The Hudson’s Bay Company (now Rupert Legacy) stunned Canadians earlier this year when it filed for bankruptcy, shuttered its stores and sold some of its intellectual property to Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. But the Bay’s downfall hasn’t meant the end of some of the legacy Canadian brands that had found a home there. From the reemergence of Zellers to the fate of GlucksteinHome to the future of the HBC stripes themselves, we asked retail experts what life after the iconic retailer might have in store.

When is Zellers coming back?

Zellers

and

HBC

had a long history: the one-stop discount shopping outlet was first purchased by HBC in 1978 and at its peak had 350 locations around the country. But the chain floundered amid heightened competition from big-box retailers such as Walmart, leading to the demise of most of its stores in 2013. About a decade later, HBC attempted a revival of the discount chain through some shop-in-shop locations and its e-commerce platform.

As part of creditor protection proceedings in August, Zellers was sold to Les Ailes de la Mode Inc., a defunct Quebec retailer owned by apparel magnate Isaac Benitah, for an undisclosed sum. Federal trademark registries show the deal included the transfer of trademarks like Zellers’ teddy bear mascot, Zeddy, and rewards program, Club Z.

The industry was caught off guard when news broke shortly thereafter that Benitah planned to relaunch the discount store chain with a single store in Edmonton. But the relaunch has been off to a rocky start, said Toronto-based retail analyst Bruce Winder.

Leyad, a Montreal-based real estate development firm that owns the Londonderry Mall that the Zellers store was supposed to open at, first announced the soft launch was slated for Labour Day. However, shoppers left empty-handed after lining up outside the store (which was set up at a former Hudson’s Bay space in the mall).

The store’s opening has now been pushed back to October.

Winder said Canadians likely aren’t as fired up about Zellers’ launch the third time around, noting their expectations deflated fairly quickly after the chain’s previous return in Hudson’s Bay stores in 2023.

“There was a huge Canadian public frenzy about it,” Winder said, recounting the stores felt like an “afterthought” and were just occupying unused space in the Bay. “The Bay was already dead from a traffic perspective, and people weren’t going to go out of their way to go to that little Zellers location on a continuous basis.”

J.C. Williams Group retail strategist Lisa Hutcheson isn’t convinced Zellers’ second relaunch is a good idea.

“I don’t see how it’s unique (from other offerings),” Hutcheson said, adding that Zellers faces stiff competition from retailers like Dollarama and Walmart. “As the consumer ages, there’s a huge amount of the population that doesn’t even know what (Zellers) is and so playing that nostalgic card, to me, does not seem like a strategy.”

Winder doesn’t think nostalgia will work in Zellers’ favour either and noted consumers are seeing value — though a Zellers-branded hoodie might get some traction. He also hopes Zellers will devote more attention to its store layout this time around.

“Hoping it’s kind of like a Dollarama or Winners feel, where it’s bright, cheap and cheerful,” he said, adding that Zellers previously attempted (and failed) to sell products at a mid-price point.

Winder said Benitah has considerable experience in the apparel market and made a smart decision to start with one Zellers store instead of 20 or 30 at once. Benitah also owns Fairweather Ltd. and International Clothiers Inc. and previously operated retailers Bombay & Co. Inc., Bowring & Co. Inc. and Benix & Co. Inc., which sought creditor protection in 2014.

The Zellers store in the Londonderry mall will feature men’s, women’s and children’s apparel, he added.

“They’ve tightened up the assortment,” he said. “So, they’ve cherry-picked the highest-margin items and highest-margin categories.”

What is happening with GlucksteinHome?

Anyone who set foot in a Hudson Bay store over the past two decades is familiar with the GlucksteinHome brand. Created by now superstar designer Brian Gluckstein in 1999, it became the Bay’s signature in-house furniture and home furnishings brand in 2003.

GlucksteinHome’s offerings included bedding, bath, dinnerware, furniture and home décor and Gluckstein himself was named HBC’s home design ambassador in 2018, offering tips on how to update and refresh your home in seasonal home lookbooks and videos.

But the last of the GlucksteinHome line was swept away amid the Bay’s final liquidation sales earlier this year.

“This should never have happened. It’s unconscionable that this company (HBC) is not continuing,” Gluckstein told the Toronto Star on the last day of the Toronto flagship store’s liquidation sale in June. “We all knew there were financial issues, but we thought they’d pull through.”

Financial Post reached out to the company for comment, but it did not respond before publication.

