North America’s oldest retailer is exporting its iconic Hudson’s Bay brand to the Netherlands, opening up to 17 new stores over the next two years as part of an aggressive expansion into the European market.
The announcement Tuesday marks the company’s first foray outside of Canada under its namesake brand. The first Dutch stores are expected to open in the summer of 2017.
While the Hudson’s Bay Company already has a growing presence in Europe that includes the largest department store chain across Germany and Belgium, CEO Jerry Storch says the addition of the 346-year-old Canadian brand will tap into the Netherlands’ historic affinity for Canada, and make an exciting addition to the country’s somewhat dull retail landscape.
“Right now, there is one very high-end luxury chain and a bunch of discount chains,” he said in an interview with the Business News Network.
“We believe this is a market that is poised for a fine offering like what we have at Hudson’s Bay. It’s so much more exciting than what we see in the market in the Netherlands.”
Storch says Dutch enthusiasm for Canuck culture has not waned since Canadian troops liberated the country from Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
“There is even a tulip named after the Hudson’s Bay Company,” he said.
The Toronto-based retailer also announced plans for three Saks Off 5th locations in the country. Some of the new HBC stores will include discounted Saks merchandise. Hudson’s Bay acquired Saks for US$2.4-billion in 2013.
HBC is still in the process of finalizing long-term leases in the country, some of them made available by the bankruptcy of Dutch Department store V&D (Vroom & Dressmann). Storch says the company has a “newly constructed set of buildings” planned for its Amsterdam location.
The company’s Dutch expansion builds on momentum from the $3.9-billion purchase of German department store giant Galeria Kaufhof in July.
“We think this is a very strong part of the world for us. We understand it,” said Storch, who notes that HBC’s chief merchant in Europe is Dutch.
He brushed off criticism that department stores are starting to buckle under pressure from e-commerce giants like Amazon.com. U.S. rivals Macy’s and J.C. Penny reported disappointing first-quarter earnings last week, even though U.S. retail spending jumped the most in a year in April.
“If you go back a few years ago, department stores were thriving in the U.S. … The internet didn’t just suddenly pop up in the last few months,” he said.
HBC shares closed at $14.61 up $0.01 Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange after dropping by 20 cents earlier in the day.
