Bon-Ton purchase
The company planning to revive the retailer is paying $900,000 for assorted pieces.
The Indiana company planning to revive and reinvent Bon-Ton Stores Inc. is paying $900,000 for the bankrupt retailer’s trademarks, websites, customer lists and other data, a court filing says.
A Delaware Bankruptcy Court document disclosed Thursday shows that an affiliate of CSC Generation Holdings Inc., of Merrillville, Indiana, outbid apparel merchant Christopher & Banks Inc. by $50,000 in an auction about six weeks ago for the intellectual property of Bon-Ton.
In addition, beauty products company L’Oreal USA Inc. successfully bid $312,900 for data on customers who went to Bon-Ton stores for cosmetics, fragrances and other items.
A CSC Generation spokesman said Thursday the company couldn’t comment on details until the sale receives court approval.
Bon-Ton, the parent company of Boston Store, Younkers and five other department store brands, filed for bankruptcy in February after years of losing money. The sale of the retailer’s brand names and customer data is part of the liquidation of Bon-Ton. A going-out-ofbusiness sale at more than 200 stores concluded last week.
The new Bon-Ton will emphasize its online shopping experience but may also open stores in Wisconsin, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania.
The company told USA TODAY that by focusing on e-commerce and making plans to reinvent its physical stores with personal styling services and extended hours on the days when more people might be inclined to shop, the new BonTon will attempt to be more competitive in a retail environment transformed by Amazon and other retailers.
According to Thursday’s court filing, the Bon-Ton database contains approximately 24.5 million unique customer records with full name and mailing addresses. It has about 5.6 million email addresses.
CSC Generation was founded and is led by technology entrepreneur and investor Justin Yoshimura. Since 2017, CSC Generation has owned DirectBuy, a members-only buying club, similar to Costco or Sam’s Club, that sells furniture, home improvement items and other products. Also in 2017, the company purchased the specialty jewelry business Ice.com but sold its controlling stake later that year.
The court filing, in which CSC Generation is described as a “decentralized, multi-brand technology platform,” said if CSC acquired the Bon-Ton brand, nameplates and personal information, it intended to apply privacy policy standards identical to those it uses for DirectBuy.
Bon-Ton operated dual headquarters in Milwaukee, where it employed more than 700, and York, Pennsylvania.