Canadian Hudson’s Bay, North America’s oldest company, has officially announced its plans to come to the Netherlands. Its goal is to service the entire country thanks to 20 department stores it intends to open in the future.
Summer of 2017
Hudson’s Bay has already signed several long-term rental agreements, while it is still in talks for several other locations. Not only Hudson’s Bay department stores will arrive, it will also bring its Saks Fifth Off outlet chain to the Netherlands. Its very first store should open its doors in the summer of 2017, but it will not bring its other department store chain, Galeria Inno, to the Netherlands for now despite a presence in Belgium.
“We see that the Dutch retail market has room for both premium department stores and discount formulas“, Hudson’s Bay CEO Jerry Storch said in a statement, according to the FD.
Hudson’s Bay expects it will need to invest 300 million euro to get the new locations ready, but the majority of that investment will come from the rental parties itself. The Canadian company expects to create some 2,500 jobs in its own stores.
There had been long-standing rumours about Hudson’s Bay’s arrival in the Netherlands and it was apparently a possible renter of several stores after V&D went bankrupt. Last year, the company ventured into Europe for the first time, after it acquired Galeria Inno in Belgium and Galeria Kaufhof in Germany.
