A hairy business
Canadian retailer Hudson's Bay has bought Germany's Kaufhof for a cool 2.8 billion euros. Both firms have long, turbulent histories but together they hope to weather the storm facing department stores around the world.
A very long history
For much of its existence, the Hudson's Bay Company specialized in fur trade in what is now Canada. In this photo from 1946, a fur trapper brings his week's catch to a company outpost to trade for money and supplies. The firm's roots go back to 1670, when Hudson's Bay was formally incorporated. Its original name was "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay."
The world's biggest landowner
Before European states formally laid claim to the territory, the Hudson's Bay Company served as the de facto government , controlling 15 percent of acreage in North America. In 1774, the English explorer and fur trader Samuel Hearne set up an inland trading post in what is now the Saskatchewan province of Canada. Hearne and others traded with the indigenous peoples in North America.
From auctions to stores
Furs were also sold to international buyers. In this photo from 1932, traders examine silver fox skins at an auction in London. The company eventually expanded into retail and opened its first department store in Calgary in 1913. Today, there are 90 Hudson's Bay stores in Canada. The sale of furs was discontinued in 1991 following protests by animal rights activists, but resumed six years later.
A shopper of shops
In 2008, Hudson's Bay Company was bought by NRDC, a private equity firm run by the US businessman Richard A. Baker, owner of Lord & Taylor, the oldest department store chain in the US. Hudson's Bay Company became the holding company for all retail operations, including the New York based department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue, which was acquired in 2013.
No haggling here
Kaufhof, Baker's latest aquisition, has a long history of its own. In 1879, Leonhard Tietz opened the first small shop in Stralsund on Germany's northeastern coast. Customers used to haggling quickly got used to the fixed prices and cash payments in Tietz's shop. When the company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1929, it operated 43 stores and employed some 15,000 people.
A Jewish businessman
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the company's name was changed from Leonhard Tietz AG to Westdeutsche Kaufhof AG, in an attempt to deflect mounting pressure on Jewish businesses. The photo shows a Nazi storm trooper in front of a Tietz department store in Berlin. The placard reads: "Germans! Resist! Don't buy from Jews!"
A struggling giant
Once the Nazis confiscated their possessions, the Tietz family decided to flee Germany. After the war, the family was able to reach a settlement for compensation. Kaufhof grew into a retail empire and was later taken over by Metro Group, a globally active retail and wholesale chain. Confronted by the waning popularity of department stores in Germany, Metro was eager to sell.
Shopping on two continents
For Hudson's Bay, the aquisition of more than 100 Kaufhof department stores in Germany - plus several shops in Belgium - marks the company's first foray into the European retail sector. Kaufhof will add 3.1 billion euros to Hudson's Bay's turnover of 5.6 billion euros. After the sale, the company will employ almost 40,000 people spread among 450 stores.