.3 billion in the 2012 period.