The Hudson’s Bay Co. announced a sweeping “transformation” plan on Thursday, involving 2,000 layoffs, new leadership at the department store divisions and $350 million Canadian in annual savings.
Liz Rodbell, formerly president of the Hudson’s Bay department store division in Canada and the Lord & Taylor chain in the U.S. will now be solely in charge of L&T.
Alison Coville has been named president of Hudson’s Bay. She was most recently senior vice president and general merchandise manager for the department store group — Hudson’s Bay and L&T.
HBC is also decentralizing its department store group to now have separate senior level merchants and store operations executives. Previously, one team oversaw both divisions.
HBC anticipates realizing more than $350 million Canadian in annual savings when the plan is fully implemented by the end of fiscal 2018, including the anticipated $75 million Canadian in savings previously announced in February. Some of the 2,000 layoffs were made earlier this year.
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The retailer cited revenue, margin and cost pressures as a result of the current environment. For the first quarter, the company’s net loss increased to Canadian $221 million, from Canadian $97 million in the year-ago period.
The transformation plan is designed to make the company more agile to get ahead of the changing retail landscape, transform its cost base and deliver a stronger all-channel model.