Hudson's Bay Co. said June 5 that it is closing up to 10 Lord & Taylor stores through 2019 and selling its luxury fashion online site Gilt after reporting losses in the fiscal first quarter of 2018.
The department store chain will also exit its location on Fifth Avenue in New York City as it seeks to optimize the brand's digital business along with new leadership and an improved store footprint.
Rue La La, a fashion e-commerce site, said June 4 that it had entered into an agreement to purchase HBC's flash-fashion Gilt site. HBC acquired Gilt in 2016 and incorporated it into it Saks Off 5th division, but the company said the division generated less than 4% of total sales in fiscal 2017. The sale, slated to close during the second quarter, is expected to improve HBC's EBITDA by $10 million to $15 million on an annualized basis, the company said as part of its fiscal first-quarter earnings June 5.
The Canadian apparel retailer posted a normalized net loss of C$286 million in the fiscal first quarter against a net loss of C$209 million in the year-ago period.
In the 13-week period ended May 5, its normalized net loss per common share was C$1.22, below the prior year's EPS net loss of C$1.15 and the S&P Capital IQ consensus estimate for normalized loss per share of 69 Canadian cents.
Despite the losses, the HBC board approved a per-share dividend of 1.25 Canadian cents payable July 13.
