Saks helps Hudson's Bay shrink losses, boost sales

(Reuters) - Canadian department store operator Hudson's Bay Co reported an 87 percent jump in sales and a much smaller loss, helped by its purchase of U.S. luxury chain Saks Inc last year. The company, which affirmed its outlook for 2014, said consolidated same-store sales increased by 1.9 percent in the second quarter. Hudson's Bay acquired Saks for $2.4 billion last year to revive big-name department stores. Same-store sales at Saks Fifth Avenue rose 2.2 percent. OFF 5th, Saks' outlet business, posted a 14.9 percent growth in same-store sales, helped by strong growth in e-commerce sales. Same store sales at Hudson's Bay's department store business, which includes the namesake stores and the struggling U.S.-based Lord & Taylor chain, rose 1.1 percent. Retail sales jumped to C$1.77 billion ($1.60 billion) from C$948 million. Net loss more than halved to C$36 million, or 20 Canadian cents per share, in the second quarter ended Aug. 2 from C$81 million, or 68 Canadian cents, a year earlier. Hudson's Bay shares, which have risen more than 9 percent in the past month, closed at C$17.67 on Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (1 US dollar = 1.1040 Canadian dollar) (Reporting by Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)