Hudson’s Bay to open 10 shops in the Netherlands in September

An artist’s impression of the Hudson’s Bay store on the Rokin in Amsterdam

Canadian department store chain Hudson’s Bay opened its first and largest Dutch retail operation on Amsterdam’s up-market Rokin shopping street on Tuesday.

The retailer is to open 10 stores throughout the country this month, with other branches opening in 2018 and 2019.

Hudson’s Bay had long had plans to expand into the Netherlands, but these were speeded up when Dutch department store chain V&D went bankrupt, freeing up a lot of retail space.

But a takeover of V&D was no option, Hudson’s Bay chairman Jerry Storch told Trouw. ‘We wanted nothing to do with V&D, the brand was damaged. Moreover, the company had far too many stores. We live in a world where everything is available online, 60 stores is far too many,’ he said.

But Hudson’s Bay is planning to open some 15 stores in the Netherlands in the next 18 months, including outlets in medium-sized cities such as Almere and Zwolle.  Price-wise the Canadian stores will be far below the heights of the Bijenkorf but well above those at V&D, Trouw said.

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