Shopko Stores files for bankruptcy, plans 100 store closings
Source: CBS News
Shopko Stores files for bankruptcy, plans 100 store closings
BY KATE GIBSON
UPDATED ON: JANUARY 16, 2019 / 3:09 PM / MONEYWATCH
General merchandise retailer Shopko on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it would close more than 100 stores as part of its reorganization plan. ... The troubled company, already in the midst of closing more than 60 stores, added 38 more store closures with its bankruptcy announcement, a spokesperson confirmed to CBS MoneyWatch. Shopko was not immediately able say how many of its 18,000 employees might be affected by the store closures.
Shopko is relocating over 20 optical centers to freestanding locations, and conducting an auction process for its pharmacy business, it said in a news release. (1) (See the list of various store closings below.) It's secured up to $480 million in financing from a group of lenders led by Wells Fargo Bank that will let it continue operating, Shopko said.
"This decision is a difficult, but necessary one," Russ Steinhorst, Shopko's CEO, said in the statement. "In a challenging retail environment, we have had to make some very tough choices, but we are confident that by operating a smaller and more focused store footprint, we will be able to build a stronger Shopko that will better serve our customers, vendors, employees and other stakeholders through this process."
Purchased by Sun Capital Partners, a private-equity firm, for about $1.1 billion in 2005, the Green Bay, Wisconsin-based company operates 363 stores in 24 states under varying formats, according to its website. (2) ... Founded by a pharmacist in 1962, Shopko went public in 1991. It generated $3 billion a year in revenue in 2017, according to a spokesperson.
....
(1) http://info.shopko.com/press-release.pdf
(2) https://www.shopko.com/category/Company/About-Us/pc/2176/2177.uts
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shopko-filing-for-bankruptcy-green-bay-wisconsin-based-retail-chain-closing-more-than-100-stores/
There's a list of the closing stores at the article. They're all in the middle of the country.
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Hat tip, the Ogden, Utah, Standard:
https://www.standard.net/news/business/skopko-locations-in-northern-utah-closing-after-bankruptcy-filing/article_956dce9d-e7cd-5bab-a314-4700f3073759.html
2 Skopko locations in Northern Utah closing after bankruptcy filing
By JESSICA KOKESH Standard-Examiner 2 hrs ago
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https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/money/2019/01/16/shopko-files-bankruptcy-close-38-more-stores/2551819002/
Shopko files for bankruptcy, will close 105 stores, including 16 in Wisconsin
Jeff Bollier, Green Bay Press-Gazette Published 8:37 a.m. CT Jan. 16, 2019 Updated 4:31 p.m. CT Jan. 16, 2019
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Previously (a month ago) at DU:
Wisconsin-Based Shopko Closing 39 Stores In 19 States
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142217788
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)for trum family friends. Fuck the rest of us.
sagesnow
(2,823 posts)Will only be losing the Pharmacy in the Hometown Shopko here where I live. The Pharmacy was what drew people into the store, though. Can't see it staying open long without the Pharmacy. Sad for businesses serving small towns.
GusBob
(7,286 posts)We used to buy everything there from school supplies to hunting licenses
Too bad there are going under
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Who ever is their Merchandise Buyer should have been shown the door two decades ago. Store Appearance was and is Kresge 1970 . Again it was and is poor management.
elfin
(6,262 posts)All the rage among her very young set.
sinkingfeeling
(51,279 posts)lived there 1986 - 1989. It's on the list of closures.
cstanleytech
(26,082 posts)2naSalit
(86,061 posts)in the nearest city from where I live, I have to go over the pass to get to the next city, twice as far, or go even a little farther to got to city in the other direction. But the one near me isn't on the list of closures. I don't go there much but it's easier to buy some sundries there if I'm not going over the pass for any other reason.
rurallib
(62,346 posts)from your article:
Purchased by Sun Capital Partners, a private-equity firm, for about $1.1 billion in 2005
47of74
(18,470 posts)Hopefully that won't change. I shop there occasionally and it's not overly bad.
IthinkThereforeIAM
(3,072 posts)... when I bought my first house in 1988, a few months after that Shopko moved into a strip mall development just 5 blocks from me and contributed greatly to the increase in the property values in that neighborhood.
I moved to the west side of Sioux Falls, and the Shopko there, while fully merchandised (I have been in there a few times the past two months) is nearly dead. Maybe 10 customers in there at the most in the evenings. And yes, as another poster mentioned, their merchandise/house brands are blah... They do not even have a decent pair of Levi's in stock.
murielm99
(30,657 posts)I get my prescriptions there. When I am in the store for prescriptions, I buy other things, too.
I will take this store over Walmart any day.
mahatmakanejeeves
(56,897 posts)Walgreens is named the successful bidder for about 60 stores of the Shopko bankrupt merchandise retailer
Link to tweet
Walgreens Is Big Winner at Auction for Shopkos Pharmacy Assets
Drugstore chain named successful bidder for about 60 stores of the bankrupt merchandise retailer
By Becky Yerak
Jan. 26, 2019 2:38 p.m. ET
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. has been named the successful bidder at about half of the approximately 120 pharmacies at which bankrupt retailer Shopko auctioned off assets a few days ago. ... Agreements have been signed, or are in the process of being signed, that are expected to generate $52 million in pharmacy auction proceeds for Shopko, the company said Saturday.
A Walgreens spokesman said Saturday that his company was pleased with the auction results and, pending the sales approval by the bankruptcy court, looks forward to welcoming Shopko customers to the chains pharmacies. ... A hearing to approve the sales to the successful bidders is expected to be held Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Omaha, Neb.
An auction for Shopkos pharmacy assets, including prescription inventories, records, customer lists and patient profiles, was held Wednesday in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, one of the law firms representing the general-merchandise chain since it filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. ... About 20 other companies, including Albertsons and CVS, were also named successful bidders for additional pharmacy assets that were auctioned off at remaining locations.
Before filing for chapter 11 protection, Green Bay, Wis.-based Shopko, which is backed by private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners Inc., had found buyers for pharmacy assets at 82 other locations, generating about $95 million in proceeds. Shopko later put roughly 150 remaining additional pharmacy outlets on the auction block.
....
Write to Becky Yerak at [email protected]