Bed Bath and Beyond continues to grow closer to bankruptcy as they announced more store closures.
The company also “failed to pay more than $28 million on three tranches of notes totaling roughly $1.2 billion due on Feb. 1,” a spokeswoman confirmed to the Wall Street Journal. This comes after the company reported a near $400 million shortfall in the third quarter of 2022.
The company announced Tuesday that it will be closing 87 more stores shortly after announcing the closure of 150 in August 2022. Their brick-and-mortar footprint in the home-goods market reached its peak of 1,552 stores in 2017, according to CNN. Once a rival to Target and Walmart, the company failed to successfully transition into an online marketplace. This proved to be detrimental as the pandemic begun and retail locations saw historic decreases in revenue.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 13: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on September 13, 2022 in New York City. U.S. stocks opened lower today and closed significantly low with the Dow Jones dropping over 1,200 points after the release of an inflation report that showed prices rising more than expected in the last month. The Consumer Price Index released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed prices rising 8.3% over the last year, for which economists had predicted an 8.1% increase. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Hedge fund Hudson Bay Capital Management, the lead investor in the store, has offered the struggling retailer a lifeline bid to avoid the need to file for bankruptcy, according to The Wall Street Journal. This comes after the company informed JP Morgan Chase that if it were to default on payments, bankruptcy would be among their options.
Bed Bath and Beyond was among the companies that saw an increase in stock prices amid the “meme stock” saga that saw companies like GameStop see massive yet short lived increases in their prices. Despite some immediate success to remain afloat, they have not seen any long term results that have proven to be beneficial. (RELATED: College Student Makes Over $100 Million Betting On Meme Stock)
After their shortcomings in Q3 of 2022, many suppliers halted shipment to locations, according to a report from Bloomberg.
“While a public offering seems like an odd device for a crisis-ridden company, Bed Bath & Beyond is desperate to avoid declaring Chapter 11 without having sufficient liquidity or potentially interested buyers in place,” Managing Director at GlobalData Neil Saunders said, according to CBS News. “If it does, any bankruptcy judge could quickly force it into Chapter 7 liquidation where management would lose control and the company would effectively be terminated.”