Canadian Tire spokesperson Joscelyn Dosanjh confirmed in an email that GlucksteinHome, the interior design brand created by designer Brian Gluckstein and sold exclusively at HBC, was not included as part of its brand assets deal.

It’s unclear what will happen to the brand and if or when its products will become available to consumers once more, but on its website, GlucksteinHome says it will “share updates on future retailers as they become available.”

Complicating the relationship is the fact that it is listed in creditor documents, which showed HBC owed more than $2 million to Gluckstein Home Inc. as of March 7.

Hutcheson doesn’t foresee GlucksteinHome transforming into free-standing stores, especially as it faces competition from many other home goods retailers, like Struc-Tube Ltd. and HomeSense (owned by The TJX Companies, Inc.)

“I think if it had a lot of brand recognition, there would be a lineup of people wanting it, and it wouldn’t be something that got left behind,” she said.

Winder said GlucksteinHome wasn’t necessarily one of The Bay’s “power brands” but also got dragged down by its parent store’s decline. He said it could potentially reinvigorate and remarket itself in a new home, such as Walmart Inc. or Amazon, Inc.

Gluckstein’s fixtures and finishes brand GlucksteinElements, which includes items such as bathroom vanities, mirrors, lighting and wallpaper, is still available at Home Depot, Inc. GlucksteinElements made its debut at the home improvement giant in 2021.

When will Canadian Tire start putting out stripes?

The biggest brand prize in the collapse of HBC was the iconic stripes logo.

The logo dates all the way back to the 1700s, when HBC began commissioning point blankets with distinctive red, green, yellow and indigo stripes. In recent years, you could spot the signature pattern on a range of HBC items, like scarves and sweaters, water bottles and furniture.

During Canadian Tire’s latest earnings call in August, president and chief executive Greg Hicks teased that the company could start unveiling updates on its HBC offerings as soon as this fall.

“When it comes to stewarding the stripes, we’d rather be right than fast,” Hicks said. “That said, Canadians can expect to see some updates and fun initiatives starting in Q4 of this year with our meaningful product presence rolling out in the back half of 2026.”

One option Canadian Tire could pursue is a select assortment of HBC branded products with its coat-of-arms and stripes, Winder suggested.

But he thinks it’s more likely Canadian Tire will create a dedicated space in its stores for HBC merchandise, including bestselling products that you’d previously find at The Bay. Winder said Canadian Tire could test out this format by selling some of these products online and in some stores, before expanding to adjacent categories.

Hutcheson said she sees the possibility of some standalone HBC stores in prime locations such as Toronto’s Eaton Centre and Yorkville neighbourhood, or even airports. She also suggested Canadian Tire could set up boutique stores either inside or adjacent to Canadian Tire locations, as the retailer has done with some Mark’s and Party City stores.

“People were flocking to the (HBC) stores to get their hands on blankets and some of that memorabilia before they closed,” Hutcheson said. “So, I do think that there are customers that are waiting to acquire the goods, and I think they still have strong brand recognition.”

What about Hudson North and Distinctly Home?

Winder is less confident about the future of Hudson North and Distinctly Home, two other legacy brands that were sold to Canadian Tire as part of HBC’s assets deal.

Hudson North, the Bay’s signature apparel line launched in 2022, offered “elevated essentials” with classic silhouettes in mostly neutral tones for adults. Distinctly Home was HBC’s private housewares label for bed and bath products.

Winder said it’s possible Canadian Tire could sprinkle a few items in its stores or online, but not at nearly the same scale as the HBC stripes or coat-of-arms products.

“To me, they’re not big winners,” he said. “I’m not really sure the equity is there with the consumer.”

  • Hudson’s Bay is now just a numbered company as it continues to sell its assets to repay creditors
  • Hudson’s Bay ‘stripes’ could hit Canadian Tire shelves later this year

But Hutcheson said Canadian Tire could potentially leverage Hudson North and Distinctly Home as part of its roster of private label brands sold within its stores. She also felt that it made more sense for Canadian Tire to acquire these mid-tier HBC brands, a better fit compared to the higher-end GlucksteinHome.

She suggested these brands could be used as displays within Canadian Tire stores, similar to what the company did with its Debbie Travis partnership, but not necessarily in the kind of fully dedicated branded sections that might be more suitable for the HBC stripes and coat-of-arms products.

“I don’t think that we’re going to be seeing any big stories on them, I think they’ll be integrated,” she said. “But I do think that it’ll be fun to watch how this stripe programming rolls out.”

• Email: slouis@postmedia.com