liquidation

Luxury Furniture Retailer Robb & Stucky Bought By Liquidators

Filed under: Decor

Last month I mentioned that luxury furniture retailer Robb & Stucky had filed Chapter 11. Now it looks like the brand, which is based in Florida and also has stores in Arizona, Nevada and Texas, is facing potential liquidation.

Furniture Today reports that a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa, Florida has approved sale of the brand to liquidators Hudson Capital and Hyperams. Hudson Capital and Hyperams were the stalking horse bidder and the only validated bidder at an auction to sell off the brand. When the brand filed Chapter 11 in February it was hoping to raise enough money from potential investors to make a bid to keep the company in business. The Naples Daily News reports that the fate of the stores remains up in the air. Liquidation would mean that employees would lose their jobs, stores would close and customers could lose deposits they have put down on furniture.

The company sells a variety of high-end collections including Ralph Lauren home, Keno Brothers and Tommy Bahama. It was founded in 1915 in Florida. At the time of the Chapter 11 filing it listed assets and debts in the range of $50 million to $100 million. It employs about 1,300 people.

Tags: chapter 11, furniture brand, furniture retailer, liquidation, robb stucky

Will Smith & Hawken Be Liquidated?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Popular garden and outdoor entertaining company Smith & Hawken has been struggling lately. Now Reuters reports that the company will call in the liquidators for its 56 stores unless its corporate parent Scotts Miracle-Gro Company reaches a last minute deal with potential buyers. Scotts bought Smith & Hawken for around $70 million in 2004. The recession has hit the company hard. Financial statements reveal that sales were down 22 percent during the first two quarters of the current fiscal year. Reuters sources say that the 700 employees of the company will be notified soon if no deal is reached. If the company is not bought out, then the going-out-of-business sales could start as soon as the end of the week.

UPDATE: Scotts Miracle-Gro has announced that it will shut down Smith & Hawken. All of Smith & Hawken's 56 U.S. stores will be shut down by the end of the year and the website and call center will stop taking catalog orders immediately.

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Tags: liquidation, smith and hawken, smith hawken, SmithAndHawken, SmithHawken, stores in trouble, StoresInTrouble

Fortunoff Liquidation Sales Start Tomorrow

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Luxury jeweler and home goods retailer Fortunoff has been sold for more than $85 million and the new owners will be liquidating the stores goods. Final sales start tomorrow. A group of seven liquidators Great American Group, Hudson Capital, SB Capital, Tiger Capital, Kimco Realty Services, and jewelry liquidators Bobby Wilkerson Inc and The Gordon Company got final court approval on the sale yesterday. Newsday quotes Scott Bernstein, principal of SB Capital as saying that the sales will continue "until everything is sold."

Some former employees are being called back in to help with the sale which is expected to take around a month or two. Discounts will increase as the weeks go by. And good news for gift card holders, the liquidators have said they will be honored for a certain period of time. It's a sad end to a company which outlasted two World Wars and the Great Depression. The company went in to bankruptcy last year, was bought by NRDC Equity Partners but then filed Chapter 11 again on February 5. It was hoped that a new owner could help the company stay in business but no such offer was forthcoming and so liquidation was the only option.

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Tags: fortunoff, liquidation

Fortunoff Flounders Again, May Fold

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

More troubles for jewelry and homes goods retailer Fortunoff. The company just announced that it is closing the store at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City now that its lease is up. The jewelry business from there was supposed to move into Lord & Taylor stores but that move may never happen because Fortunoff's parent company, NRDC Equity Partners may either sell the brand or file for bankruptcy protection.

Fortunoff filed for bankruptcy last February which is when NRDC picked them up and promised to open new stores and bring Fortunoff jewelry into Lord & Taylor. NRDC owns Lord & Taylor as well as other retailers including Hudson's Bay Co. Finding someone to buy Fortunoff seems an iffy proposition at best currently, especially considering the fact that jewelry, which is Fortunoff's bread and butter, isn't selling well right now. A more likely scenario is, as Bloomberg reports, a liquidation of merchandise. Yesterday afternoon, Fortunoff spokeswoman Arlene Putterman confirmed to National Jeweler that the company was looking at filing Chapter 11 again.

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Tags: bankruptcy, fortunoff, liquidation