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Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) is one of the oldest continuously operating retail companies in North America, originally founded as a fur trading enterprise before transitioning to modern department store operations.
Key moments
1670-05-02Granted royal charter by King Charles II of England, established as a fur trading monopoly in Rupert's Land
1821Merged with the North West Company, becoming the dominant fur trading firm in North America
1970sShifted core business from fur trade to retail, closing its last fur trading posts
2008Acquired Saks Fifth Avenue, expanding into high-end US retail
2020Acquired by NRDC Equity Partners, maintaining its retail portfolio including Hudson's Bay department stores
HBC operates in the mid-to-high end North American retail market, with key competitive dynamics including:
Direct competitors: Traditional department stores like Macy's, Nordstrom, and Canadian rival Canadian Tire
Luxury competitors: Saks Fifth Avenue (owned by HBC) competes with Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman
E-commerce pressure: Faces increasing competition from Amazon and other online retail platforms
Regional strengths: Strong brand recognition in Canada, with a growing US footprint via Saks
Traditional department store peers including Macy's and Nordstrom
High-end retail rival Neiman Marcus for its Saks division
E-commerce giants like Amazon as cross-category competition
Strong domestic market position in Canada alongside regional retail chains
Hudson's Bay Company carries a rare, unmatched legacy as one of the oldest continuously operating commercial entities in North America, with brand equity built across more than 350 years of evolution from a historic fur trading enterprise to a leading multi-banner retail group focused on premium and luxury department store segments. Deeply embedded in Canadian national cultural identity, the brand holds near-universal household recognition across its home market, with generations of consumers associating it with landmark retail experiences, seasonal cultural traditions, and trusted quality retail offerings that stretch back centuries.
HBC has strategically curated its portfolio over recent decades to balance its heritage mid-tier Hudson's Bay banner with high-growth luxury assets including Saks Fifth Avenue, creating a differentiated positioning that lets it serve both mass premium North American shoppers and high-net-worth luxury consumers. This segmented brand architecture insulates the group from some of the competitive pressure facing generic mid-tier department store operators, even as rising e-commerce competition continues to reshape broader retail consumer habits across the region.
While the brand has had to adapt to major structural shifts in the retail landscape over the past 20 years, its accumulated centuries of brand loyalty and institutional knowledge give it a distinct competitive moat that no new market entrant can easily replicate, positioning it as one of the most recognizable legacy retail brands in the entire North American market.
Brand leadership
Score: 78/100
As the parent owner of the Saks Fifth Avenue luxury banner, HBC holds a clear leading position in the North American premium and luxury department store sub-segment, with exclusive long-term partnerships with top global luxury brands that mass-market retail peers cannot easily access, and the ability to set benchmark standards for high-end in-store customer experiences across the region.
Customer and stakeholder interaction
Score: 72/100
HBC maintains a large, deeply loyal multi-generational customer base in Canada that has sustained the Hudson's Bay banner for generations, while its Saks loyalty program drives high repeat purchase rates among affluent US consumers, though it lags pure-play digital native retailers in engagement levels with younger, digital-first shopper demographics.
Market momentum
Score: 61/100
The group has made targeted, measured moves to optimize its physical store footprint and roll out integrated omnichannel shopping features across all its banners to respond to shifting consumer preferences, though it still faces persistent headwinds from the broader multi-year structural decline of traditional department store foot traffic across North America.
Brand operation stability
Score: 75/100
Over its 350+ year operating history, HBC has successfully survived dozens of major economic recessions, industry paradigm shifts, and major geopolitical events, retaining its core brand identity consistently even as it adjusts its operational footprint and product mix to adapt to new market realities.
Brand legacy age
Score: 97/100
Officially founded in 1670, Hudson's Bay Company is one of the oldest continuously operating commercial enterprises on the North American continent, with a corporate history that is deeply interwoven with Canadian national development, giving it a heritage profile that almost no other retail brand anywhere in the world can match.
Industry recognition profile
Score: 82/100
HBC is universally recognized as an iconic benchmark legacy retail name across global retail industry analysis, frequently cited as a leading case study of how centuries-old consumer brands can successfully evolve their core business models without eroding their hard-earned accumulated brand equity.
Global market reach
Score: 43/100
The vast majority of HBC's retail operations and brand recognition are concentrated in the North American market, with only very limited, small-scale international expansion of its Saks luxury banner in select global gateway cities, and no significant widespread brand presence outside of Canada and the United States.
This brand-related assessment leverages AI-powered structured analytical frameworks that synthesize public data covering brand heritage, market positioning, customer loyalty, and industry performance to support rigorous brand value reasoning. All illustrative figures referenced in this analysis are for general reference only and do not represent formally audited brand valuation outcomes. For official, full audited brand value reports and professional related consulting services, please contact the World Brand Lab directly.
The Hudson's Bay Company (abbreviated HBC and colloquially Hudson's Bay) is a Canadian holding company of department stores and commercial property.It was the oldest corporation in North America, founded in 1670 and liquidated in 2025.It was headquartered at the Simpson Tower in Toronto.
The founding royal charter, issued by King Charles II, granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over the Rupert's Land territory, the borders of which were based on the Hudson Bay drainage basin.It controlled the fur trade throughout English and later British North America, and was its de facto government until it relinquished control of the land to Canada in 1869. The company then diversified with the ownership and operation of several retail businesses throughout the latter country. It established its namesake department stores in 1881, the Home Outfitters home furnishings stores in 1999, and acquired the Zellers and Fields discount stores in 1978.It also owned several regional department stores that were eventually converted to The Bay, including Morgan's
Expansions beyond Canada included the United States, where it owned department stores including Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off 5th in the 2010s; and the Netherlands, where it sold its remaining stores in 2019.[5][6][7]
The Thomson family was the majority stockholder of HBC from 1979 to 1992 and sold its last shares in the company in 1997.HBC was bought by American businessman Jerry Zucker in 2006 and became privately held.Following Zucker’s death in April 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners and was operated by the latter's holding company Hudson's Bay Trading Company until 2012.HBC went public again from 2012 to 2020 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with NRDC as the main shareholder.
HBC spun-off its American assets into the holding company Saks Global in November 2024, and filed for creditor protection in March 2025. By this time, its business consisted only of Hudson's Bay stores and the Canadian locations of Saks. Following the closure of its remaining stores by June 2025 and the subsequent sale of its intellectual property to Canadian Tire, the Hudson's Bay Company was formally renamed 1242939 B.C. Unlimited Liability Co. in August 2025.[8] By December 2025, the liquidation of the company was essentially over, with the royal charter and art collection having been auctioned off, and the former store leases either sold to other parties or returned to landlords.[9][10] As of February 2026, eight people were still working at the company, compared to 9,364 when it had filed for creditor protection and closed its stores in 2025,[11] and a high of 70,000 employees back in 2006.[12]
17th century history
For much of the 17th century, the French colonists in North America, based in New France, operated a de facto monopoly in the North American fur trade.Two French traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers (Médard de Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers), Radisson's brother-in-law, learned from the Cree that the best fur country lay north and west of Lake Superior, and that there was a "frozen sea" still further north. Assuming this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay in order to reduce the cost of moving furs overland. According to Peter C. Newman, "concerned that exploration of the Hudson Bay route might shift the focus of the fur trade away from the St. Lawrence River, the French governor", Marquis d'Argenson (in office 1658–61), "refused to grant the coureurs des bois permission to scout the distant territory". Despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later they returned to Montreal with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested by French authorities for trading without a licence and fined, and their furs were confiscated by the government.[13]
Determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay area, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of English colonial merchants in Boston to help finance their explorations.The Bostonians agreed on the plan's merits, but their speculative voyage in 1663 failed when their ship ran into pack ice in the Hudson Strait. Boston-based English commissioner Colonel George Cartwright learned of the expedition and brought the two to England to raise financing. Radisson and Groseilliers arrived in London in 1665 at the height of the Great Plague.Eventually, the two met and gained the sponsorship of Prince Rupert.Prince Rupert introduced the two to his cousin, the reigning king – Charles II.In 1668 the English expedition acquired two ships, the Nonsuch and the Eaglet, to explore possible trade into Hudson Bay.Groseilliers sailed on the Nonsuch, commanded by Captain Zachariah Gillam, while the Eaglet was commanded by Captain William Stannard and accompanied by Radisson.On 5 June 1668, both ships left port at Deptford, England, but the Eaglet was forced to turn back off the coast of Ireland.[13]
The Nonsuch continued to James Bay, the southern portion of Hudson Bay, where its explorers founded, in 1668, the first fort on Hudson Bay, Charles Fort[14] at the mouth of the Rupert River.It later became known as "Rupert House", and developed as the community of present-day Waskaganish, Quebec.Both the fort and the river were named after the sponsor of the expedition, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, one of the major investors and soon to become the new company's first governor.After a successful trading expedition over the winter of 1668–69, Nonsuch returned to England on 9 October 1669 with the first cargo of fur resulting from trade in Hudson Bay.[13] The bulk of the fur – worth £1,233 – was sold to Thomas Glover, one of London's most prominent furriers. This and subsequent purchases by Glover proved the viability of the fur trade in Hudson Bay.
