TORONTO  (July 25, 2006)  – SAS, the leader in business intelligence, today announced that Hudson’s Bay Company (Hbc), Canada’s largest diversified general merchandise retailer, has selected SAS® Merchandise Intelligence solutions to support its strategic framework for Precision Retailing. Hbc will implement retail applications from SAS’ portfolio of retail solutions to support its comprehensive approach to merchandise lifecycle planning across Hbc’s banners – The Bay, Zellers, Home Outfitters and Designer Depot.

SAS Merchandise Intelligence solutions will support the following components of Hbc’s Precision Retailing strategy:

Revenue Optimization, to analyze and predict how promotional pricing will affect bottom-line performance;

Merchandise Planning, to increase revenue through improved merchandise selection and allocation; and,

Merchandise Forecasting, to improve accuracy in predicting customer demand.

"Improving our merchandise operations to perform more effectively and efficiently is a priority for Hbc’s management team," said Jerry Zucker, Governor and CEO, Hbc. "This integrated approach to merchandise planning will not only provide our Company with the ability to better analyze, plan and manage our business holistically, it will ensure that our customers are able to purchase the products they want, when they want them. By standardizing our planning frameworks, processes and enabling systems, Hbc is well positioned to drive customer satisfaction levels to new heights."

"The retail playing field has never been as competitive as it is today," said SAS Canada and Americas Subsidiaries President Carl Farrell. "Hbc is an icon in the retail world. The company is committed to providing more and more value to its customers. Optimizing its approach to merchandise planning, further illustrates its commitment to delivering a quality customer retail experience."

Having completely re-engineered its merchandising infrastructure, processes and performance measures, Hbc selected SAS to provide the technology to drive its merchandising strategy and help coordinate its approach to merchandise planning across all channels of business.

"The partnership between Hbc and SAS will ensure that people, process and technology work in concert to enhance the experience of our customers," said Michael Rousseau, President, Hbc. "In order to enable best-in-class merchandising at Hbc, we had to find a strategic partner like SAS that had the retail domain expertise and the best retail software applications on the market. The ability to see the complete life cycle of merchandising and have retail intelligence solutions support that integrated view was crucial in our vision for Precision Retailing."

"We are honored to be a strategic partner in support of Hbc’s initiative to become the market-leading precision retailer," said Lori Schafer, Vice President of the Global Retail Practice at SAS. "Only companies that are serious about enhancing customer satisfaction and improving shareholder value will take a major step like this to overhaul their processes and systems. We share the passion of Hbc’s executive team for this initiative. They can depend on SAS to help them further enhance their legendary and centuries-old tradition of industry leadership."