The Hudson’s Bay Company will concentrate on five private-lable brands, while dumping 20 under-performing private-label brands. It wants to increase private label sales from a current 9% to 15% of sales by 2017. By next Fall, the only in-house brands at Hudson’s Bay will be:
1) Hudson’s Bay Company Signature,
2) Lord & Taylor,
3) 1670
4) Gluckstein Home and
5) Black Brown 1826.
Private label brands are twice as profitable as carrying designer brands. They’re also ‘exclusive’ (not found elsewhere), potentially benefitting a retailer if popular.
Hudson’s Bay Company Signature is the somewhat pricey Hudson’s Bay striped merchandise label carried at selected Hudson’s Bay stores, selected Lord & Taylor stores in the US and at the two new Hudson’s Bay airport stores we previously discussed.
1670 will be an entirely new label to be launched autumn 2013. It will feature contemporary men’s and women’s fashions at ‘moderate price-points’ according to an industry insider who had little other information.
The Lord & Taylor and Black Brown 1826 labels hail from Hudson’s Bay-owned Lord & Taylor. Lord & Taylor is an upscale American department store chain often compared to the likes of Nordstrom (and a notch above Hudson’s Bay, price-wise).
Gone will be such labels as Alfani, Expression, INC, Hudson North, Hudson Room, and others. In all, 20 in-store labels will be discontinued.
Private-label merchandise has done well at Macy’s in the US, making up about 20% of Macy’s sales.
Source: Insider X, Globe & Mail.
Hudson’s Bay Company website: www.hbc.com
