Goodbye Hudsons Bay :(

[Averdris]

This is making me extremely Sad. We lost Tim Hortons to an american and now we will loose our beloved Hudsons Bay.

INDEPTH: THE BAY
The Hudson's Bay Company
CBC News Online | January 26, 2006

It's the oldest corporation in Canada – the second-oldest in North America. And soon it could be owned by an American. The board of the Hudson's Bay Company has backed South Carolina businessman Jerry Zucker's acquisition offer, a deal worth $1.06 billion.

The company was incorporated on May 2, 1670, when King Charles II signed the charter granting the company exclusive trading rights to all the land in the Hudson Bay watershed – a mass that amounts to about a third of present-day Canada.

Two explorers were instrumental in getting the company off the ground. Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers learned from the Cree that there was land much further north of the traditional territory the French had focused on for the fur trade.

They figured the land bordered on Hudson Bay – and they wanted to take the fur trading industry there. Having access to open water would make it much cheaper to transport furs to lucrative European markets than dragging their goods overland to ports on the St. Lawrence River.

But Radisson and Des Groseillers couldn't get France to finance their plans. So they went to the English.

The company's first major place of business was established at Fort Nelson, at the mouth of the Nelson River in what would become northern Manitoba. Here, the company offered tools and blankets to Indians in exchange for furs. Alcohol was another favoured currency.

By 1684, the company had established trading posts along the shores of Hudson Bay at Moose Factory, Fort Albany, Severn House and York Factory.

The charter that established the Hudson's Bay Company included a monopoly on the fur trading business in the Hudson Bay watershed. The monopoly lasted until 1870, when the company sold the land to the government of Canada.

By 1783, the North West Company had become the major competitor in the fur business for the Hudson's Bay Company. It controlled the trade in land north and west of its competitor's territory. The company's fur depot was located in Lachine, Que., near Montreal.

In 1821, the two companies merged, controlling the fur trade over one-quarter of North America's land mass. That monopoly held for much of the 19th century.

The Hudson's Bay Company didn't get into selling goods to the average Canadian until 1881, when its first mail order catalogue was published. Three years later, another Canadian company would take the mail order catalogue and turn it not only into a way of business, but a way of life. The T. Eaton Company would dominate the catalogue business for the next 100 years – but would not survive long after shipping out its last mail order.

In 1907, the Hudson's Bay Company established a wholesale division and got into the business of selling liquor, tobacco, coffee, tea, confectionary and blankets. Two years later, Richard Burbridge, an executive from Harrods department store in London, toured Hudson's Bay retail stores in Canada. He recommended the company divide its operations into three separate departments: fur trade, land sales and retail.

By 1913, the company was opening big downtown department stores. The first two were in Edmonton and Calgary.

Over the next few decades, the company would expand its retail operations and eventually get out of land sales and – by 1987 – it stopped acquiring fur pelts. Between 1991 and 1997, the company stopped selling furs completely, in response to pressure from animal rights groups. But it reopened its fur salons in 1997, in response to an increased demand for furs.

Inside a Hudson's Bay store, Oct. 28, 2005. (CP Photo/Derek Oliver)
In 1960, the company's retail arm reached into Eastern Canada with the acquisition of the Henry Morgan department store chain in Montreal. Five years later, the retail arm officially became The Bay.

Other ventures over the years included selling Prairie farmland to settlers, running oil and gas companies, engaging in property development and dabbling in businesses ranging from liquor distilling to travel agencies, credit bureaus and auction houses.

For the first 300 years of the company's existence, its operations were run from head offices in London. It wasn't until 1970 that Canada's oldest company officially moved its headquarters to Winnipeg, to run the company closer to where it conducted its business. Seven years later, the headquarters moved again, this time to Toronto.

The 1970s marked a period of retail expansion for The Bay. It bought companies like Ottawa retailer A.J. Freiman, Shop-Rite catalogue stores, Zeller's, Fields and Simpson's. In the 1990s, it acquired the Towers group, Vancouver-based Woodward's department stores and Kmart Canada.

The Bay responded to changes in the retail environment by launching specialty stores such as Home Outfitters and Designer Depot.

When Eaton's went under in 1999, the Bay was the last of the big Canadian department stores still in business.

In recent years, it has been struggling. HBC shares were worth as much as $38 in 1997. By 2003, they were down to $9. That's when American businessman Jerry Zucker began accumulating shares.

