TORONTO / NATIONAL – The historic Hudson’s Bay Company, a 355-year-old icon of Canadian retail, has announced it will begin final liquidation sales at six major locations, marking a critical stage in its court-supervised restructuring and raising fresh concerns about the future of Canada’s oldest corporation.
Six Flagship Stores Enter Final Clearance Phase
Starting Friday, clearance sales will commence at six prominent stores previously held back from liquidation. The list includes downtown Toronto and Montreal, Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, CF Carrefour Laval, and CF Fairview Pointe-Claire. The downtown Toronto store also houses a Saks Fifth Avenue outlet, which had been excluded from earlier closures.
These stores had been preserved in hopes of attracting a buyer or investor willing to inject the $82 million needed to rescue their operations. However, according to court documents filed by financial adviser Reflect Advisors, the chances of a viable offer materializing are now considered slim.
Company Teeters on Edge as Sale Deadline Approaches
Hudson’s Bay is operating under court protection from creditors through the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), grappling with over $1.1 billion in debt and mounting losses. A final deadline for bids to acquire some or all of the company’s operations is fast approaching next week.
While the initial liquidation phase—launched in March across 74 Bay stores, along with two Saks Fifth Avenue and 13 Saks Off Fifth locations—saw sales exceed expectations, interest is now waning. From March 15 to April 18, Hudson’s Bay generated $235.7 million in sales.
Court filings show that multiple parties have expressed interest in select assets, including leaseholds and store locations. However, the six flagship stores’ survival hinges on whether any of those bids materialize before the deadline.
Cultural and Historical Legacy at Stake
As financial restructuring intensifies, Hudson’s Bay is also seeking court approval to sell its extensive collection of art and historical artifacts, including its original 1670 Royal Charter, a document central to Canadian colonial history.
This proposal has triggered sharp criticism from Indigenous leaders. Grand Chief Kyra Wilson of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs issued an urgent plea to halt any sales involving Indigenous artifacts, calling it a “continuation of colonial dispossession.”
“Selling these items at auction without full transparency and consultation with impacted First Nations would not only be morally irresponsible but also represent a continuation of the colonial dispossession of First Nations’ lands and belongings that the HBC directly profited from for centuries,” she wrote.
Her letter urged Hudson’s Bay and court officials to publish a complete inventory of the artifacts, and to collaborate with First Nations on pathways for repatriation, shared stewardship, and preservation.
Thunder Bay based Warrior Supplies an indigenous owned company has been left holding the bag on an $80000 unpaid account from Hudsons Bay. The company supplied cash register tapes to the company who while they told Jason Thompson they were paying the bill never has.
Implications for Thunder Bay and National Retail Landscape
For communities like Thunder Bay, where Hudson’s Bay has long been a symbol of Canadian heritage and economic presence, the unfolding crisis represents more than a retail collapse—it’s the unraveling of a national institution. The closure of flagship locations and potential loss of cultural artifacts underscores the far-reaching implications of the company’s fall.
What happens in the coming days will determine not only the fate of Hudson’s Bay’s remaining stores, but also the legacy of one of Canada’s foundational commercial institutions—and whether its history can be preserved with dignity, or lost in the wake of corporate collapse.
