Fred’s closing 16 more Arkansas stores

Sixteen more Fred’s stores in Arkansas will close at the end of June, the company has announced.

Stores in Augusta, Greenbrier, Haskell, Jacksonville, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Magnolia, Malvern, Marion, Marshall, Mayflower, Melbourne, Monticello, Pea Ridge, Pine Bluff and White Hall are listed on the company’s website for the latest closings and liquidation sales. It’s the second round of closings announced by the Memphis-based chain in the past five weeks.

Those 16 are among 104 stores that will be closed in June, with Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee losing the most.

The April announcement concerned 159 stores, including 19 in Arkansas. The last day for those stores is May 31. After next month’s store closings, Fred’s will have 294 remaining locations, with 25 in Arkansas.

Arkansas store closings announced in April were in Bryant, Cabot, Conway, El Dorado, Forrest City, Harrison, Hope, Jonesboro, Mena, Mountain Home, Newport, Osceola, Paragould, Prescott, Russellville, Stamps, Searcy and West Memphis. Two stores in Conway were on that list. Jonesboro has one store on each list.

“These additional store closures are a difficult but necessary step in the continued restructuring of Fred’s,” Joseph Anto, the company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement Thursday.

Fred’s shares fell 1 cent to close Friday at 44 cents. Its largest shareholder is Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund and umbrella for Media News Group, also known as Digital First Media, which has so far been unsuccessful in its hostile takeover of the Gannett newspaper chain.