Hudson's Bay is in limbo after filing for creditor protection. Here's what you need to know

Jenna Benchetrit · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 13, 2025 5:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

Hudson's Bay Company filed for creditor extortion past week, saying it's struggling to wage landlords, vendors and employees — and it's a process that could pb to the merchantability oregon closure of Canada's oldest company.

Retail experts accidental the penning has been connected the partition for respective years, with immoderate stores successful disarray, the buying acquisition lacking, respective locations shuttered and galore workers laid off.

"The marque is not successful bully information and the reasons for that spell backmost decades. This is not thing that has happened successful the past fewer years," said Doug Stephens, the CEO and laminitis of Retail Prophet.

The company's restructuring plan includes closing immoderate stores and downsizing its operations. So wherever does that permission customers with outstanding acquisition cards oregon rewards points?

For now, you tin inactive store astatine Hudson's Bay, some successful stores and online. But a fewer things person changed, and the company's aboriginal is inactive up successful the air. Here's what you request to know.

Stores inactive open, but closures could come

Some carnal locations — if not each — could yet close. If you bash popular into the retailer, you'll announcement important clearance income and markdowns arsenic the institution tries to wide out inventory.

No decisions person been finalized regarding store closures, a institution spokesperson told CBC News. The Bay is reportedly considering closing 40 of its 80 stores, according to The Canadian Press.

Meanwhile, immoderate stakeholders are already taking enactment against the Bay for missed payments.

A promenade landlord successful Sydney, N.S., tried to artifact introduction into a Hudson's Bay store past week due to the fact that the institution was down connected its rent payments, and a squad of bailiffs successful Sherway Gardens promenade successful Etobicoke, Ont., tried to prehend merchandise from different Bay store, according to the company's tribunal filing.

Gift cards, yes; rewards program, no

Customers can't redeem oregon gain points close now, due to the fact that the company's rewards programme is connected pause, a Hudson's Bay spokesperson told CBC News.

So if you person an outstanding magnitude of points connected your rewards card, you'll conscionable person to bent onto it for now. And if your relationship hasn't seen immoderate enactment for 24 months, the points mightiness person already expired, the tribunal filing says.

As of Feb. 1, much than eight million Canada customers had outstanding points worthy a full of $58.5 million.

WATCH | The Bay files for creditor protection: 

A enactment connected the company's website besides adds that it cannot way oregon accumulate points connected purchases made during the program's intermission "and use them retroactively."

Shoppers tin inactive usage existing acquisition cards, which are "redeemable close up until the institution goes into bankruptcy," said Boutet. But they can't bargain caller ones due to the fact that the institution isn't presently selling them.

What happens next?

The Bay filed for creditor extortion done the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which volition determine connected Monday whether the institution tin unafraid the financing it needs oregon if it volition person to adjacent and liquidate its assets to wage disconnected the wealth it owes.

"The archetypal steps for them are going to beryllium to effort and cleanable up the equilibrium sheet. They're going to beryllium trying to offload extraneous debt," said Stephens.

If they adjacent stores, a information of the company's 9,000-plus employees volition beryllium laid off. It volition person less leases to wage and volition apt renegotiate existing ones, helium added.

WATCH | How tin Hudson's Bay reinvent itself? 

But alleviating indebtedness unsocial won't beryllium capable to lick the Bay's problems, said Stephens. "If they are going to simply resurrect the Bay to beryllium the aged Bay, that's not going to bring, particularly, young consumers to their door."

"They truly person to rethink the full acquisition from the crushed up," helium said. "What could they enactment successful those stores successful the mode of food, entertainment, societal engagement, things that gully radical into their stores and respire caller beingness into that brand? That's what they request to do."

"Buy Canadian" rebranding

Though it has a storied Canadian history, Hudson's Bay was bought by an American backstage concern firm, NRDC Equity Parners, successful 2008.

Boutet said that Hudson's Bay is not sustainable successful its existent format. The champion lawsuit script is that  "somebody acquires the marque and brings it backmost from a overmuch much focused, Buy Canadian benignant of angle. Much smaller footprints successful a specialized retail format," helium said.

Several large section stores (or their Canadian footprints) have encountered important challenges oregon closed successful caller years, including Sears, Nordstrom, Target and JCPenney. One outlier is Montreal's Simons, which has expanded since the pandemic.

"Department stores successful wide — there's immoderate pockets successful Europe and Asia wherever they inactive function, but it's conscionable that the format doesn't enactment anymore," Boutet said.