Hudsons Bay Company centralizes communications activities across banners

Image courtesy of Saks Fifth Avenue

Saks Fifth Avenue parent Hudson’s Bay Company has created a new Corporate Communications and Public Relations division as it works to share best practices across its retail brands.

The new center of excellence will be headed by Andrew Blecher, who began his career at Saks Fifth Avenue and has now been promoted to the role of senior vice president corporate communications and public relations. This is the latest effort from HBC to strengthen the 10 brands under its umbrella, including Gilt and Lord & Taylor, by having talent work on all of its banners.

Spreading knowledge
After his time at Saks, Mr. Blecher took four years away from the company, taking on a job at a PR firm and working with HBC as a client. When HBC bought Saks in 2014, he was brought on by the company to be its senior vice president of PR and events.

“The creation of a Communications Center of Excellence aligns with our efforts to ensure we are leveraging our talent across all of our banners and have clear and effective communications to support our long-term growth strategies,” said Jerry Storch, Hudson’s Bay Company CEO, in a brand statement. “Andrew’s track record with HBC makes him the ideal person to elevate the communications function within the organization and to develop and execute a strategic communications roadmap that reflects a truly global retail operation.”

Exterior of Saks Fifth Avenue flagship in New York

This new division will oversee corporate communications, banner public relations, global communications and internal communications.

Hudson’s Bay Company consolidated the digital marketing for all of its retail brands.

The HBC Digital group, originally headed by former Saks.com president Michael Burgess and overseen today by Dion Rooney, consists of experts who create the ecommerce and marketing strategy for the group, applying best practices and sharing knowledge across the brands. Each of the retail chains under the HBC umbrella, including department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue, benefit from shared knowledge, since the approach raises the ROI on digital marketing spend (see story).

from
http://www.luxurydaily.com/hudsons-bay-company-centralizes-communications-activities-across-banners/