When you look at the overall presence of the Hudson Bay Company in the Interior, there are thirteen stores employing hundreds of people. The Bay stores have been a destination-shopping place for many in the Interior for decades. Now, with new owners once again, the shoppers are going to see some major changes. The new American owners have first of all chosen a complete new management team, containing one. There is also some talk that one of the new people in charge, Canadian Bonnie Fuller, former editor from Flair magazine, is to be the CEO. The new owner is Richard Baker and his NRDC Equity Partners. He has pledged $500 million to revive the chain. It is also true that a company has been hired to feel out the market for some of the Bay’s downtown real estate including Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

The U.S. company, NRDC Equity is certainly interested in bringing the Lord & Taylor name to Canada with about fifteen stores. They have also purchased Fortunoff Jewelry and Home Furnishing retailers out of bankruptcy and that will fit in somewhere. The company has been busy this year trying unsuccessfully with bids to buy Toys ‘R’ Us and the Burlington Coast Factory. It is going to be interesting...

I have written about them a couple of times since it was announced that four ex-executives with WestJet would start their own airline and charter service here in the west with Calgary as their base. New Air & Tours told me first that one of their moves would have them giving Christmas service to Kamloops as well as service a couple of times a week to Edmonton and Calgary. Tim Morgan, who leads the group said they would be tapping into niche markets. This could be all vacation service as they have plans for two different flights to Mexico and one to the Caribbean. Right now
the airline is searching out aircraft with three planes to be purchased. Victoria’s Sherry Bryson, through her company Toronto based Westerkirk Capital, seems to be the largest shareholder. She is the niece of the late billionaire and one of the richest men in the world, Ken Thomson...

There have been 68 homes sold in the Central Okanagan with a value of one million dollars or more since the beginning of the year. There are now 432 listed in the category...