Brick & Mortar Meltdown: Bon-Ton Department Stores Hires Bankruptcy Advisor

Jon Economy

Vitamin World plans to file for bankruptcy, Perfumania Holdings just filed. And Toys R Us… All in just two weeks.
Bon-Ton Stores, Inc., which operates about 260 department stores largely in the Northeast and Midwest under the names Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s, and Younkers, has hired PJT Partners, which describes itself as ‘a leading advisor to companies and creditors in restructurings and bankruptcies around the world.’
Faced with falling sales and customer traffic, the company is trying to refinance debt and prepare for a possible bankruptcy filing, ‘people familiar with the matter’ told the Wall Street Journal.
Bon-Ton had already hired turnaround firm AlixPartners to help improve its operations but added PJT to focus on the financial aspects, ‘the people’ told the Journal.
Bon-Ton’s debt and shares found their way onto WOLF STREET for the first time in November 2015, in Capital Destruction Rages Beneath S&P 500 Tranquility after it reported crummy results, blaming the ‘unseasonably warm weather’ and ‘continued weakness in overall traffic trends.’ That day, its already beaten-down 8% notes plummeted well below 40 cents on the dollar, and its shares crashed 39% to $1.21.

This post was published at Wolf Street by Wolf Richter ‘ Sep 8, 2017.