A royal charter from King Charles II incorporated "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay" on 2 May 1670.[15] The charter granted the company a monopoly over the region drained by all rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay in northern parts of present-day Canada, taking part on behalf of England.The area was named "Rupert's Land"[16] after Prince Rupert,[17] the first governor of the company appointed by the King. This drainage basin of Hudson Bay spans 3861400 km2,[18] comprising over one-third of the area of modern-day Canada, and stretches into the present-day north-central United States. The specific boundaries remained unknown at the time. Rupert's Land would eventually become Canada's largest land "purchase" in the 19th century.[19]
The HBC established six posts between 1668 and 1717. Rupert House (1668, southeast), Moose Factory (1673, south) and Fort Albany, Ontario (1679, west) were erected on James Bay; three other posts were established on the western shore of Hudson Bay proper: New Severn (1685),[20]York Factory (1684), and Fort Churchill (1717).Inland posts were not built until 1774.After 1774, York Factory became the main post because of its convenient access to the vast interior waterway-systems of the Saskatchewan and Red rivers.Originally called "factories" because the "factor", i.e., a person acting as a mercantile agent, did business from there, these posts operated in the manner of the Dutch fur-trading operations in New Netherland. By adoption of the Standard of Trade in the 18th century, the HBC ensured consistent pricing throughout Rupert's Land. A means of exchange arose based on the "Made Beaver" (MB); a prime pelt, worn for a year and ready for processing: "the prices of all trade goods were set in values of Made Beaver (MB) with other animal pelts, such as squirrel, otter and moose quoted in their MB (made beaver) equivalents. For example, two otter pelts might equal 1 MB".[21]
During the fall and winter, First Nations men and European fur trappers accomplished the vast majority of the animal trapping and pelt preparation.They travelled by canoe and on foot to the forts to sell their pelts.In exchange they typically received popular trade-goods such as knives, kettles, beads, needles, and the Hudson's Bay point blanket. The arrival of the First Nations trappers was one of the high points of the year, met with pomp and circumstance. The highlight was very formal, an almost ritualized "trading ceremony" between the chief trader and the captain of the Indigenous contingent who traded on their behalf.[22] During the initial years of the fur trade, prices for items varied from post to post.[23]
The early coastal factory model of the English contrasted with the system of the French, who established an extensive system of inland posts at native villages and sent traders to live among the tribes of the region, learning their languages and often forming alliances through marriages with Indigenous women. In March 1686 the French sent a raiding party under the Chevalier de Troyes more than 1300 km to capture the HBC posts along James Bay.The French appointed Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, who had shown great heroism during the raids, as commander of the company's captured posts.In 1687 an English attempt to resettle Fort Albany failed due to strategic deceptions by d'Iberville.After 1688 England and France were officially at war, and the conflict played out in North America as well. D'Iberville raided Fort Severn in 1690 but did not attempt to raid the well-defended local headquarters at York Factory. In 1693 the HBC recovered Fort Albany; d'Iberville captured York Factory in 1694, but the company recovered it the next year. In 1697, d'Iberville again commanded a French naval raid on York Factory. On the way to the fort he defeated three ships of the Royal Navy in the Battle of Hudson's Bay (5 September 1697), the largest naval battle in the history of the North American Arctic. D'Iberville's depleted French force captured York Factory by laying siege to the fort and pretending to be a much larger army. The French retained all of the outposts except Fort Albany until 1713. A small French and Indian force attacked Fort Albany again in 1709 during Queen Anne's War but was unsuccessful. The economic consequences of the French possession of these posts for the company were significant; the HBC did not pay any dividends for more than 20 years. See Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay.
18th century history
With the ending of the Nine Years' War in 1697, and the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht, France had made substantial concessions. Among the treaty's many provisions, it required France to relinquish all claims to Great Britain on the Hudson Bay, which again became a British possession. (The Kingdom of Great Britain had been established following the union of Scotland and England in 1707).
After the treaty, the HBC built Prince of Wales Fort, a stone star fort at the mouth of the nearby Churchill River.In 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, a French squadron under Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérousecaptured and demolished York Factory and Prince of Wales Fort in support of the American rebels.
In its trade with Indigenous peoples, Hudson's Bay Company exchanged wool blankets, called Hudson's Bay point blankets, for the beaver pelts trapped by Indigenous hunters. By 1700, point blankets accounted for more than 60 per cent of the trade.[24] The number of indigo stripes (a.k.a. points) woven into the blankets identified its finished size.A long-held misconception is that the number of stripes was related to its value in beaver pelts.[25]
A parallel may be drawn between the HBC's control over Rupert's Land with the trade monopoly and government functions enjoyed by the East India Company over India during roughly the same period. The HBC invested £10,000 in the East India Company in 1732, which it viewed as a major competitor.
Hudson's Bay Company's first inland trading post was established by Samuel Hearne in 1774 with Cumberland House, Saskatchewan.[26][27]
Conversely, a number of inland HBC "houses" pre-date the construction of Cumberland House, in 1774. Henley House, (HH) established in 1743, inland from Hudson Bay, at the confluence of the Albany and Kenogami Rivers, a prime strategic location between Upland and Lowland Indigenous peoples, as well as the rival English and French traders. HH was dependent on Albany River – Fort Albany for lines of communication. Henley House was sacked in 1754, and its servants killed. Three of the five attackers (rebels?) were apprehended at Albany Fort and hanged on June 21, 1755. HH was raised a few years later, then rebuilt in 1759, only to be sacked again immediately.[28] Next, the inland houses of Split Lake and Nelson Houses were established between 1740 and 1760. These were dependent on York River – York Factory and Churchill River, respectively. Although not inland, Richmond Fort was established in 1749. This was on an island within Hudson Bay. It was titled a "New Discovery" in 1749, and by 1750 was titled Richmond Gulf. The name was changed to Richmond Fort and given the abbreviation RF from 1756 to 1759, it served mainly as a trade goods and provisions storage location.[29] Additional inland posts were Capusco River and Chickney Creek, both circa 1750.Likewise, Brunswick (1776), New Brunswick (1777), Gloucester (1777), Upper Hudson (ca. 1778), Lower Hudson (1779), Rupert, and Wapiscogami Houses were established in the 1770s.[30][31][32]
In 1779, other traders founded the North West Company (NWC) in Montreal as a seasonal partnership to provide more capital and to continue competing with the HBC.It became operative for the outfit of 1780 and was the first joint-stock company in Canada and possibly North America. The agreement lasted one year. A second agreement established in 1780 had a three-year term. The company became a permanent entity in 1783. By 1784, the NWC had begun to make serious inroads into the HBC's profits.[37]
19th century history
The North West Company (NWC) was the main rival in the fur trade. The competition led to the small Pemmican War in 1816, which culminated in the Battle of Seven Oaks on 19 June 1816.[38] In 1821, the NWC and Hudson's Bay Company were forcibly merged by intervention of the British government to put an end to the violent competition.Of the 175 posts, 68 of them the HBC's, were reduced to 52 for efficiency and because many were redundant as a result of the rivalry and were inherently unprofitable.[39] Their combined territory was extended by a licence to the North-Western Territory, which reached to the Arctic Ocean in the north and, with the creation of the Columbia Department in the Pacific Northwest, to the Pacific Ocean in the west.The NWC's regional headquarters at Fort George (Fort Astoria) was relocated to Fort Vancouver by 1825, making it the HBC's base of operations on the Pacific Slope.
