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Shopko Plans to Close All Stores After Failing to Find a Buyer Retailer Reverses Course, Saying It Chooses to Liquidate as Creditors Seek Payments Shopko said it's planning to liquidate stores across the central United States, joining a swelling inventory of bricks-and-mortar retailers that have had to close outlets amid a dramatic change in consumer shopping behavior. Specialty Retail Shops Holding Co., the parent of the Green Bay, Wisconsin, seller of general merchandise, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reversing an earlier decision to keep a number of stores open after it failed to find a buyer. Citing “excessive debt and ongoing competitive pressures,” Shopko’s parent filed for Chapter 11 in a Nebraska court on Jan. 16. The plan then was to shrink its 360-store footprint to some 260 locations while it reorganized and searched for a buyer for the key retailer to many small and rural communities. Those plans began to fall apart fairly quickly, with Shopko stepping up store closings in February, leaving it with what it thought would be a manageable 120 stores. But when that plan didn’t pan out, Shopko shifted gears to “begin an orderly wind down of its retail operations beginning this week,” according to a statement. It is still assessing opportunities for its optical division, the company said. “This is not the outcome that we had hoped for when we started our restructuring efforts,” Shopko Chief Executive Russ Steinhorst said in a statement. The retailer has been closing stores regularly since January and was expected to begin total liquidation this week with all stores shut by mid-June. Gordon Brothers, the liquidation company, will handle the closings. That will end a 57-year reign as a retailer in the Midwest, West Coast and Pacific Northwest under the Shopko, Hometown, Shopko Express and Shopko Optical names, according to its website. Court proceedings will continue as Shopko deals with a lawsuit from creditors who are looking for $117 million that was paid in dividends to private-equity backers, as well as nearly $13.6 million in unpaid sales and use taxes to the state of Wisconsin. |
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Msg # | Subject | Author | Recs | Date Posted |
11667 | Re: Shopko Plans to Close All Stores After Failing to Find a Buyer | passandshoot | 3 | 3/20/2019 9:31:54 AM |