The Dutch branch of the Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company has suffered a loss of more than 73 million euros in the last financial year (ending 28 November). Over the three years that the chain was active in the Netherlands, the total loss amounted to 184 million euros.
1100 creditors
At the beginning, in 2017, the department store chain incurred a loss of 28.6 million euros. One year later that amount had already risen to 81.4 million euros, and last year, another 73.8 million euros was added to the total. That is the result of an investigation of the first insolvency report by Dutch newspaper AD.
In September 2019, the Canadian parent company announced the closure of all its Dutch stores. The closing sale at the end of last year still yielded 22.87 million euros, and Hudson’s Bay sold the inventory of its stores for 3.3 million euros to German competitor Kaufhof. Nevertheless, there is still an outstanding debt of 86 million euros, of which approximately 50 million is owed to 1100 suppliers, NRC reports.
Hudson’s Bay paid 4.7 million euros in monthly rents for its fifteen Dutch branches, amounting to 56 million euros per year. The bankruptcy report shows that the landlords, who had concluded long-term contracts with the department store chain, received guarantees totalling 280 million euros.
