
Canada's oldest company to liquidate all but 6 stores starting Monday
An Ontario court on Friday gave Hudson's Bay, Canada's oldest company, permission to start liquidating all but six of its stores on Monday.
The approval from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne allows the retailer, which dates back to 1670, to begin selling off inventory at most of its 80 Hudson's Bay stores, three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th shops in Canada.
'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.
The Canadian retail icon retailer was founded as a trading firm for furs and other goods. The company became part of Canada's social fabric, and was famous for its trademark product: a thick, wool blanket that has warded off frigid Canadian winters for hundreds of years.
It is part of the national lore of rugged 'voyageurs' exploring the vast landscape while fighting and trading with Indigenous people.
The six stores being saved from the liquidation sale include the flagship on Yonge Street in Toronto, as well as a store in the city's Yorkdale mall and another farther north in Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ontario The remaining three span Montreal, the Carrefour Laval mall and Point-Claire, Quebec.
The company didn't say how deep discounts will be during the liquidation running until June 15. It will vacate all liquidating stores by June 30.
The move could save some of the 9,364 jobs that would have been lost had the company moved to liquidate all of its stores, which was the plan until recent sales exceeded expectations, allowing for it to keep six alive.
'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,' Hudson's Bay lawyer Ashley Taylor said in court Friday.
The ruling marks a glimmer of hope for the company, which filed for creditor protection on March 7. The request showed the company was facing significant financial challenges and was desperately in need of cash to continue making even basic payments that sustain the business.
While it suffered from reduced consumer spending, Canada-U.S. trade tensions and a post-pandemic slide in downtown store traffic, it deferred payments to landlords and suppliers and eventually had to resort to seeking financing, which pushed it toward liquidation.
Six stores are now able to be saved because the looming liquidation triggered a flurry of sales from customers looking to snap up Hudson's Bay's famed stripes products and other home goods and apparel.
Taylor said Friday the company will continue to 'work hard' to find a 'more long-term solution' for its financial woes, but warned the window to achieve this 'remains very short.'
While the company carries out the work, it will start a sales process for assets like its leases and Canadians will see deals at stores set to be gutted.
All sales will be final at the liquidating stores, Hudson's Bay says.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
40 minutes ago
- Reuters
Austrian association urges FIA members to reject statute changes
MONTREAL, June 11 (Reuters) - The Austrian Automobile Association (OAMTC) has urged FIA members to reject proposed statute changes it fears will damage motorsport's world governing body and limit opposition to the re-election of president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. In an unsigned June 10 letter emailed to the mobility section of the FIA's world council, and seen by Reuters, the OAMTC set out its opposition to a vote on the agenda of the FIA General Assembly in Macau on Thursday. "We appeal to all members to support our motion to remove the voting on the proposed FIA statute changes from the General Assembly's agenda," the letter said, suggesting a postponement to a later meeting. "There is no urgency regarding these proposed changes ... they risk further contributing to the erosion of the FIA's reputation for competent and transparent governance. "It cannot be - and is not - a coincidence that changes relevant to the FIA's elections have been promoted by the FIA's leadership at the same time as the FIA's incumbent president has announced an intention to run in those elections. "Where there is even a risk of these changes appearing to benefit the current FIA administration, and not the FIA itself, the changes should not be adopted." An International Automobile Federation spokesperson in London was not immediately aware of the letter but confirmed the vote was scheduled for Thursday. Those attending the gathering in Macau could not be reached immediately for comment. The OAMTC said the eight proposed statute changes raised issues of fairness and consistency, and that they would discourage opposition to Ben Sulayem. Ben Sulayem is standing for re-election in December, with no rival candidate so far coming forward. He told Reuters last month when he confirmed he was standing that he welcomed competition. Ben Sulayem recognised he had enemies but said he was confident he had the support of a majority of FIA members. "I only have to answer to my members. And they are happy. Actually, they are very happy. They are extremely happy," he said. The Emirati has been involved in several controversies since he took over in 2021 and has been at loggerheads with drivers as well as drawing criticism from FIA insiders, while some senior employees have left. Briton Robert Reid, a former close ally who quit as an FIA deputy president in April, wrote in his resignation statement of a "fundamental breakdown in governance standards" at the governing body. Reid and Motorsport UK head David Richards had opposed other statute changes approved by the General Assembly last December that they said limited the powers of audit and ethics committees.


