The filings show the company owes $950 million to 26 pages’ worth of listed creditors: landlords, suppliers and other partners, including fashion heavyweights Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Columbia Sportswear, Diesel and Estee Lauder.
Jennifer Bewley, the chief financial officer for Hudson’s Bay’s parent company, said in a court filing made on March 7 that the business had to defer certain payments to such companies for many months because it was having so much trouble making payments to landlords, service providers and vendors.
The situation was so severe that she said a landlord “unlawfully locked” Hudson’s Bay out of a store located in Sydney, N.S., and a team of bailiffs attempted to seize merchandise from another location it runs in Sherway Gardens, a suburban Toronto mall.
Classic outcome of private equity raping a business.