Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company (abbreviated HBC and colloquially Hudson's Bay) is a Canadian holding company of department stores and commercial property. It was the oldest corporation in North America, founded in 1670 and liquidated in 2025. It was headquartered at the Simpson Tower in Toronto. The founding royal charter, issued by King Charles II, granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over the Rupert's Land territory, the borders of which were based on the Hudson Bay drainage basin. It controlled the fur trade throughout English and later British North America, and was its de facto government until it relinquished control of the land to Canada in 1869. The company then diversified with the ownership and operation of several retail businesses throughout the latter country. It established its namesake department stores in 1881, the Home Outfitters home furnishings stores in 1999, and acquired the Zellers and Fields discount stores in 1978. It also owned several regional department stores that were eventually converted to The Bay, including Morgan's, Simpsons, and Woodward's. Expansions beyond Canada included the United States, where it owned department stores including Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off 5th in the 2010s; and the Netherlands, where it sold its remaining stores in 2019. The Thomson family was the majority stockholder of HBC from 1979 to 1992 and sold its last shares in the company in 1997. HBC was bought by American businessman Jerry Zucker in 2006 and became privately held. Following Zucker’s death in April 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners and was operated by the latter's holding company Hudson's Bay Trading Company until 2012. HBC went public again from 2012 to 2020 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with NRDC as the main shareholder. HBC spun-off its American assets into the holding company Saks Global in November 2024, and filed for creditor protection in March 2025. By this time, its business consisted only of Hudson's Bay stores and the Canadian locations of Saks. Following the closure of its remaining stores by June 2025 and the subsequent sale of its intellectual property to Canadian Tire, the Hudson's Bay Company was formally renamed 1242939 B . Unlimited Liability Co. in August 2025. By December 2025, the liquidation of the company was essentially over, with the royal charter and art collection having been auctioned off, and the former store leases either sold to other parties or returned to landlords. As of February 2026, eight people were still working at the company, compared to 9,364 when it had filed for creditor protection and closed its stores in 2025, and a high of 70,000 employees back in 2006.