Canada's oldest retailer will hang on in a handful of locations, but, according to a Toronto court, Windsor won't be one of them.
The Globe and Mail reported on Friday afternoon that the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) may begin liquidating at all nationwide stores, except for six that will continue to operate.
Windsor's Devonshire Mall location is not on the list, according to court documents reported by The Globe and Mail.
Also slated to hold liquidation sales are the chain's two London stores, at Masonville Place and White Oaks Mall.
The stores that will remain open, at least for now, are the flagship store on Yonge Street and Queen in downtown Toronto; Yorkdale Mall in Toronto; Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, the downtown Montreal store; Carrefour Laval in Laval, Quebec; and the store in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. Those locations will continue to operate as usual.
But Ashley Taylor, a lawyer with Stikeman Elliott LLP that is representing HBC, said those six stores may be on borrowed time.
"I want to be crystal clear with the court. The company does not currently have an agreement on which it could base a restructuring plan," Taylor is quoted by The Globe and Mail as saying in Friday's hearing.
The retailer, founded in 1670, had gone before an Ontario Superior Court judge to request permission to liquidate all 93 of its locations after it filed for creditor protection earlier this month.
But sales at HBC stores have spiked in recent days, making it possible for some of the stores to stay open.
The paper also reported that additional stores could be spared if a new owner or investors for the company are willing to step in.
Liquidation sales at Devonshire Mall and the other locations may begin as soon as Monday. There was no immediate word on how long liquidation sales will go on for, or how deep any offered discounts will be.