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Bed Bath & Beyond Files for Chapter 11, Plans to Liquidate
Bed Bath & Beyond, a 52-year-old housewares chain that at its peak numbered more than 1,500 stores across North America, said Sunday it had filed voluntarily Chapter 11 petitions in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. The company plans to wind down its operations while seeking buyers for some or all of its assets.
Published reports cited years of losses and unsuccessful turnaround plans, including the closure of hundreds of stores, coupled with increasing competition from online merchants as well as other brick-and-mortar retailers. The Union, NJ-based retailer currently operates 360 Bed Bath & Beyond locations and 120 under the Buybuy Baby flag.
The company, which went public in 1992, had cycled through three CEOS since 2019 as it responded to two different sets of activist shareholders seeking to change its business, NBC News reported Sunday.
“They had some very specific problems and made some really bad strategic mistakes,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, told NBC News. “But the retail environment is much more pressured now.”
The company said it had obtained $240 million of debtor-in-possession financing from Sixth Street Specialty Lending. Assuming court approval, the retailer said it expects the funding to support operations during the Chapter 11 process.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the bankruptcy filing represents another potential blow to retail landlords, who are already contending with high borrowing costs. However, the WSJ added, “property owners have some reason for hope, as big-box retailers such as bookseller Barnes & Noble and discount-clothing store Burlington have shown signs of expanding again after years of shrinking their real-estate footprints.”
- ◦Lease
- ◦Financing
- ◦Economy
