Saks Fifth Avenue stores and e-commerce to become separate companies

Saks Fifth Avenue stores and saksfifthavenue.com are being split into two separate companies. Insight Partners, a private equity firm, partnered with Saks’ parent company Hudson’s Bay Co. to make Saks Fifth Avenue’s e-commerce business its own entity, simply known as Saks. Saks’ e-commerce currently has a 2 billion dollar valuation, and Insight partner made a 500 million dollar minority investment in the enterprise.

Saks Fifth Avenue’s fleet of 40 stores will operate as an entity called SFA, which will remain owned solely by Hudson’s Bay Co. This division has launched speculation that there is a planned saksfifthavenue.com IPO, although the company hasn’t confirmed any plans to go public. It has been reported that HBC has been pursuing taking saksfifthavenue.com public, but no formal paperwork has been filed.

After seeing the success of MyTheresa’s IPO, which saw the companies stock prices soar, saksfifthavenue.com is well poised to have even greater success by going public. The e-commerce arm of Saks generates 1 billion dollars in annual sales, twice the volume of MyTheresa when they went public.

Marc Metrick, the current president and CEO of Saks Fifth Avenue, will serve as CEO of saksfifthavenue.com. Former Amazon executive Sebastian Gunningham is joining the e-commerce company’s board, and Saks veteran Larry Bruce has been named president of the SFA business, reporting to Hudson’s Bay Co. CEO Richard Baker.

Last year, Hudson’s Bay Co. actually went private via a group of shareholders, including Baker. Despite that, the company isn’t missing a beat when there’s money to be made. The coronavirus pandemic accelerated shoppers preference for shopping online, and luxury e-commerce is still a booming market as people are still opting to invest in handbags and jewelry particularly.

Image: saksfifthavenue.com