Before the merger, the employees of the HBC, unlike those of the NWC, did not participate in its profits. After the merger, with all operations under the management of Sir George Simpson (1826–60), the company had a corps of commissioned officers: 25 chief factors and 28 chief traders, who shared in the company's profits during the monopoly years. Its trade covered 7770000 km2, and it had 1,500 contract employees. Between 1820 and 1870, the HBC issued its own paper money.The notes, denominated in sterling, were printed in London and issued at York Factory for circulation primarily in the Red River Colony.[40][41]
Competition and exploration
Although the HBC maintained a monopoly on the fur trade during the early to mid-19th century, there was competition from James Sinclair and Andrew McDermot (Dermott), independent traders in the Red River Colony.They shipped furs by the Red River Trails to Norman Kittson, a buyer in the United States.In addition, Americans controlled the maritime fur trade on the Northwest Coast until the 1830s.[42]
Throughout the 1820s and the 1830s, the HBC controlled nearly all trading operations in the Pacific Northwest region and was based at its headquarters at Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River.[43] Although claims to the region were by agreement in abeyance, commercial operating rights were nominally shared by the United States and Britain through the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, but company policy, enforced via Chief Factor John McLoughlin of the company's Columbia District, was to discourage US settlement of the territory. The company's effective monopoly on trade virtually forbade any settlement in the region.
Additional early presence in present-day United States
20th century history
The First World War interrupted a major remodelling and restoration of retail trade shops planned in 1912.Following the war, the company revitalized its fur trade and real estate activities, and diversified its operations by venturing into the oil business.[63][64] During the Russian Civil War, the company briefly operated in the Siberian far east, even obtaining an agreement with the Soviet government until departing in 1924.[65] The company co-founded Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Company (HBOG) in 1926 with Marland Oil Company (which merged with Conoco in 1929).Although the company diversified into a number of areas, its department store business is the only remaining part of the company's operations, in the form of department stores under the Hudson's Bay brand.[66] The company also established new trading posts in the Canadian Arctic.
Indigenous health
The medical scientist Frederick Banting was travelling in the Arctic in 1927 when he realized that crew or passengers on board the HBC paddle wheeler Distributor were responsible for spreading the influenza virus down the Slave River and Mackenzie River.Less than a decade after the 1918 global flu pandemic, a similar virus spread territory-wide over the summer and autumn, devastating the Indigenous population of the north.[67][68] Returning from the trip, Banting gave an interview in Montreal with a Toronto Star reporter under the agreement that his statements on HBC would remain off the record.[67] The newspaper nonetheless published the conversation, which rapidly reached a wide audience across Europe and Australia.[67][69]
21st century history
2000s
In December 2003, Maple Leaf Heritage Investments, a Nova Scotia-based company created to acquire shares of Hudson's Bay Company, announced that it was considering making an offer to acquire all or some of the common shares of Hudson's Bay Company.[82] Maple Leaf Heritage Investments is a subsidiary of B-Bay Inc. Its CEO and chairman is American businesswoman Anita Zucker, widow of Jerry Zucker.Zucker had previously been the head of the Polymer Group, which acquired another Canadian institution, Dominion Textile.
It had been a member of the International Association of Department Stores from 2001 to 2005.[83] On 26 January 2006, the HBC's board agreed to a bid from Jerry Zucker. The South Carolina billionaire financier was a longtime HBC minority shareholder. In a 9 March 2006 press release,[84] the HBC announced that Zucker would replace Yves Fortier as governor and George Heller as CEO, becoming the first US citizen to lead the company.After Jerry Zucker's death, the board named his widow, Anita Zucker, as HBC Governor and HBC Deputy-Governor Rob Johnston as CEO.[82]
From 2004 to 2008, the HBC owned and operated a small chain of off-price stores called Designer Depot.The concept was similar to the Winners and HomeSense retail format, but Designer Depot did not meet sales expectations, and its nine stores were sold.[85]
On 16 July 2008 shortly after Zucker’s death, the company was sold to NRDC Equity Partners for just over $1.1 billion,[86] a private equity firm based in Purchase, New York, which already owned Lord & Taylor, the oldest department store in the United States.[87][88] The Canadian and US holdings were transferred to NRDC Equity Partners' holding company, Hudson's Bay Trading Company, as of late 2008.[89]
2010s
Another HBC chain, Fields, was sold to a private firm in 2012.[90] Established in 1950, Fields was acquired by Zellers in 1976.When Zellers was acquired by HBC in 1978, Fields became part of the HBC portfolio.[91]
In October 2012, the HBC announced a $1.6-billion initial public offering (IPO); Baker planned to use the IPO to allow Canadian ownership to return to the company, and to help pay off debts with other partners.
In January 2016, HBC announced it would expand deeper into digital space with the acquisition of an online flash sales site, the Gilt Groupe, for US$250 million.[92][93] HBC also announced its expansion into the Netherlands in May 2016 with the takeover of 20 former Vroom & Dreesmann
2020s
In February 2020, shareholders of the company voted in favour of a plan to become a private company at a special meeting of shareholders. Under the plan of arrangement, the company will be owned by a group of continuing shareholders led by HBC governor and executive chairman Richard Baker. Effective 3 March 2020, the company was delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange, with Richard A. Baker replacing Foulkes as CEO.[105][106]
On March 16, 2022, it was announced that HBC and Sycamore Partners were preparing bids to buy Kohl's.[107]
In 2023, Hudson's Bay officially stopped selling animal fur products.[108]
2025 liquidation and dissolution
HBC filed for creditor protection in Canada under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act on 7 March 2025,[109] after failing to secure financing and consistently delaying in paying suppliers.[110] The filing came during a trade war with the United States and an escalation of the ongoing retail apocalypse due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[111] Chief financial officer Jennifer Bewley warned that if funding was not received within days, it would struggle with payroll obligations, lease defaults, and possible store closings.[112] HBC began liquidating 74 Hudson's Bay stores, two Saks Fifth Avenue stores, and all 13 Saks Off Fifth outlets later that month, resulting in 9,000 employee layoffs.[113] HBC intended for six Hudson's Bay stores in Ontario and Quebec to stay open.[112]
Canadian stores
Hudson's Bay (1881–2025)
The first Hudson's Bay Company department store opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1881.The chain was rebranded "the Bay" in 1965,[135] and "Hudson's Bay" in 2013.[136] It was the final HBC retail operation at the time of its liquidation in 2025.
HBC acquired the Morgan's department stores in 1960 and converted its Ontario stores to the Bay by 1968 and its Quebec stores to la Baie in 1973.[137] Before the conversions, HBC updated the Morgan's logo to match the Bay's visual identity in 1965.[138] HBC acquired the Simpsons department stores in Ontario and Quebec in 1978 and converted them to the Bay in 1991.[139] The related Simpsons-Sears department stores were not acquired by the Bay, and became Sears Canada in 1978.
