Canadian Tire Corp. has expressed interest in purchasing Hudson’s Bay’s intellectual property, which may include its iconic stripes and logos, according to a source close to the beleaguered retailer’s restructuring plans.
The source told the Star that Canadian Tire, the stalwart retailer of automotive and home products, has submitted a bid in a sales process that is putting Hudson’s Bay’s leases, real estate and IP up for grabs. The deadline for bid submission was Wednesday.
The once-venerated Hudson’s Bay filed for creditor protection in early March and has since been granted permission to liquidate half-a-billion dollars worth of inventory in more than 80 stores across the country.
Multiple parties are participating in the bidding process and are primarily interested in the IP. Canadian Tire “seemed quite excited” about it, according to the source.
In previous interviews, retail experts told the Star that there’s some value in the Hudson’s Bay’s white-green-red-indigo-yellow stripes, logo and name, and companies like Canadian Tire could develop their own product line under the Hudson’s Bay name for its stores.
It’s unclear whether Canadian Tire is bidding for the retailer’s stores as well. Hudson’s Bay and Canadian Tire did not respond to the Star’s request for comments before the time of publication.
“We have received multiple bids and are evaluating them,” Adam Zalev, managing director at Bay financial adviser Reflect Advisors, told the Star on Thursday.
The Star reported on Wednesday that Weihong Liu, a British Columbia-based billionaire mall owner, told the Star on Wednesday that she has placed a bid on 25 Hudson’s Bay stores after publicly disclosing her intent on Chinese social media.
Since the news of the financial woes facing Hudson’s Bay broke, Canadians have flooded stores, scrambling to snatch up anything bearing the Hudson’s Bay logo, mourning the loss of a Canadian company with a 355-year-old legacy.
Despite the better-than-expected sales in the liquidation process, the company decided it was “unlikely” to find a restructuring solution to save its business and put six stores that it was hoping to keep operational into liquidation last Friday.
Hudson’s Bay is clinging to the hope that a successful bid will come through the sales process, and reserves the right to withdraw some stores from liquidation sales.
