Winnipeggers regrets the possible loss of an accessory in the history of the city, with several Hudson’s Bay Co. stores now possibly in the cutting block after the historical retailer received creditors protection.
The company began to restructure the procedures on Friday, saying in judicial documents that it has problems paying the owners, service providers and suppliers, and that it has had to differ some payments for months.
A source familiar with the matter said that Hudson’s Bay is looking to close around 40 of its 80 stores, although the numbers could change, according to the Canadian press.
On Wednesday, buyers outside the location of the Polo Park of Bay shopping center, one of the remaining two in Winnipeg, together with the St. Vital Mall store, said they are upset that the procedure could end the presence of the company in a city to which it has been inextricably linked throughout its 355 years of history.
“It’s Winnipeg’s heritage,” Troy Richards said. “The bay has always existed for Winnipeg. For us, it is a distinctive seal.”
Look | Winnipeggers remembers bay:
The future of Hudson’s Bay is uncertain after Canada’s oldest retailer requested the protection of creditors. The company will not say what it means to the two Winnipeg stores.
Donna Galloway used to work in the bay.
“Sears is gone, Eaton is gone … but Hudson’s bay, really?” She said.
“The story of it, just to see that on the way in our time, yes, I am absolutely disconsolate.”
An affidavit presented by the financial director of Hudson’s Bay shows that the company employs 183 people in Manitoba, 78 of which they are full -time personnel.
The retailer has more than 9,000 employees throughout Canada.
The monitor in charge of supervising the creditor protection procedures said that Hudson’s Bay generated a net loss of approximately $ 329.7 million for a period of 12 months that ended on January 31.
In a statement issued on Friday, CEO Liz Rodbell said the procedures are necessary to ensure that the company “remains part of Canada’s retail scene.”
Struggle to adapt
In her affidavit, the financial director of Hudson’s Bay, Jennifer Bewley, said the company fought for years to adapt to a decrease in pedestrian traffic in the middle of an evolving retail panorama and the competition of online players.
The company was taken private shortly before the COVID-19 blocks. Bewley said the pandemic led to a “significant decrease” from which the company has not been able to recover.
At the end of 2020, Hudson’s Bay closed its great department stores in Portage Avenue de Winnipeg, a six -story building opened in 1926 that was once the flagship store in the Bay in the country.
It was acquired in 2022 by the southern organization of the Chiefs, which represents 34 first nations of Anishinaabe and Dakota in southern Manitoba, and is remakeing it in a mixed use development called Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn- “is visible” in Anishinaabemowin.
Amelia Fay, curator of the Hudson Bay Museum collection at the Manitoba Museum, said it is strange to see a company that has reinvented several times since its foundation unable to change.
“We have seen them change significantly, since small skins of skins later in wholesale operations in real estate and retail warehouses,” he said.
“Certainly knowing … all the type of storms that have resisted throughout this, it is a bit, I suppose, surprising that it will come now.”
Chi Liao, associate professor of finance at the University of Manitoba, said the news is not unexpected.
“Historically, department stores have attended the middle class,” he said. “As that middle class decreases and … it is having trouble paying your invoices due to inflation or anything else, so the consumer base for department stores is in decline.”
Lose an anchor
Bewley’s affidavit said Hudson’s Bay followed an “aggressive” expansion of electronic commerce between 2021 and 2022, investing around $ 130 million in the strategy.
Robert Warren, a retail sales professor at North Dakota University and former Winnipeg resident, said the company was late for the game.
“It is difficult for them to break into that market, especially with all established players, whether they are companies like Shein or if it is Amazon,” he said.
Warren said that the bay is an “anchor store”, the main tenant in a shopping center that attracts customers due to the variety of products and services it sells.
“If you lose a store like the bay … you are talking about a large trace of commercial space that must be full of new tenants,” he said.
“You will also lose that anchor. So, what you expect is that your selection of stores in the mall is sufficient to attract customers back.”
St. Vital Center operator declined to comment.
Cadillac Fairview, owner of Polo Park, said in a statement that it is too early to speculate on what will happen in its shopping center.
A Hudson’s Bay spokesman said that decisions at this time have not been completed in an email.
The stores that produce the best yields will remain open, said Warren, and “historically, Winnipeg has been a good market for the bay.”
“So I’m looking to see Winnipeg out completely unharmed, but not so bad.”
In his ruling granting the protection of the company’s creditor, the judge of the Superior Court of Ontario, Peter Osborne, wrote that “it is difficult not to have a sense of melancholy.”
“It was founded in 1670. Now, approximately 355 years later, it is insolvent and seeks protection of its creditors.”