Zellers (1978–2013)
Zellers was founded in 1931 by Walter P. Zeller, and acquired by HBC in 1978.It expanded in part with the HBC acquisitions and conversions of Towers Department Stores (1990) and Kmart Canada (1998).[80]
In September 2011, the HBC announced that it would sell the majority of the Zellers leases for $1.825 billion to the US-based retailer Target and shutter all of their remaining locations by early 2013.[140] Target used the acquisition of this real estate as a means to enable its entry in the Canadian market. HBC used some of the proceeds to pay down debt and to invest in growing its Hudson's Bay and Lord & Taylor banners. In January 2013, it was confirmed that three Zellers locations, re-purposed as discount department stores for The Bay and Home Outfitters, would remain open.[141][142]
Home Outfitters (1999–2019)
Home Outfitters originally launched in 1998 as Bed, Bath & More, before being revamped and relaunched under the new name in 1999.[149] The chain peaked at 69 locations in October 2014.[150] It sold bedding, towels, housewares, and other home accessories.[151] In July 2014, HBC announced that it would begin integrating Home Outfitters into its Hudson's Bay retail division (including increased availability of its product line through Hudson's Bay locations and its website), along with the closure of 2 stores.[152] In 2016, HBC rebranded three Home Outfitters locations in Winnipeg under the banner Hudson's Bay Home as a pilot.[153]
International stores
United States
Lord & Taylor (2012–2019)
On 24 January 2012, the Financial Post reported that Richard Baker (owner of NDRC and governor of Hudson's Bay Company) had dissolved Hudson's Bay Trading Company and that the HBC would now also operate the Lord & Taylor chain.At the time, the company was run by president Bonnie Brooks.[155] Baker remained governor and CEO of the business, and Donald Watros stayed on as chief operating officer.[156]
In 2018, HBC in a joint venture sold the building that housed its flagship Lord & Taylor store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to WeWork Property Advisors for $850 million.WeWork was set to occupy the uppermost floors of the building, with the rest of the building remaining a flagship space for Lord & Taylor.[157][158] The deal also included the use of floors of certain HBC-owned department stores in New York, Toronto, Vancouver and Germany as WeWork's shared office workspaces.[95][159]
In August 2019, HBC announced that it would sell their Lord & Taylor business to Le Tote Inc., which was to pay CA$99.5 million in cash when the deal closes (probably before year end 2019) and an additional CA$33.2 million two years later.HBC was to get a 25 per cent equity stake in Le Tote.[160] The buyer would retain the stores' inventory, with an estimated value of CA$284.2 million. The deal, expected to close before year end, required HBC to pay the stores' rent for at least three years, leading one news report to describe it as "Not a clean exit". The liability to HBC for the rents was estimated at CA$77 million cash per year.[161][162]
Saks Fifth Avenue (2013–2024)
On 29 July 2013, Hudson's Bay Company announced that it would buy Saks, Inc., operator of the American Saks Fifth Avenue brand, for US$2.9 billion, or $16 per share.[163][164] The merger was completed on 3 November 2013.[165] The company also stated that as a result of the purchase, Canadian consumers would see Saks stores arriving in their country soon.[166] After the purchase was finalized, HBC had a net loss of $124.2 million in the 2013 3Q due to the cost of the purchase and promotions.[167][168]
Lord & Taylor (2012–2019)
On 24 January 2012, the Financial Post reported that Richard Baker (owner of NDRC and governor of Hudson's Bay Company) had dissolved Hudson's Bay Trading Company and that the HBC would now also operate the Lord & Taylor chain.At the time, the company was run by president Bonnie Brooks.[155] Baker remained governor and CEO of the business, and Donald Watros stayed on as chief operating officer.[156]
In 2018, HBC in a joint venture sold the building that housed its flagship Lord & Taylor store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to WeWork Property Advisors for $850 million.WeWork was set to occupy the uppermost floors of the building, with the rest of the building remaining a flagship space for Lord & Taylor.[157][158]
Saks Fifth Avenue (2013–2024)
On 29 July 2013, Hudson's Bay Company announced that it would buy Saks, Inc., operator of the American Saks Fifth Avenue brand, for US$2.9 billion, or $16 per share.[163][164] The merger was completed on 3 November 2013.[165] The company also stated that as a result of the purchase, Canadian consumers would see Saks stores arriving in their country soon.[166] After the purchase was finalized, HBC had a net loss of $124.2 million in the 2013 3Q due to the cost of the purchase and promotions.[167][168]
Europe
HBC had acquired the German department store chain Galeria Kaufhof and its Belgian subsidiary, Galeria Inno, from Metro Group in September 2015 for US$3.2 billion.[176][177]
On 1 November 2017, HBC received an unsolicited offer from Austrian firm Signa Holding for Kaufhof and other real estate.[158] An unnamed source told CNBC that the value of the offer was approximately €3 billion.[178] This information on the offer was also reiterated in a press release by activist shareholder Land & Buildings Investment Management, which urged HBC to accept the offer; the company replied that the offer was incomplete and did not provide indication of financing for the deal.[179]
List of retail operations
Brand identity
Following the 2012 IPO, HBC had also introduced a new corporate logo of its own (reviving a wordmark from the original HBC flag), but the new logo was not intended to be a consumer-facing brand.[184][185][186]
Olympic outfitter
The HBC was the official outfitter of clothing for members of the Canadian Olympic team in 1936, 1960, 1964, 1968, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016. The sponsorship was renewed through 2020. Beginning in the late 2000s, HBC used its status as the official Canadian Olympics team outfitter to gain global exposure, as part of a turnaround plan that included shedding under-performing brands and luring new high-end brands.[187]
On 2 March 2005, the company was announced as the new clothing outfitter for the Canadian Olympic team, in a $100 million deal, providing apparel for the 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 games, having outbid the existing Canadian Olympic wear-supplier, Roots Canada, which had supplied Canada's Olympic teams from 1998 to 2004.[188][189] The Canadian Olympic collection was sold through Hudson's Bay (and Zellers until 2013 when the Zellers leases were sold to Target Canada).
HBC's 2006 Winter Olympics and 2008 Summer Olympics uniforms and toques received a mixed reception for their multicoloured stripes (green, red, yellow, blue) which seemed to be not-so-subtle advertising for HBC rather than representing the Canadian Olympic team's traditional colours of red and white (with black as a secondary), in contrast to well-received Root's 1998 collection with its trendy red letter jackets and Poor Boy caps.HBC produced 80 per cent to 90 per cent of their Olympic clothes in China which was criticized, as Roots ensured that the Olympic clothes were made in Canada using Canadian material.[190]
HBC's apparel for the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver proved to be extremely successful, in part because Canada was the host country and their athletes had a record medal haul.The red-and-white mittens featuring a large maple leaf that were sold for $10, with one-third of the proceeds going to the Canadian Olympic Committee, proved very popular, as were the "Canada" hoodies.[191]
The HBC's 2010 Winter Olympics apparel was also controversial due to a knitted, machine-made sweater that looked like a Cowichan sweater.[192] After a meeting between HBC representatives and Cowichan Tribes, a compromise was made between the parties; knitters could sell their sweaters at the downtown Vancouver HBC store, alongside the HBC imitations.[193]Lord Sebastian Coe, chairman of the 2012 London Olympic Games Organizing Committee, who attended the Vancouver Olympics, noted that Canadians were passionate in embracing the games with their "Canada" hoodies and their red mittens (of which 2.6 million pairs sold that year).[194][195] HBC has continued to produce these red mittens for subsequent Olympic Games.[196]
In 2021, it was announced that beginning with the 2022 Winter Olympics, Lululemon would replace the HBC as Canada's Olympic outfitter.[197]
Charitable involvement
The HBC was involved in community and charity activities. The HBC Rewards Community Program raised funds for community causes. The HBC Foundation was a charity agency involved in social issues and service. The HBC used to sponsor the annual HBC Run for Canada, a series of public-participation runs and walks held across the country on Canada Day to raise funds for Canadian athletes. The company discontinued this event in 2009.[198]
Archives and Artifacts
The legacy of the HBC has been maintained in part by the detailed record-keeping and archiving of material by the company. Before 1974, the records of the HBC were kept in the London office headquarters. The HBC opened an archives department to researchers in 1931. In 1974, Hudson's Bay Company Archives (HBCA) were transferred from London and placed on deposit with the Manitoba archives in Winnipeg. The company granted public access to the collection the following year.[199]
On 27 January 1994, the company's archives were formally donated to the Archives of Manitoba.[200]
At the time of the donation, the appraised value of the records was nearly $60 million. A foundation, Hudson's Bay Company History Foundation funded through the tax savings resulting from the donation, was established to support the operations of the HBC Archive as a division of the Archives of Manitoba, along with other activities and programs.[201] More than 2 km of filed documents and hundreds of microfilm reels are now stored in a special climate-controlled vault in the Manitoba Archives Building.
