Claire's Holdings revised a bankruptcy closing list that includes roughly 234 Claire's stores and 56 Icing locations, with no set timeline and closures expected to occur on a rolling basis. A buyer group led by private equity firm Ames Watson agreed to take over at least 795 locations and had sought to keep as many as 950 stores open, leaving more than 800 locations marked non-closing while additional closures remain possible after a footprint review. California and New York are among the hardest hit. Claire's cited declining foot traffic, shifting consumer behavior, and mounting debt after a prior 2018 bankruptcy.
In addition to a list of closing stores, the filing also includes a list of more than 800 locations that were marked as "non-closing stores." Claire's deal with with the Ames Watson buyer group-dubbed AWS Claire's LLC-includes an agreement for the group to take over at least 795 locations. That means additional closures are likely to be announced as the buyers review Claire's physical footprint to determine which stores are most financially viable. Fast Company reached out to Ames Watson for comment.
The list includes roughly 234 Claire's locations and 56 Icing locations across numerous states. California appears to be getting hit the hardest with 26 locations on the list, followed by New York with 18 locations. The filing does not lay out a timeline for the closures. A person familiar with the situation told Fast Company that the stores would be closed on a rolling basis.
Tween retailer Claire's Holdings is gearing up to close hundreds of Claire's and Icing locations across the country, a new bankruptcy filing has revealed. The filing comes less than a week after the ubiquitous mall staple announced an agreement with a group of buyers, led by private equity firm Ames Watson, to keep as many as 950 stores open. According to a court filing on Monday, Claire's has revised its list of stores that will close as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
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