Hudson’s Bay drops the curtain in the Netherlands

For the Hudson’s Bay Company, selling outside Canada was a calculated risk. The adventure lasted two years. The chain announced a closure of all Dutch department stores and e-commerce operations by the end of 2019. This represents 15 stores in cities like Amsterdam (a 17,000 sq.m flagship), Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden, Breda, Maastricht, etc. Many of these stores originated from the Vroom & Dreesmann chain, which closed at the end of 2015. By the autumn of 2019, H.B.C. is expected to finalise a “spin-off” of its European retail and property assets into a joint venture with the Austrian Group Signa, which controls the German department stores Karstadt and Kaufhof.