Hudson’s Bay appoints new CEO

Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company appointed Helena Foulkes as its new CEO. She will succeed Jerry Stoch, who was forced to resign at the parent company of Saks OFF 5^th and Galeria Inno.

“Bold strategic choices”

Helena Foulkes has worked for American apothecary chain CVS as its head of retail. Over the past few years, she took charge of its web shop expansion and also helped remove tobacco from the stores’ shelves. Previously, she also worked for Goldman Sachs and Tiffany & Co.

“She has a proven track record of making bold, strategic choices that, at their core, put the customer first and have proven enormously impactful to business success”, interim CEO Richard Baker told Fortune.

She will have to get the Canadian company’s different chains back on track, because like-for-like turnover dropped 3.2 % in the past quarter. Only Saks Fifth Avenue managed to generate small growth.

Europe

She will also have to deal with an activist shareholder pressuring the company to divest from its European activities. Hudson’s Bay invested a lot in the past year to get its Dutch operations going and it also owns Galeria Kaufhof in Germany and Galeria Inno in Belgium.

Foulkes’ predecessor, Jerry Storch, had to vacate his position because of the European division. He resigned on 1 November 2017 after his position was damaged from the company’s weak European performance.