The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. announced that the department store chain would close down after a liquidator submitted the top bid at a two-day bankruptcy court auction.
Subject to bankruptcy court approval, a joint venture composed of the holders of the company’s 8.0 percent Second Lien Secured Notes due 2021, Great American Group LLC and Tiger Capital Group LLC will acquire the inventory and certain other assets of the company. A hearing by the Bankruptcy Court to approve the sale and wind-down of the company’s operations is scheduled for April 18, 2018.
Bill Tracy, president and chief executive officer, said, “While we are disappointed by this outcome and tried very hard to identify bidders interested in operating the business as a going concern, we are committed to working constructively with the winning bidder to ensure an orderly wind-down of operations that minimizes the impact of this development on our associates, customers, vendors and the communities we serve. We are incredibly grateful to all of our associates for their dedicated service to Bon-Ton and to our millions of loyal customers who we have had the pleasure to serve as their hometown store for more than 160 years.”
Throughout the court-supervised asset sale process, the company’s stores, e-commerce and mobile platforms under the Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s and Younkers nameplates will remain open throughout the store closing sales. Bon-Ton expects to provide more details about the liquidation plans and going out of business sales at the company’s stores following approval of the winning bid by the Bankruptcy Court.
As previously announced, on February 4, 2018, Bon-Ton and the company’s subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for a court-supervised financial restructuring under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc., with corporate headquarters in York, Pennsylvania and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, operates 250 stores, which includes nine furniture galleries, in 23 states in the Northeast, Midwest and upper Great Plains under the Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s and Younkers nameplates.
