Flash Report 5 minutesRegister for Free AccessHudson’s Bay Company Announces Closure of Lord & Taylor’s New York Flagship and Sale of Gilt Groupe to Rival Rue La La Coresight Research June 6, 2018 Executive Summary Canadian retail group Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) announced that it will close up to 10 of its Lord & Taylor US department store locations, including its iconic flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The Lord & Taylor flagship has been open for 104 years and is expected to close by the end of the year. HBC said that its plans to downsize Lord & Taylor’s store network are a first step toward driving increased profitability and that the company is taking advantage of a smaller store footprint to rethink the model and focus on Lord & Taylor’s digital sales. About two years after acquiring the flash-sales website, HBC agreed to sell Gilt Groupe to Rue La La, a leader in the digital private-sale space. Rue La La seeks to create one large flash-sales entity called Rue Gilt Groupe. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The two brands plan to operate independently of each other. Rue La La will continue selling both high- and low-end products, while Gilt will focus more on higher-end products.The combined group is expected to be the fourth-largest player in the flash-sales space, with 20 million members and reach $1 billion in sales, according to Rue La La CEO Mark McWeeny. Please Login to read the full report. Not a member? Register for a free user account. This document was generated for Other research you may be interested in: Economic and Financial Sentiment Hit Six-Month High: China Consumer Survey InsightsHow US Consumers Are Shopping for Groceries: Analyzing Traffic, Ticket, E-Commerce and Private LabelDebunking Three Myths of Holiday Readiness: Insights Presented at Google Think Retail on AirDiving into the Diverse Underserved US Beauty Market: Insights Presented at the Inside Beauty Forum