Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company
Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson

Company type	Private
Industry	Retail
Founded	2 May 1670; 354 years ago (2 May 1670) London, England
Headquarters	U.S.: 225 Liberty Street New York[1] Canada: 401 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2Y4[1]
Key people	Richard Baker (governor, executive chairman and CEO)
Revenue	CA$9.4 billion (2018)
Net income	CA$−631 million (2018)
Owner	NRDC Equity Partners (48%)
Number of employees	30,000 (2017)[2]
Divisions	Hudson's Bay Zellers Saks Global Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Off 5th Neiman Marcus
Website	www.hbc.com

The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; French: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is an American and Canadian-based retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, it became the largest and oldest corporation in Canada, before evolving into a major fashion retailer, operating retail stores across both the United States and Canada.^[3][4] The company's namesake business division is Hudson's Bay, commonly referred to as The Bay (La Baie in French).^[5]

After incorporation by English royal charter in 1670, the company was granted a right of "sole trade and commerce" over an expansive area of land known as Rupert's Land, comprising much of the Hudson Bay drainage basin.^[6] This right effectively gave the company a commercial monopoly over that area. The HBC functioned as the de facto government in Rupert's Land for nearly 200 years until the HBC relinquished control of the land to Canada in 1869 as part of the Deed of Surrender,^[6][7] authorized by the Rupert's Land Act 1868. At its peak, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English- and later British-controlled North America. By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a mercantile business selling a wide variety of products from furs to fine homeware in a small number of sales shops (as opposed to trading posts) across Canada.^[8][9] These shops were the first step towards the department stores the company owns today.^[10]

In 2006, Jerry Zucker, an American businessman, bought HBC for US$1.1 billion. In 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners, which also owned the upmarket American department store Lord & Taylor.^[11] From 2008 to 2012, the HBC was run through a holding company of NRDC, Hudson's Bay Trading Company, which was dissolved in early 2012.^[12] HBC's U.S. headquarters are in Lower Manhattan, New York City,^[1] while its Canadian headquarters are in Toronto.^[1] The company spun off most of its European operations by August 2019 and its remaining stores there, in the Netherlands, were sold by the end of 2019.

Until March 2020, the company was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "HBC.TO" until Richard Baker and a group of shareholders took the company private.^[13] HBC is, as of 2022,^[update] the majority owner of eCommerce companies Saks Fifth Avenue^[14] and Saks Off 5th,^[15] both established as separate operating companies in 2021.^[15][16] HBC wholly owns SFA, the entity that operates Saks Fifth Avenue's physical locations;^[17] O5, the operating company for Saks Off 5th stores;^[18] The Bay, an eCommerce marketplace and Hudson's Bay, the operating company for Hudson's Bay's brick-and-mortar stores.^[18][19] In July 2024, HBC announced that it would acquire the Neiman Marcus Group for US$2.65 billion and fold it into the new flagship entity Saks Fifth Avenue Global.^[20]

HBC owns or controls approximately 3.7 million square metres (40 million square feet) of gross leasable real estate^[21] through its real estate and investment arm, HBC Properties and Investments, established in October 2020.^[22][23]