Sales from the Hudson’s Bay Company (TSE: HBC) in its fourth quarter were disappointingly low.
Results of the fourth quarter were announced today, with a net income of $84 million CAD, compared to a net loss of 152 million CAD in last years fourth quarter.
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Gross profit of the department store company was at 39.7%, 0.5% lower than the previous year.
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) Governor and Executive Chairman, Richard Baker has said, in a conference call with analysts, that while they “are not pleased with [their] recent operating performance, [they] took significant action during 2017 to continue to build a solid foundation for future growth.”
Baker says they will also be continuing “to capitalize on the value of [their] real estate portfolio,” including the recent agreement to sell the Lord & Taylor flagship store, located on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, to WeWork Companies Inc. (private) for $850 million USD, or approximately $1 billion CAD.
The department store company owns a total of 483 stores across North America and Europe, including Hudson’s Bay, HBC Europe, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5TH, and Home Outfitters.
Comparable sales of Saks Fifth Avenue grew for the third consecutive quarter, up by 2.1%, but also declined by 3.4% at HBC Europe’s GALERIA Kaufhof, Galeria INNO, Hudson’s Bay Netherlands and Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH Europe stores, 7.6% at HBC Off Price stores Saks OFF 5TH and Gilt, and 2.6% at Lord & Taylor and Home Outfitters.
The company plans to be working on bettering their retail operations by making “several key leadership appointments which [they] believe will help drive business performance,” one of which is the recent appointment of Helena Foulkes as HBC’s Chief Executive Officer, six weeks ago.
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