J.Crew files for Chapter 11 as pandemic chokes retail
NEW YORK » The owner of J.Crew is filing for bankruptcy protection, the first major retailer to do so since the pandemic forced most stores in the United States to close.
More retail bankruptcies are expected in coming weeks with thousands of stores still shuttered, though states have begun a staggered restart of their economies.
March sales at stores and restaurants had their most severe plunge on records dating back to 1992. Clothing sales fell more than 50% that month and, in the timeline of a pandemic, those may have been the good days.
The U.S. Commerce Department reports retail sales figures for April next week. That report will reveal the full brunt of the pandemic because by the beginning of the month, the doors of almost every retailer had been ordered shut.
The abrupt closure of stores threatens the overall health of the U.S. with consumers driving 70% of all economic activity in the country. Hundreds of thousands of retail workers have been furloughed, meaning they’re not likely participating in the economy in any significant way.
Parts of the retail sector were already under duress before the arrival of COVID-19 amid seismic changes in what is bought and how. The most vulnerable have quickly lost the ability to pay bills and, like J.Crew, are seeking relief from creditors.
J.Crew said Monday that lenders have agreed to convert $1.65 billion of its debt into equity. It’s also secured commitments for financing of $400 million from existing lenders Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C., GSO Capital Partners and Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP, among others.
J.Crew, like a number of major retailers, was already in trouble before the pandemic and it was laden with debt.
The company’s roots date back to 1947, when Mitchell Cinader and Saul Charles founded Popular Merchandise Inc., which sold low-priced women’s clothing. It was renamed J.Crew in 1983 and retooled as a preppy catalog to compete with those published by Lands’ End and L.L Bean.