It’s closing time for 42 Bon-Ton stores
Bankrupt parent company has been unprofitable for seven years
The term “final clearance” is a cliche in the retail business. But for the Boston Store Clearance Center on Milwaukee’s south side, this sale really is the last one.
The clearance center, at 5659 S. 27th St., is among stores scheduled to close by about mid-April or sooner as their bankrupt parent company, Bon-Ton Stores Inc., pares its locations.
Store-closing sales now are going on at 42 locations that Bon-Ton said Jan. 31 it will permanently shutter. The shutdowns come on top of five closings that already were in the works and will whittle Bon-Ton’s retail store count to about 210 in 24 states.
Bon-Ton, which has dual headquarters in Milwaukee and York, Pa., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 4. Bon-Ton, the parent company of Boston Store, Younkers and other department stores, has been unprofitable for seven consecutive years and is struggling with debt and slumping sales.
Along with the Boston Store Clearance Center, other Bon-Ton stores in Wisconsin set to close are:
❚ Younkers, Fox River Mall, Appleton.
❚ Boston Store, Heritage Village, Beaver Dam.
❚ Elder-Beerman, Eclipse Center, Beloit.
❚ Younkers, Forest Mall, Fond du Lac.
❚ Younkers, Lakeshore Edgewater Plaza, Manitowoc.
❚ Younkers, Pine Tree Mall, Marinette.
❚ Younkers, Mariner Mall, Superior.
❚ Younkers, Wausau Center Mall, Wausau.
The 29,000-square-foot Boston Store Clearance Center opened in 2013 as the first stand-alone clearance store for Bon-Ton.
The store-closing sales started Feb. 1 and were set to last 10 to 12 weeks.
That plan still is on schedule, said Bon-Ton spokeswoman Christine Hojnacki. But the closings could take place “sooner or later depending on merchandise sell through,” she said.
Right now, discounts are 40% to 60% off the lowest ticketed price, although a limited number of products are excluded from those discounts, Hojnacki said.
The stores singled out for closing were identified in a turnaround plan Bon-Ton created with consultant AlixPartners.
The turnaround plan stated that Bon-Ton’s portfolio of about 260 stores contained “a sizeable portion of poorly performing stores that contribute minimal value to the organization.”
After doing a detailed analysis of about 100 of BonTon’s worst-performing stores, 42 were selected to be closed, and another 20 were put on a watch list to monitor for further deterioration.
Some of those slated for closing are located in what the turnaround plan labeled “dying malls or centers and suffering from overwhelming competitive pressures.”
The 42 closings will eliminate approximately 1,860 jobs, or an average of 44 per store.
The Bon-Ton Chapter 11 is playing out in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
A group of creditors has argued Bon-Ton has little chance of surviving and should immediately be liquidated. Bon-Ton wants to restructure financially or sell the company.
In addition to Boston Store and Younkers, Bon-Ton operates stores, including nine furniture galleries and four clearance centers, under the brand names BonTon, Bergner’s, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman and Herberger’s.
The store closing sales are being conducted by a joint venture between Gordon Brothers and Hilco Merchant Resources, Bon-Ton said.