In 2007, Hudson's Bay Company Archives became part of the United Nations "Memory of the World Programme" project, under UNESCO.
Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company
The Charter was issued by Charles II of England on May 2, 1670,[205] on parchment with the Kings seal.[206] It gave authority to the “Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay.”[207]
The document was originally kept by the company in London, although likely not at Windsor Castle.[207] During the London Blitz, the charter was kept in manor house in rural Hertfordshire to keep it safe and then from the 1970s until the present, the document had been displayed at HBC's head office in Toronto.[206][208] Between 2020 and 2021, it was loaned to the
Rent obligation under charter
Under the charter establishing Hudson's Bay Company, the company was required to give two elk skins and two black beaver pelts to the English king, then Charles II, or his heirs, whenever the monarch visited Rupert's Land. The exact text from the 1670 Charter reads: "...Yielding and paying yearly to us and our heirs and successors for the same two Elks and two Black beavers whensoever and as often as We, our heirs and successors shall happen to enter into the said Countries, Territories and Regions hereby granted.[15]"
The ceremony was first conducted with the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) in 1927, then with King George VI in 1939, and last with his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II in 1959 and 1970.On the last such visit, the pelts were given in the form of two live beavers, which the Queen donated to the Winnipeg Zoo in Assiniboine Park. However, when the company permanently moved its headquarters to Canada, the Charter was amended to remove the rent obligation. Each of the four "rent ceremonies" took place in or around Winnipeg.[209]
Donation
In December 2025, the Weston family and Thomson family agreed to jointly pay $18million for the royal charter document and donate it joint ownership of the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History, and the Royal Ontario Museum.[205]
Corporate affairs
Historical hierarchy
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hudson's Bay Company operated with a very rigid employee hierarchy. This hierarchy essentially broke down into two levels; the officers and the servants. The officers were the factors, masters and chief traders, clerks and surgeons. The servants were the tradesmen, boatmen, and labourers. The officers essentially ran the fur trading posts. They had many duties which included supervising the workers in their trade posts, valuing the furs, and keeping trade and post records. In 1821, when Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company merged, the hierarchy became even stricter and the lines between officers and servants became virtually impossible to cross. Officers in charge of individual trading posts had much responsibility because they were directly in charge of enforcing the policies made by the governor and committee (the board) of the company. One of these policies was the price of particular furs and trade goods. These prices were called the Official and Comparative Standards. Made-Beaver, the quality measurement of the pelt, was the means of exchange used by Hudson's Bay Company to define the Official and Comparative Standards. Because the governor was stationed in London, England, they needed to have reliable officers managing the trade posts halfway around the world. Because the fur trade was a very dynamic market, HBC needed to have some form of flexibility when dealing with prices and traders. Price fluctuation was deferred to the officers in charge of the trade posts, and the head office recorded any difference between the company's standard and that set by the individual officers. Overplus, or any excess revenue gained by officers, was strictly documented to insure that it was not being pocketed and taken from the company. This strict yet flexible hierarchy exemplifies how Hudson's Bay Company was able to be so successful while still having its central management and trade posts located so far apart.[210][211]
In the 19th century, career progression for officers, together referred to as the Commissioned Gentlemen, was to enter the company as a fur trader. Typically, they were men who had the capital to invest in starting up their trading. They sought to be promoted to the rank of Chief Trader. A Chief Trader would be in charge of an individual post and was entitled to one share of the company's profits. Chief Factors sat in council with the Governors and were the heads of districts. They were entitled to two shares of the company's profits or losses. The average income of a Chief Trader was £360 and that of a Chief Factor was £720.[213]
Progression
In the 19th century, career progression for officers, together referred to as the Commissioned Gentlemen, was to enter the company as a fur trader. Typically, they were men who had the capital to invest in starting up their trading. They sought to be promoted to the rank of Chief Trader. A Chief Trader would be in charge of an individual post and was entitled to one share of the company's profits. Chief Factors sat in council with the Governors and were the heads of districts. They were entitled to two shares of the company's profits or losses. The average income of a Chief Trader was £360 and that of a Chief Factor was £720.[213]
Modern-day executive board
As of January 2018, the members of the board of directors of Hudson's Bay Company are:[220]
Richard A. Baker
Robert C. Baker
Eric Gross
Steven Langman
David G. Leith
William L. Mack
Lee S. Neibart
Denise Pickett
Wayne Pommen
Earl Rotman
Matthew Rubel
Andrea Wong
Governors
Chronological list of governors of the Hudson's Bay Company:[221]
2) 1683–85 James Stuart, Duke of York – resigned as governor to become King James II of England and Ireland and VII of Scotland.[224]
3) 1685–92 John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough[225][226]
Miscellany
HBC explorers, builders, and associates
James Knight (c. 1640) was a director of Hudson's Bay Company and an explorer who died in an expedition to the Northwest Passage.[251][252][253]
Henry Kelsey (c. 1667 – 1 November 1724), a.k.a. the Boy Kelsey, was an English fur trader, explorer, and sailor who played an important role in establishing Hudson's Bay Company in Canada. In 1690, Henry Kelsey embarked on a 2-year exploration journey that made him the first white man to see buffalo.[254]
Thanadelthur (c. 1697 – 5 February 1717) was a woman of the Chipewyan nation who was a guide and interpreter for Hudson's Bay Company.[255]
Samuel Hearne (1745–92) was an English explorer, fur-trader, author, and naturalist. In 1774, Hearne built Cumberland House for the Hudson's Bay Company, its first interior trading post and the first permanent settlement in present Saskatchewan.[26][27]
David Thompson (30 April 1770 – 10 February 1857) was a British-Canadian fur trader that worked for both the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Trading Company. He is best known for his extensive explorations and map-making activities. He mapped almost half of North America between the 46th and 60th parallels, from the St Lawrence and Great Lakes all the way to the Pacific.[256]
Thomas Douglas, Lord Selkirk (20 June 1771 – 8 April 1820) was a Scottish peer and philanthropist who, as HBC's majority shareholder, arranged to purchase land at Red River to establish a colony for dispossessed Scottish immigrants.[257]
Isobel Gunn or Isabella Gunn (c. 1780 – 7 November 1861), also known as John Fubbister or Mary Fubbister, was a Scottish labourer employed by Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), noted for having passed herself as a man, thereby becoming the first European woman to travel to Rupert's Land, now part of Western Canada.[258]
George Simpson (1787 – 7 September 1860) was the Canadian governor of Hudson's Bay Company during the period of its greatest power, a period which began in 1821 following the company's merger with the North West Trading Company.[259][260]
John McLean (c. 1799– 8 September 1890), a Scoto-Canadian trapper and trader who successfully crossed the entire Labrador Peninsula, opening up an overland route between Fort Smith on Lake Melville and Fort Chimo on Ungava Bay; first European to discover Churchill Falls on the Churchill River.[261]
Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal (6 August 1820 – 21 January 1914), at various times Chief Factor of the Labrador district, Commissioner of the Montreal district, and President of the Council of the Northern Department, who pacified Louis Riel during the Red River Rebellion of 1870, thus enabling the transfer of Rupert's Land from the HBC to the fledgling government of Canada. Later, he became Governor of the HBC.[262]
Dr. John Rae (Inuktitut Aglooka ᐊᒡᓘᑲ English: "long strider") (30 September 1813 – 22 July 1893) was a Scottish doctor who explored Northern Canada, surveyed parts of the Northwest Passage and reported the fate of the Franklin Expedition.[263][264]
William Keswick (15 April 1834 – 9 March 1912) and grandson Sir William Johnstone Keswick (1903–90) served at HBC; the former as a director and later as governor from 1952 to 1965. The Keswick family are the Scottish business dynasty that controls Hong Kong-based Jardine Matheson, one of the original British trading houses or Hongs in British Hong Kong.
