The Hudson's Bay Company is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, it became the largest and oldest corporation in Canada, before evolving into a major fashion retailer, operating retail stores across both the United States and Canada. The company's namesake business division is Hudson's Bay, commonly referred to as The Bay.
Sneek is a city southwest of Leeuwarden and the seat of the former municipality of Sneek in the province of Friesland, Netherlands. As of 2011 it is the seat of the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân. The city had approximately 33,855 inhabitants in January 2017.
Ysbrechtum is a village 1 km from the city of Sneek in Friesland, Netherlands. It had a population of around 690 in January 2017.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart, which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores.
Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners, as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel. Loblaw operates a private label program that includes grocery and household items, clothing, baby products, pharmaceuticals, cellular phones, general merchandise and financial services. Loblaw is the largest Canadian food retailer, and its brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh. It is controlled by George Weston Limited, a holding company controlled by the Weston family; Galen G. Weston is the chair of the Loblaw board of directors, as well as chair of the board of directors and CEO of Canada-based holding company George Weston.
C&A is a multinational chain of retail clothing stores that originated in the Netherlands. It now has European head offices in Vilvoorde, Belgium, and Düsseldorf, Germany. The company operates approximately 1,300 stores in Europe and approximately 300 stores in Brazil, as well as websites for online shopping. It also licenses the C&A name for stores in Mexico and China, which are under different ownership.
Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a Fortune 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its stores are supported by a nationwide logistics network of 24 distribution centers. Additionally, the company operates stores under the name of Dollar Bills, as well as a multi-price-point variety chain under the Family Dollar banner.
Party City Holdco Inc, commonly referred to as Party City is an American chain of party stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. The companies headquarters are in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. The company is the largest retailer of party goods in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company operates over 850 company-owned and franchise outlets in over 70 countries around the world under the Party City, Halloween City, Toy City, Factory Card and Party Outlet brands.
Bretton's was a high-end department store in Canada from 1985 to 1996.
Alliance Boots was a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group with corporate headquarters in Bern, Switzerland and operational headquarters in Nottingham and Weybridge, United Kingdom.
New Look is a British global fashion retailer with a chain of high street shops. It was founded in 1969. The chain sells womenswear, menswear, and clothing for teens. New Look was owned by private equity groups Apax Partners and Permira, and founder Tom Singh, until May 2015 when it was acquired by Brait SE (SA) for £780 million.
Gamble-Skogmo Inc. was a conglomerate of retail chains and other businesses that was headquartered in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Business operated or franchised by Gamble-Skogmo included Gambles hardware and auto supply stores, Woman's World and Mode O'Day clothing stores, J.M. McDonald department stores, Leath Furniture stores, Tempo and Buckeye Mart Discount Stores, Howard's Brandiscount Department Stores, Rasco Variety Stores, Sarco Outlet Stores, Toy World, Rasco-Tempo, Red Owl Grocery, Snyder Drug and the Aldens mail-order company. In Canada, retail operations consisted of Macleods Hardware, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Stedmans Department Stores, based in Toronto, Ontario. Gamble-Skogmo carried a line of home appliances, including radios, televisions, refrigerators, and freezers, under the Coronado brand name.
De Slegte is an Almere, Netherlands-based store chain that sells and buys new books, secondhand books and study books. Between 1 July 2013 and 19 March 2014 De Slegte and another chain of bookstores, Selexyz, combined forces as Polare. After Polare Nederland went bankrupt in 2014, the Belgian branches were bought back by the De Slegte family and changed to their original names. Four branches in Belgium continue to operate, three branches in the Netherlands were added.
Free Record Shop was a chain of home entertainment stores selling products such as CDs, DVDs and video games, founded by Hans Breukhoven. Its first store opened on October 15, 1971 in Schiedam, Netherlands. At its peak, the franchise had more than 200 stores in the Netherlands and Belgium, but online available music and media supplanted the sale of physical media carriers.
Blacks Outdoor Retail Ltd. is a British retailer, headquartered in Bury, Greater Manchester the United Kingdom which owns the British outdoor retailers Blacks, Millets and Ultimate Outdoors. Blacks is the largest outdoor retailer in the UK with stores nationwide.
Cofra Holding AG is a privately held company established in 2001 in Zug, Switzerland, to coordinate the global businesses of the Brenninkmeijer family. It is active in the fields of retailing, real estate, asset management, private equity and renewable energy. Cofra is owned and managed by members of the Brenninkmeijer family. Its chairman is Martijn Brenninkmeijer, and the CEO is Boudewijn Beerkens.
UPC Nederland was the second largest cable operator in the Netherlands, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers.
Dominic Shorthouse is a British private investor, founder of private equity business Englefield Capital LLP and a former partner at Warburg Pincus. His notable investments include the creation of the UK terrestrial TV channel Channel 5 and Cognita, a UK-based private schools operator. He is a member of the advisory board of ManoCap, which invests in post-conflict African states, and a member of the Advisory Board of Lennox Investment Management, investing in prime Central London residential property.
Bregal Sagemount is a private equity firm based in New York City.
Videoland is a Dutch OTT online service provider owned by RTL Nederland. Originally it was a retail chain of video rental stores. Its main competitor is Netflix. Videoland is registrered as a VOD-service in Luxembourg; hence the law of Luxembourg applies to Videoland.