In October 2005, Zucker announced a takeover offer for HBC: $14.75 in cash for each share. Shares soared to $15.35 by the end of that day. In November, the HBC board rejected the offer as too low.

Zucker continued to acquire shares and HBC fielded informal offers from other companies. In January 2006, Zucker had 19.9 per cent of the company's shares and increased his offer to $15.25 per share. The HBC board accepted the offer.

Zucker's revised offer is conditional on getting two-thirds of HBC's shareholders to tender their shares. Investment Canada's approval is also necessary.

 

[blackheart]

Business is business as usual

 

[Fifty]

USA!

USA!

USA!

 

[sysyphus]

Meh, as long as the stores stay fundamentally the same (which they likely will), I see no reason to be bothered. Companies are bought out by foreginers in every country around the world all the time.

If it makes you feel any better, about half the rail system in the US is Canadian owned.

 

[BCLG100]

I dont get the problem with who owns it as long as it does the same thing

 

[MjM]

Hahaha, take that Canada!

 

[Moss]

So what's the oldest company in North America?

What's the oldest company in the world I wonder? (that is still running)

 

[Bugfatty300]

Ha ha. In your face Canada.

God bless America!

 

[Fifty]

What's the oldest company in the world I wonder? (that is still running)

Oldest family business:

1. Kongo Gumi
Construction/Osaka, Japan
Founded: 578
40th generation
www.kongogumi.co.jp
Prince Shotoku brought Kongo family members to Japan from Korea more than 1,400 years ago to build the Buddhist Shitennoji Temple, which still stands. Over the centuries, Kongo Gumi has participated in the construction of many famous buildings, including the 16th-century Osaka castle. Today the family continues to build and repair religious temples and manage general contracting from its Osaka headquarters. Current president is Toshitaka Kongo; his 51-year-old son, Masakazu Kongo, is waiting in the wings.

 

[sysyphus]

Bloody Koreans, taking good jobs away from honest hardworking Japanese!

 

[Goonie]

So what's the oldest company in North America?

What's the oldest company in the world I wonder? (that is still running)

Stella maybe?

That's some damn old beer.

EDIT: whoops, saw Fifty's post.

 

[amadeus]

Takenaka Corporation bought out Kongo Gumi earlier this month.

 

[Israelite9191]

Still the oldest running company.

 

[blackheart]

Takenaka Corporation bought out Kongo Gumi earlier this month.

How appropriate in this thread

 

[Maniacal]

ISn't that Jerry guy a Canadian? Still Zellars (which is owned by the Hudson's bay company), well, I've been to two of them, the one in my town isn't that good. Well, the electronics department, for the computer games, the prices take a lot longer to fall and lag behind those of Wal*Mart and Future Shop, also not as good as a selection. It's an OK store. The other one I went to was in Richmond, BC and was better but it only sold household goods. I was passing through it on my way to The Bay to get a new watch strap.

 

[Oerdin]

If HBC is the second oldest company in North America then what is the oldest?

On another note this happens to all countries and the US isn't immune. A few years back a Belgian company bought the Winchester Rifle Company and this week the Belgians announced they were going to move the factory overseas. Now "the gun that one the west" won't be made in America any more for the first time since the 1860's.

 

[Dreadnought]

I think it was the Virginia Comapny. It was made in 1606

 

[Bugfatty300]

On another note this happens to all countries and the US isn't immune. A few years back a Belgian company bought the Winchester Rifle Company and this week the Belgians announced they were going to move the factory overseas. Now "the gun that one the west" won't be made in America any more for the first time since the 1860's.

Smith & Wesson was also a British owned company until American investers bought it back a few years ago.

 

[De Lorimier]

The Bay is just another corporation serving stockholders, big deal. So now the company is owned by Americans, wow, my life will change. The Hudson Bay company store in downton Montreal didn't start serving people in French until the 70's. You have to like a company that showed so much respect for the consumers.

Tim Horton is another company I really don't care for. Seriously, it's just a donut shop people!! I'll never understand the weird relation between Canadians and freakin' Tim Horton.

 

[sysyphus]

The Bay is just another corporation serving stockholders, big deal. So now the company is owned by Americans, wow, my life will change. The Hudson Bay company store in downton Montreal didn't start serving people in French until the 70's. You have to like a company that showed so much respect for the consumers.

It was revenge for Not allowing Eaton's to use the 's.

C'est bon de te voir encore DeLorm, tu nous manques!