H. Bullock-Webster fonds – An artistic rendition of the Canadian fur trade, from the UBC Library Digital Collections, depicting social life, activities and customs in Hudson's Bay Company posts in the 19th century
38.Lyle Dick. The Seven Oaks Incident and the Construction of a Historical Tradition, 1816 to 1970 Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada, 1991^
40.Michael H. Ryan. Paper Money of a 'Peculiar Character': The Notes of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1820–1870 SSRN, 2022^
41.A. B. McCullough. Money and Exchange in Canada to 1900 Dundurn, 1996^
42.James R. Gibson. Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785–1841 McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992, retrieved 6 October 2015^
43.Suzanne Zeller. Humboldt and the Habitability of Canada's Great Northwest Geographical Review, 1 Jul 2006^
44.S. Matthew Despain, Fred R. Gowans. Utah History Encyclopedia University of Utah Press, 1994, retrieved June 8, 2025^
60.Doug Owram. The Promise of the West as Settlement Frontier The Prairie West as Promised Land, University of Calgary Press, 2007, retrieved 2 February 2015^
69.Frank James Tester, Paule McNicoll. A Voice of Presence: Inuit Contributions toward the Public Provision of Health Care in Canada, 1900–1930 Social History/Histoire Sociale, Nov 2008^
70.Our History ConocoPhillips Canada, retrieved 6 October 2015^
210.Ann M. Carlos, Frank D. Lewis. Indians, the Beaver, and the Bay: The Economics of Depletion in the Lands of Hudson's Bay Company, 1700–1763 Journal of Economic History, September 1993^
211.Carol Judd. Native labour and social stratification in Hudson's Bay Company's Northern Department, 1770–1870 Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, November 1980^
212.Taché, Alexandre Antonin & Cameron, Donald Roderick (1870). Sketch of the North-west of America. Montreal: John Lovell, p. 72.^
213.Arthur S. Morton, Lewis G. Thomas. A History of the Canadian West to 1870–71 University of Toronto Press, 1973^
215.Cassell's Latin Dictionary. The two different Latin words for skin or leather must be translated accordingly in English by the use of two different words of roughly the same meaning, denoting an exchange^
These post-date Cumberland House, yet speak to the expanding inland incursion of the HBC in the last quarter of the 18th century.
Minor posts also during this time period include Mesackamy/Mesagami Lake (1777), Sturgeon Lake (1778), and Beaver Lake Posts.[35][36]
Over and above the NWC Fort George headquarters site, the HBC carried on the early presence in the region of the NWC when it merged in 1821 with noteworthy sites: Spokane House, Fort Okanogan and Fort Nez Percés.Fort Colville located further North on the Columbia River replaced Spokane House in 1825.
In the mid-1820s, Peter Skene Ogden and a brigade of over 100 men pushed south to trap in the area that is now the state of Utah.As one of the notable early European explorers in the region, several locations in northern Utah now bear Ogden's name, including the city of Ogden,[44] the Ogden Valley and the Ogden River.
Fort Umpqua was established in 1832 in present-day southern Oregon after the Willamette River had been explored up toward its headwaters by mainly the NWC.Nisqually House was built during the same year to establish a presence further North on Puget Sound in present-day State of Washington, resulting in Fort Nisqually a few years later closer to present-day Canadian sites.
The HBC established Fort Boise in 1834 (in present-day southwestern Idaho) to compete with the American Fort Hall, 483 km to the east.In 1837, it purchased Fort Hall, also along the route of the Oregon Trail. The outpost director displayed the abandoned wagons of discouraged settlers to those seeking to move west along the trail.
HBC trappers were also deeply involved in the early exploration and development of Northern California.Company trapping brigades were sent south from Fort Vancouver, along what became known as the Siskiyou Trail, into Northern California as far south as the San Francisco Bay Area, where the company operated a trading post at Yerba Buena (San Francisco).The southern-most camp of the company was French Camp, east of San Francisco in the Central Valley adjacent to the future site of the city of Stockton. These trapping brigades in Northern California faced serious risks, and were often the first to explore relatively uncharted territory. They included the lesser known Peter Skene Ogden and Samuel Black.[45][46]
The HBC also operated a store in what were then known as the Sandwich Islands (now the Hawaiian Islands), engaging in merchant shipping to the island kingdom between 1828 and 1859.[47]Hawaiians themselves were recruited as part of the HBC workforce as navigators and often settled anywhere it harboured in the Northwest and intermarrying with the local populations from present day British Columbia all the way south to Washington especially Fort Vancouver.[48][49]
Extending the presence it had built in present-day British Columbia northern coast, the HBC reached by 1838 as far North as Fort Stikine in the Alaska Panhandle by present-day Wrangell.The RAC-HBC agreement (1839) with the Russian American Company (RAC) provided for such a continuing presence in exchange for the HBC to supply the Russian coastal sites with agricultural products.The Puget Sound Agricultural Company subsidiary was created to supply grain, dairy, livestock and manufactured goods out of Fort Vancouver, Fort Nisqually, Fort Cowlitz and Fort Langley in present-day southern British Columbia.
The company's stranglehold on the region was broken by the first successful large wagon train to reach Oregon in 1843, led by Marcus Whitman.In the years that followed, thousands of emigrants poured into the Willamette Valley of Oregon.In 1846, the United States acquired full authority south of the 49th parallel; the most settled areas of the Oregon Country were south of the Columbia River in what is now Oregon.McLoughlin, who had once turned away would-be settlers when he was company director, then welcomed them from his general store at Oregon City.He later became known as the "Father of Oregon".[50]
Early presence in present-day Canada (British Columbia)
The HBC also carried on the early presence in the region of the NWC in present-day central and northern British Columbia with noteworthy sites: Fort Alexandria, Fort d'Épinette (Fort St. John), Fort St. James, Fort George and Fort Shuswap (Fort Kamloops).
Since the 1818 Treaty settled the 49th parallel border only as far as the Rocky Mountains, the HBC was looking for a site further West in case the parallel border would become further extended at the end of the 10 years joint occupancy term.By 1824, the HBC was commissioning an expedition to travel from the Fort George regional headquarter on the southern shore of the Columbia River all the way to the Fraser River.The three boats 40 some crew led by the James McMillan were first to officially ever make it to Puget Sound from the continent, to reach its northern end into Boundary Bay and to bypass the mouth of the Fraser. They shortcut through two mainland rivers and a portage in order to finally reach the lower Fraser. Friendly tribes were identified along with subsistence farming land suitable for sustaining a trading post. The first Fort Langley was subsequently built (1827), establishing an early settlers long lasting presence in current day southern British Columbia. The fur trade in a wet climate turned out to be marginal and quickly evolved into a salmon trade site with abundant supply in the vicinity.
The HBC stretched its presence North on the coastline with Fort Simpson (1831) on the Nass River, Fort McLoughlin (1833) and the Beaver (1836), the first steamship to ever roam the Pacific Northwest for resupplying its coastline sites. The HBC was securing a trading monopoly on the coastline keeping away independent American traders: "By 1837, American competition on the North West Coast was effectively over".
The HBC gained more control of the fur trade with both the coastline and inland tribes to access the fur rich New Caledonia district in current day northern British Columbia: "monopoly control of the coastal fur trade allowed the HBC to impose a uniform tariff on both sides of the Coast Mountains".
By 1843, under pressure from the Americans to withdraw further North with the looming Oregon Treaty border negotiation finalized in 1846, and strong of its coastal presence on the northern coast, HBC built Fort Victoria at the southern end of present-day Vancouver Island in southern BC. A well sheltered ocean port with agricultural potential in the vicinity would allow the new regional headquarter to further develop the trade on salmon, timber and cranberries. Trade via the Hawaiian post was also increasing. The Fort Rupert (1849) at the northern end of the island would open up access to coal fields.On the continent mainland, Fort Hope and Fort Yale (1848) were built to extend the HBC presence on the Fraser River as far as navigable.Brigades would link a rebuilt Fort Langley (1840) on the Lower Fraser to Fort Kamloops by 1850 and the rest of the transportation network to York Factory on the Hudson Bay along with the New Caledonia district fur returns.
