TJX Cos. Inc. announced the sale of Bob’s Stores chain to a pair of private equity firms, Versa Capital Management and Crystal Capital. Terms of the sale to  werent disclosed. However, the deal will result in a $15 million, or 3-cent-per-share charge, in the third quarter.


“While we continue to believe Bob’s Stores has great potential and an excellent organization, our decision to sell the business reflects our vision to grow TJX as a global, off-price company. We believe that focusing on the significant opportunities to expand the domestic and international presence of our core, off-price concepts is the right strategy for us at this time,” TJX president and CEO Carol Meyrowitz said in a statement. “Bob’s Stores has made a great deal of progress in improving its comparable store sales, operating results and cash flow over the past two years. We are sincerely grateful for the hard work and commitment of the Bob’s Stores team, and we wish them much future success.“


TJX acquired Bob’s in 2003, but the chain has continually underperformed. Bob’s has 34 stores in the northeast. Last year, Bob’s had sales of about $310 million. The chain’s operating loss was $17.4 million.