Eastern Outfitters, the parent of Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) and Bob’s Stores, filed for chapter 11 protection in Delaware. As expected, Sports Direct International Plc, the U.K.’s largest sporting goods chain, reached an agreement to become a stalking-horse bidder in a bankruptcy auction.
Eastern Outfitters listed assets and liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million, according to court documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
EMS, with 61 locations, is the nation’s second largest specialty outdoor retailers after REI while Bob’s, with 34 locations, offers value-oriented footwear, apparel and work wear with a big fan apparel business. Both focus on the Eastern and Mid-Atlantic regions.
According to a report last week by Reuters, sources said Sports Direct “had expressed interest in preserving at least some” of the EMS and Bob’s locations.
EMS and Bob’s Stores exited bankruptcy reorganization July 19 under a new entity called Eastern Outfitters LLC, although its ownership and leadership remained largely the same.
Eastern Outfitters, with annual sales of $400 million, is a division of private-equity firm Versa Capital Management, as was Vestis Retail Group, which took the retailers into bankruptcy along with sister brand Sport Chalet three months before. The owners used Chapter 11 to dump Sport Chalet and all its 47 stores — which they said was the most under-performing business of the group — along with closing one Bob’s and eight EMS locations.
Photo courtesy Eastern Mountain Sports
