[ PW Home ] [ Bestsellers ] [ Subscribe ] [ Search ]

Publishers Weekly News

Court Approves Crown's Store-Closing Plan
Jim Milliot -- 8/31/98
Ingram to keep supplying books; after closings, Crown will have fewer than 100 locations
The bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del., earlier this month approved Crown Books' bankruptcy plan, under which the chain will close 79 of its 174 stores. In addition to abandoning the Philadelphia, Seattle, Dallas and Houston markets, Crown will drastically reduce its presence in other major markets. The company will close 14 stores in the Washington, D.C., area, 16 in Los Angeles and 12 in Chicago.

Crown is shutting its unprofitable operations through a series of immediate closings and by conducting going-out-of-business sales. A total of 38 stores in Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Seattle and San Francisco will be conducting going-out-of-business sales.

The remaining stores are in the process of shipping returnable merchandise back to Ingram, which has agreed to accept a substantial amount of Crown product. Ingram has also agreed to extend to Crown new credit that will allow Ingram to keep supplying Crown with new titles. In exchange, Ingram's post-petition credit has been granted super-priority status, meaning that among the unsecured creditors, Ingram is second in line to get paid, following Paragon Capital and Foothill Capital, which are supplying Crown with debtor-in-possession capital. The agreement with Ingram, however, did not result in the resolution of the wholesaler's lawsuits against Crown or its former parent, the Dart Group. There had been reports that as part of a new agreement, Ingram would drop its lawsuit against Crown.

Meanwhile, in another prominent chain bankruptcy action, Lauriat's CEO Matthew Harrison expects that chain to emerge from Chapter 11 in the first quarter of fiscal 1999. Through August, Lauriat's had closed 37 locations, reducing its store count to 75 and eliminating $2.5 million of "negative store contributions."
Back To News
--->
Search | Bestsellers | News | Features | Children's Books | Bookselling
Interview | Industry Update | International | Classifieds | Authors On the Highway
About PW | Subscribe
Copyright 2000. Publishers Weekly. All rights reserved.