Hudson's Bay gift cards

The Hudson's Bay Company (abbreviated HBC and colloquially Hudson's Bay) was a Canadian holding company of department stores and commercial property. It was the oldest corporation in North America, founded in 1670 and liquidated in 2025. It was headquartered at the Simpson Tower in Toronto. Today, it serves as an Intellectual Property and brand of Canadian Tire for its iconic point stripe blankets and other merchandise within Canadian Tire stores. The founding royal charter, issued by King Charles II, granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over the Rupert's Land territory, the borders of which were based on the Hudson Bay drainage basin covering most of what is now central Canada and smaller parts of the northern United States. HBC controlled the fur trade throughout English and later British North America, and was its de facto government until it relinquished control of the land to Canada in 1869. The company then diversified with the ownership and operation of several retail businesses throughout the latter country. The company established its namesake department stores in 1881, the Home Outfitters home furnishings stores in 1999, and acquired the Zellers and Fields discount stores in 1978. It also owned several regional department stores that were eventually converted to The Bay, including Morgan's, Simpsons, and Woodward's. Expansions beyond Canada included the United States, where it owned department stores including Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off 5th in the 2010s; and the Netherlands, where it sold its remaining stores in 2019. The Thomson family was the majority stockholder of HBC from 1979 to 1992 and sold its last shares in the company in 1997.