NRDC Equity Partners, which owns Lord & Taylor, has bought 338-year-old Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC) and plans to partly convert 10 to 15 of Hudson’s Bay’s 94 full-line stores, which are known as The Bay, into Lord & Taylors, a lesser-known brand in Canada.
Confirming this, Richard Baker, principal of the acquisition group, NRDC Equity Partners of Purchase, said: “We realised there was a tremendous opportunity to bring world-class retail experience to the HBC organisation.” Baker is acting chief executive of a new corporate holding company, Hudson’s Bay Trading Co.
The combined entity has 75,000 employees and annual sales exceeding $8 billion. Baker said he will turn the CEO role over today to a seasoned U.S. retail executive. Baker said the Lord & Taylor brand has great opportunities in Canada, where he sees ‘a big white void’ in the market.
Baker acknowledged that the current team had done a lot of work to improve the business’s back-office systems.”That’s why you need a talented merchant,” he said.
718- Titan Eye+ plans 200 outlets
Titan Industries Limited, as a part of its national expansion plans for Titan Eye+, the company’s eyewear retailing format, today said that it will set up over 200 Titan Eye+ outlets in the next three years.
Announcing this, Bhaskar Bhat, managing director, Titan Industries Limited said: “Titan Eye+ is our new venture aimed at redefining the eyewear market in India. We are confident that we will emerge as the leaders as we have done in watches and jewellery in the past.”
The company presently operates stores in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Nagpur and retails over 1,000 distinctive eyewear brands. It has tied up with Essilor for supply of optical lenses. Besides the range of Essilor lenses, Titan Eye + will also sell Titan branded lenses.
S Ravi Kant, chief operating officer of eyewear division at Titan, said: “With an objective to cater to end-to-end eyewear requirements, we at Titan Eye+ will offer the best in terms of contemporary designs and style that match international trends and quality coupled with an outstanding retail experience to our customers across the country.”
According to the company, the eyewear market is largely dominated by unorganised players and this offers a huge potential for Titan to offer trust, style and consistent quality to consumers.
— Mumbai Bureau
