Retailer Hudson’s Bay Company posts first quarter Q1 profit on higher sales

Hudson’s Bay Company Canada. Wikimedia Commons photo

TORONTO — Hudson’s Bay Company (TSX:HBC) is reporting first-quarter net earnings from continuing operations of $176 million, compared with a loss of $22 million in the same quarter of 2013.

Earnings per share were 97 cents compared with a loss of 19 cents year-over-year.

Retail sales increased to $1.85 billion, up from $884 million in the same quarter last year.

Digital sales, important to the company’s future growth, were $207 million in the quarter and included sales at Hudson’s Bay Company, Saks and Lord & Taylor.

Same stores sales, which are stores that have been open for at least a year, were up 2.8 per cent year-over-year.

HBC said it completed the sale and lease back of its Queen Street flagship store and Simpson Tower office complex in Toronto for a purchase price of $650 million and used most of the net proceeds to reduce debt.