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
It was always going to be a tightrope walk... Now Albo has everything on the line when he meets Donald Trump this weekend: PETER VAN ONSELEN
Anthony Albanese is expected to meet US President Donald Trump during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Canada, starting in three days time. And boy are there some big issues likely to be on the agenda, starting with the AUKUS agreement. Australia's ambitious plan to enhance its naval capabilities through the AUKUS partnership faces renewed uncertainty as the United States launches a comprehensive review of the agreement. Assuming their meeting still happens it will be the first face-to-face encounter between the PM and Trump since the US President was elected. It's only been a matter of months since Trump has been back in charge, and he's already seeking to reassert a combative vision of American power globally. How Albo reacts to Trump when they meet will test the PM's ability to defend national interests without undermining the alliance. Under the AUKUS pact, Australia is set to acquire between three and five Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from the US. However, questions have arisen about the US industrial base's capacity to produce the subs without compromising its own needs. The review is being led by Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, a known skeptic of the pact. Its terms of reference include assessing whether the AUKUS agreement aligns with President Trump's America First policy. Colby has previously questioned the wisdom of transferring critical assets like the Virginia-class submarines to US allies, suggesting it could weaken America's naval strength. Deputy PM and Defence Minister Richard Marles has attempted to downplay the significance of the review, describing it as a natural step to ensure alignment with US defence priorities. But it will certainly be on the top of the agenda when Albo and Trump meet. The PM will want to be able to say that he has received assurances that the agreement is iron clad. The question of defence spending also isn't clear cut. Trump's supporters in the US have floated a 3.5 per cent of GDP benchmark they want Australia's defence spending to rise to. Given that it's currently only at 2.4 per cent (including across forward estimates stretching all the way out to 2034), to lift our defence spending in line with US expectations would be fiscally reckless without cuts being made elsewhere. The Australian budget is already forecast to be in deficit for the coming decade, with gross national debt at the trillion dollar mark. While some domestic foreign policy hawks are independently pushing for higher defence spending, the figure team Trump wants us to meet is unrealistic for a country that faces no direct military threat and is unlikely to anytime soon. Equally, social spending pressures are mounting. The recent election campaign included a raft of new spending promises, with recurrent spending on policies such as the NDIS already a strain on the budget. To increase defence spending in that climate is unlikely to be popular. Besides, Australia's commitment to spend $368 billion on the AUKUS submarine program should be more than enough to signal that we take our defence and alliance duties seriously. Another volatile topic expected to come up at Albo's meeting with Trump is trade. The US President's across-the-board 10 per cent tariff on imports is economic vandalism dressed up as nationalism, and Australia currently isn't exempt. It's a regressive policy that punishes allies and undermines the very order the US once built. Albanese has been unusually forthright on this issue, condemning the move and seeking exemptions. Whether he can actually secure them is another matter, and depends less on the logic of his arguments than it does on Trump's whims. If the meeting achieves anything it will be to gauge whether the President is open to pragmatism rather than simply doubling down on his new found protectionism. Finally, the beef issue is deceptively niche but symbolically important for Australia. For decades, we have maintained biosecurity restrictions on US beef imports, particularly those involving supply chains running through countries with a history of mad cow disease. Washington wants access to the Australian market but the government is firm in saying no way. Albanese has so far been unequivocal that protecting Australia's disease-free status is non-negotiable. The blunt rejection of US demands for access is all about Australia retaining its access to high-value export markets like Japan and Korea, which is dependent on our gold-standard reputation for safe meat. In all of these areas of discussion the real test for Albanese when he meets Trump Mark II for the very first time is to show resolve in the face of Trump's tendency to dominate and distract. Voters won't necessarily remember every talking point, or the finer details of what gets discussed. But they will notice if their Prime Minister looks like he blinked and Trump got the better of him.


Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Australia to work closely with US on review of Biden-era submarine pact
SYDNEY, June 12 (Reuters) - Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday his government would work closely with the United States while President Donald Trump's administration conducts a formal review of the AUKUS defence pact. "It is natural the administration would want to examine this major undertaking including progress and delivery," a spokesperson for Marles said in a statement. Australia in 2023 committed to spend A$368 billion ($239.3 billion) over three decades on AUKUS, Australia's biggest ever defence project with the United States and Britain, to acquire and build nuclear-powered submarines. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to meet Trump for the first time next week on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada, where the security allies will discuss tariffs and a request from the United States for Australia to increase defence spending from 2% to 3.5% of gross domestic product. Albanese had previously said defence spending would rise to 2.3% and has declined to commit to the U.S. target, saying Australia would focus on capability needs. Under AUKUS, Australia was scheduled to make a $2 billion payment in 2025 to the U.S. to help boost its submarine shipyards and speed up lagging production rates of Virginia class submarines to allow the sale of up to three U.S. submarines to Australia from 2032. Britain and Australia will jointly build a new AUKUS class submarine expected to come into service from 2040. Britain recently completed a review of AUKUS. It has not released the results publicly, but it announced plans this month to increase the size of its nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet. Marles' spokesperson said AUKUS would grow the U.S. and Australian defence industries and generate thousands of manufacturing jobs. John Lee, an Australian Indo-Pacific expert at Washington's conservative Hudson Institute think tank, said the Pentagon review was "primarily an audit of American capability" and whether it can afford to sell up to five nuclear powered submarines when it was not meeting its own production targets. "Relatedly, the low Australian defence spending and ambiguity as to how it might contribute to a Taiwan contingency is also a factor," Lee said. ($1 = 1.5380 Australian dollars)