Canadian Company Where Foulkes Served as CEO Is Closing All Its Hudson’s Bay Stores

Canadian Company Where Foulkes Served as CEO Is Closing All Its Hudson’s Bay Stores

After Helena Foulkes spent more than 25 years at CVS, she took over as CEO of Hudson’s Bay Company.

She led the business for a little more than two tumultuous years and left in March 2020. Foulkes, and her compensation structure, were the focal point of much controversy in Toronto.

Now, that company is in deep financial distress, as one of its main retail lines and popular Canadian retailers is closing.

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Foulkes, who lost in the Rhode Island Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2022 to Dan McKee, is actively fundraising for another run for governor in 2026. Her campaign account presently has a balance of $1,044,160.56.

She often cites her business career as a highlight of her resume.

 

Canadian Company's Closure

“A Canadian retail icon is on its last legs as Hudson’s Bay Company plans to liquidate its entire business by June, with the process starting as early as next week,” reports the Toronto Star.

“Pending court approval on Monday, the centuries-old retailer plans to liquidate its inventory, furniture, fixtures, and equipment at its 80 stores across the country by June 15. The company will also monetize its leases with landlords and kick off a sales process to seek last-minute buyers or investors for its distressed business, according to court documents,” according to the Star.

“This full liquidation is really a disastrous outcome for the Bay, and it’s terrible that it’s coming to this so quickly for this iconic company,” Andrew Hatnay, a lawyer with Koskie Minsky, who is also representing some Hudson’s Bay employees and retirees told the Star.

In her bio, Foulkes claims, "CEO and a board member of Hudson’s Bay Company from February 2018 to March 2020, where we led the most significant transformation of the business, ultimately creating a path to the successful privatization of the company. We reinvented the organization by streamlining the operating structure, building the leadership team, overseeing strategic transactions and overhauling operating focus of HBC."

"These critical shifts in the business generated $2.6B in transaction proceeds and enabled the company to pay down $1.6B of debt. During my tenure, we upgraded the digital and marketing functions with a customer-centric culture that increased digital comps, marketing effectiveness and NPS. I revamped HBC’s focus from ten business units and 65,000 associates globally to three key businesses with the most significant opportunity (Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5TH, & Hudson’s Bay)," says Foulkes.

As CEO, she came under fire for laying off thousands of workers.

 

Complicated Legacy - Foulkes' Compensation Under Fire in Canada

Foulkes' compensation at Canadian retailer HBC came under fire from shareholders, including public employees' pension systems.

At her first corporate annual meeting, about one-quarter of votes cast by HBC shareholders opposed the company’s multi-million dollar payouts to top executives for the second year in a row at an unusually secretive annual general meeting, reported the Toronto Star.

"Nearly 26.5 percent of votes cast were against the retailer’s approach to executive compensation, according to company documents. That amounts to about 47.9 million negative votes.'We are concerned that the board has again chosen to make awards to executives that are outside the compensation plan,' wrote the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which holds a 10 percent stake in HBC, in its rationale for voting against the proposal."

“We do not feel that the awards have been sufficiently justified,” said the fund in a statement.

According to the Star, "The company’s highest-paid executive, CEO Helena Foulkes, received a pay package of a little over $29.4 million for the 2018 financial year — her first with the company. Foulkes, who joined HBC in Feb. 2018, received a package that includes a roughly $1.6 million base salary and about $19.6 million in share-based awards and a roughly $3 million sign-on bonus. It also included a pension, a roughly $2.7-million guaranteed annual bonus, a housing and relocation allowance, and other compensation."

Kai Li, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, told the Star that the structure of Foulkes' compnesation package is called the "golden handshake."

“They’re just throwing extra goodies to draw her here,” the professor said, calling it a bad business policy.

 

Foulkes Tenure Was Short and Highly Profitable

In March of 2019, the Star reported the announcement of Foulkes' departure, “Executive chairman Richard Baker’s influence over Hudson’s Bay Co. is about to get another big boost as Canada’s oldest retailer closes a turbulent chapter in its nearly 350 years of existence. The Canadian retailer said Tuesday that Baker will replace chief executive Helena Foulkes, who is departing the company about two years after she was hired."

“She and Baker spent much of the last two years marred in complaints from shareholders about executive salaries and their failure to unlock the value of the company’s real estate,” reported the Star.

 

GoLocal reached out to Foulkes requesting comment on the collapse of the company, but she did not respond.