End of monopoly
The Guillaume Sayer trial in 1849 contributed to the end of the HBC monopoly. Guillaume Sayer, a Métis trapper and trader, was accused of illegal trading in furs.The Court of Assiniboia brought Sayer to trial, before a jury of HBC officials and supporters.During the trial, a crowd of armed Métis men led by Louis Riel Sr. gathered outside the courtroom.Although Sayer was found guilty of illegal trade, having evaded the HBC monopoly, Judge Adam Thom did not levy a fine or punishment. Some accounts attributed that to the intimidating armed crowd gathered outside the courthouse. With the cry, "Le commerce est libre ! Le commerce est libre !" ("Trade is free! Trade is free!"), the Métis loosened the HBC's previous control of the courts, which had enforced their monopoly on the settlers of Red River.
Another factor was the findings of the Palliser Expedition of 1857 to 1860,[51] led by Captain John Palliser.[52] He surveyed the area of the prairies and wilderness from Lake Superior to the southern passes of the Rocky Mountains.[53] Although he recommended against settlement of the region,[54] the report sparked a debate.It fuelled the ongoing debate over the region's agricultural potential, challenging the position of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had long disputed that the Canadian West was capable of agricultural settlement.[55]
In 1863, the International Financial Society bought controlling interest in the HBC, signalling a shift in the company's outlook: most of the new shareholders were less interested in the fur trade than in real estate speculation and economic development in the West. The Society floated £2 million in public shares on non-ceded land held ostensibly by the Hudson's Bay Company as an asset and leveraged this asset for collateral for these funds. These funds allowed the Society the financial means to weather the financial collapse of 1866, which destroyed many competitors, and invest in railways in North America.[56]
In 1869, after rejecting the American government offer of CA$10million,[57] the company approved the return of Rupert's Land to Britain. The government gave it to Canada and loaned the new country the £300,000 required to compensate HBC for its losses. HBC also received one-twentieth of the fertile areas to be opened for settlement and retained title to the lands on which it had built trading establishments.[58] The deal, known as the Deed of Surrender, came into force the following year.The resulting territory, the North-West Territories, was brought under Canadian jurisdiction under the terms of the Rupert's Land Act 1868, enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The Deed enabled the admission of the fifth province, Manitoba, to the Confederation on 15 July 1870, the same day that the deed itself came into force.[59]
During the 19th century the Hudson's Bay Company went through great changes in response to such factors as growth of population and new settlements in part of its territory, and ongoing pressure from Britain. It seemed unlikely that it would continue to control the future of the West.[60]
Shift to department stores
The modern department store evolved from trading posts at the start of the 19th century, when they began to see demand for general merchandise grow rapidly. HBC soon expanded into the interior and set-up posts along river settlements that later developed into the modern cities of Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton.In 1857, the first sales shop was established in Fort Langley.This was followed by other sales shops in Fort Victoria (1859), Winnipeg (1881), Calgary (1884), Vancouver (1887), Vernon (1887), Edmonton (1890), Yorkton (1898), and Nelson (1902). The first of the grand "original six" department stores was built in Calgary in 1913. The other department stores that followed were in Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg.[61][62]
Banting was angry at the leak, having promised the Department of the Interior not to make any statements to the press prior to clearing them.
The article noted that Banting had given the journalist C. R. Greenaway repeated instances of how the fox fur trade always favoured the company: "For over $100,000 of fox skins, he estimated that the Eskimos had not received $5,000 worth of goods."[69] He traced this treatment to health, consistent with reports made in previous years by RCMP officers, suggesting that "the result was a diet of 'flour, sea-biscuits, tea and tobacco,' with the skins that once were used for clothing traded merely for 'cheap whiteman's goods.[69]
The HBC fur trade commissioner called Banting's remarks "false and slanderous", and a month later, the governor and general manager met Banting at the King Edward Hotel to demand a retraction.[67][69] Banting stated that the reporter had betrayed his confidence, but did not retract his statement and reaffirmed that HBC was responsible for the death of Indigenous residents by supplying the wrong kind of food and introducing diseases into the Arctic.[67] As A. Y. Jackson, the Group of Seven painter with whom Banting was travelling, noted in his memoir that since neither the governor nor the general manager had been to the Arctic, the meeting ended with them asking Banting's advice on what HBC ought to do: "He gave them some good advice and later he received a card at Christmas with the Governor's best wishes."[67]
Banting maintained this position in his report to the Department of the Interior:[69]"He noted that 'infant mortality was high because of the undernourishment of the mother before birth'; that 'white man's food leads to decay of native teeth'; that 'tuberculosis has commenced. Saw several cases at Godhavn, Etah, Port Burwell, Arctic Bay'; that 'an epidemic resembling influenza killed a considerable proportion of population at Port Burwell'; and that 'the gravest danger faces the Eskimo in his transfer from a race-long hunter to a dependent trapper. White flour, sea-biscuits, tea and tobacco do not provide sufficient fuel to warm and nourish him'. Furthermore, he discouraged the establishment of an Arctic hospital. The 'proposed hospital at Pangnirtung would be a waste of money, as it could be reached by only a few natives'. Banting's report contrasted starkly with the bland descriptions provided by the ship's physician, F. H. Stringer."
Latter 20th century
HBOG also expanded during the 1960s, as it began shipping Canadian crude through a new link to the Glacier pipeline and on to the refinery in Billings, Montana.The company became the sixth-largest Canadian oil producer in 1967.[70]
In 1970, on the company's 300th anniversary, as a result of punishing new British tax laws, the company relocated to Canada, and was rechartered as a Canadian business corporation under Canadian law,[71] Head Office functions were transferred from London to Winnipeg. By 1974, as the company expanded into eastern Canada, head office functions were moved to Toronto.
In 1972, the company acquired the four-store Shop-Rite chain of catalogue stores.The chain quickly expanded to 65 stores in Ontario, but closed in 1982 due to declining sales.[72] In these stores, little merchandise was displayed; customers made their selections from catalogues, and staff would retrieve the merchandise from storerooms.The HBC also acquired Freimans department stores in Ottawa and converted them to The Bay.[73]
In 1973, HBOG acquired a 35 per cent stake in Siebens Oil and Gas, and, in 1979, it divested that interest. In 1980, it bought a controlling interest in Roxy Petroleum.
In 1978, the Zellers discount store chain made a bid to acquire the HBC; however, the HBC turned the tables and acquired Zellers.[74]
In 1979, Canadian billionaire Kenneth Thomson won control of the company in a battle with George Weston Limited, and acquired a 75 per cent stake for $400 million.[75] Thomson sold the company's oil and gas business, financial services, distillery, and other interests for approximately $550 million, transforming the company into a leaner, more focused operation.In the 1980s, sales and oil prices slipped, while debt from acquisitions piled up which led to Hudson's Bay Company selling its 10.1 per cent stake in HBOG to Dome Petroleum in 1981.[76] HBC lost $330 million from 1983 to 1988 and although it returned to profitability in the late 1980s, it was hit by the early 1990s recession.[77] On November 5, 1992, the Thomson family sold most of its stake in HBC but continued to be the largest shareholder.[78] Thomson's remaining shares were ultimately sold five years later on September 15, 1997.[79]
HBC sold its Canadian fur-auction business to Hudson's Bay Fur Sales Canada (now North American Fur Auctions).The Northern Stores Division was sold that same year to a group of investors and employees, which adopted The North West Company name three years later.[80]
In 1991, the Bay agreed to stop retailing fur in response to complaints from people opposed to killing animals for this purpose.[81] In 1997, the Bay reopened its fur salons to meet consumer demand.[81]
(V&D) sites by 2017.
