Hudson’s Bay Co. reported a net loss of $226 million Canadian, or U.S. $171 million in the third quarter ended Nov. 2 compared to a loss of $161 million, or U.S. $122 million, in the year-ago period.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined $40 million (U.S. $30 million) year over year to $84 million ((U.S. $63.4 million) due to the sale of the interest in the European real estate joint venture and lower profitability in the North American retail businesses.
Comparable sales last quarter were down 1.7 percent. Total sales declined to $1.82 billion (U.S. $1.37 billion) from $1.86 billion (U.S. $1.4 billion) a year ago.
”In the third quarter we faced our toughest comps, soft industry wide luxury sales and the challenge of winning back market share in Canada” said Helena Foulkes, chief executive officer. “Strong digital growth, continued cost containment and inventory control were not enough to deliver the financial performance we wanted. We must quicken the pace of improvement while eating the ongoing costs of our strategic portfolio reset and the headwinds impacting our industry. I’m confident we are on the right journey with each of our businesses as we sharpen our focus to deliver the potential of HBC.”