V&D, a historic Dutch department store chain, had gone bankrupt and shut down in early 2016.[94] As of November 2017, the company also expanded retail operations into Europe, including five Saks Off Fifth stores in Germany.[95]
In early 2017, the Hudson's Bay Company made an overture to Macy's for a potential takeover of the US department store chain.Later, HBC also considered a purchase of Neiman Marcus Group Inc. It did not proceed with either deal.[96]
On 1 April 2018, HBC disclosed that more than five million credit and debit cards used for in-store purchases had been recently breached by hackers. The compromised credit card transactions took place at Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th, and Lord & Taylor stores. The hack had been discovered by Gemini Advisory, which called the breach "amongst the biggest and most damaging to ever hit retail companies".[97] A July 2019 hack of Capital One, which provides HBC Mastercards, did not affect the HBC credit cards or card applications, according to HBC.[98]
In June 2019, a consortium including chairman Richard Baker, Rhône Group, WeWork, Hanover Investments (Luxembourg) and Abrams Capital Management announced that it wanted to take the company private.[99] The group then owned just over 50 per cent of HBC shares. In mid-August, the consortium said that it owned 57 per cent of the HBC shares. By 19 August 2019, however, Canadian investment firm Catalyst Capital Group Inc. said it had acquired enough shares to block the plan.A US company, Land & Buildings Investment Management, the owner of over 6 per cent of the shares, had also criticized the Baker plan.[100][101][102] In March 2020, Baker and a group of shareholders were successful in taking the company private.[103]
HBC sold Galeria Kaufhof, Galeria Inno, Gilt Groupe, and Lord & Taylor by August 2019.A feature article by Bloomberg News mentioned that CEO Helena Foulkes, recruited in 2018, "had helped improve the bottom line at Hudson's Bay". She was selling assets "to put the company on more solid financial footing" and could then focus on Saks Fifth Avenue and the Bay. On the other hand, Bloomberg suggested that millennial shoppers prefer to make purchases online, or direct from various brands' own stores, and that HBC "has yet to offer something they can't find somewhere else and risks drifting into irrelevance".[104]
However, on 23 April, the company announced the liquidation of all remaining stores after a court ruling determined that it was unlikely that they would be bought.
In early May, the liquidator solicited bids for HBC's leases, intellectual property, and real estate.[117][118] By 3 June, HBC had completed its efforts to auction off its store leases.62 leases had no bidder interest, and were returned to their landlords, and 12 properties were co-owned by RioCan, who decided to put them into receivership.[119] On 23 May, successful bids were made by Ruby Liu Commercial Investment Corporation for 28 Hudson's Bay store leases.[120] Objections were made by landlords for 23 of the leases, citing an insufficient business plan, financing, or retail expertise.[121] On 23 June, the court approved the acquisition of 3 leases where Liu was the landlord.[122] By late July 2025, HBC reached a deal with YM Inc. to sell the leases to five stores in Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba for $5.3million.[123] On 31 July, a deal was reached with Ivanhoe Realties Inc. to sell the lease to a store in a mall owned by Ivanhoe Cambridge.[124] On 24 October, the Ontario Supreme Court sided with landlords for the 23 disputed store leases and rejected Liu's bid to acquire them.[125]
On 27 May, it was announced by the liquidator that HBC's intellectual property rights had been purchased by Canadian Tire for $30 million.The property consisted of the Hudson's Bay name, trademarks, logos, coat of arms, and stripes pattern, as well as many slogans, including Zellers's catchphrase, "Lowest price is the law".[126] However, the Zellers brand itself was not acquired by Canadian Tire.[127][128] The purchase of intellectual property by Canadian Tire required that HBC be renamed during the final liquidation proceedings to avoid confusion with the trademark acquired.[129] By August 13, the company changed its name to 1242939 B.C. Unlimited Liability Co., which will be responsible for selling the former HBC's leases and auctioning its remaining art and artifacts.[130][131]
In August 2025, filings revealed that the Hudson's Bay trademarks has transferred Zellers trademarks to Les Alies de la mode Inc., a defunct Quebec-based retailer run by Issac Benitah, owner of Fairweather and International Clothiers.[132]
In October 2025, Canadian Tire announced that they would be marketing Hudson's Bay Point Blankets at their stores.[133]
A 2026 Canadian Press report indicated that the company was still being unwound through court proceedings.[134]
In August 2022, the Hudson's Bay Company announced it would be reviving the Zellers brand through online shopping and within Hudson's Bay physical locations in 2023.[147][148] It operated in a store-within-a-store format across Canada.
The stores closed a few years later, along with Home Outfitters.
In February 2019, HBC announced all 37 locations of Home Outfitters would be phased out.[154]
Saks Global purchased the American Neiman Marcus Group (NMG).[169][170][171] The acquisition was finalized in December 2024 and the purchase cost $2.7 billion.[172] The acquisition brought together Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th.[173] The purchase was supported with financing from Amazon (who will work with the group to “to innovate on behalf of customers and brand partners”),[173]Authentic Brands Group, G-III Apparel Group and Salesforce.[174] There is also the possibility of store closures across Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.[174] In an interview with Vogue Business, Metrick (CEO of Saks Global Operating Group) said that this was only the beginning of the group's ambitions and that they were thinking of what the entity might look like internationally.[172] On 4 July 2024, Hudson's Bay Company announced it would acquire Neiman Marcus Group for $2.65 billion, concluding years of negotiations.[175]
The deal also included the use of floors of certain HBC-owned department stores in New York, Toronto, Vancouver and Germany as WeWork's shared office workspaces.
In August 2019, HBC announced that it would sell their Lord & Taylor business to Le Tote Inc., which was to pay CA$99.5 million in cash when the deal closes (probably before year end 2019) and an additional CA$33.2 million two years later.HBC was to get a 25 per cent equity stake in Le Tote.[160] The buyer would retain the stores' inventory, with an estimated value of CA$284.2 million. The deal, expected to close before year end, required HBC to pay the stores' rent for at least three years, leading one news report to describe it as "Not a clean exit". The liability to HBC for the rents was estimated at CA$77 million cash per year.[161][162]
Saks Global purchased the American Neiman Marcus Group (NMG).[169][170][171] The acquisition was finalized in December 2024 and the purchase cost $2.7 billion.[172] The acquisition brought together Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th.[173] The purchase was supported with financing from Amazon (who will work with the group to “to innovate on behalf of customers and brand partners”),[173]Authentic Brands Group, G-III Apparel Group and Salesforce.[174] There is also the possibility of store closures across Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.[174] In an interview with Vogue Business, Metrick (CEO of Saks Global Operating Group) said that this was only the beginning of the group's ambitions and that they were thinking of what the entity might look like internationally.[172] On 4 July 2024, Hudson's Bay Company announced it would acquire Neiman Marcus Group for $2.65 billion, concluding years of negotiations.[175]
HBC announced its intent to sell the last 49.99 per cent of Galeria Kaufhof and Galeria Inno shares it held to Austrian firm Signa Holding in June 2019.The sale of the real estate in Germany had gained US$1.5 billion (€1 billion) for HBC.[181] At that time, HBC still had a retail operation in the Netherlands, using the Vroom & Dreesmann locations it had purchased in 2017.On 31 August 2019, the company announced that all 15 of those stores would be sold by year end.[182][183]
The records covered the HBC history from the founding of the company in 1670.
The records contained business transactions, medical records, personal journals of officials, inventories, company reports, etc.[202][203]
When the HBC dissolved in 2025, the Heffel Gallery was appointed to auction off 1,700 pieces of art and 2,700 artifacts including the 1670 royal charter.[204]
Under the charter establishing Hudson's Bay Company, the company was required to give two elk skins and two black beaver pelts to the English king, then Charles II, or his heirs, whenever the monarch visited Rupert's Land. The exact text from the 1670 Charter reads: "...Yielding and paying yearly to us and our heirs and successors for the same two Elks and two Black beavers whensoever and as often as We, our heirs and successors shall happen to enter into the said Countries, Territories and Regions hereby granted.[15]"
The ceremony was first conducted with the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) in 1927, then with King George VI in 1939, and last with his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II in 1959 and 1970.On the last such visit, the pelts were given in the form of two live beavers, which the Queen donated to the Winnipeg Zoo in Assiniboine Park. However, when the company permanently moved its headquarters to Canada, the Charter was amended to remove the rent obligation. Each of the four "rent ceremonies" took place in or around Winnipeg.[209]
Donation
In December 2025, the Weston family and Thomson family agreed to jointly pay $18million for the royal charter document and donate it joint ownership of the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History, and the Royal Ontario Museum.[205]
