Bed Bath & Beyond Plans to Close 150 Stores
By Rebecca Baird-Remba August 31, 2022 12:36 pm
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Amid financial struggles and slowing sales, Bed Bath & Beyond has announced plans to shutter 150 stores nationwide and lay off about 20 percent of its corporate and supply chain workforce.
The news, first reported by CNBC, was tied to the fact that Bed Bath had secured $500 million in new financing to keep its business afloat, including a $375 million loan from JPMorgan Chase and Sixth Street Partners and a $1.13 billion asset-backed revolving credit facility.
The retailer aims to close 150 of its “lower-producing” stores and slash its employee headcount because same-store sales are down 26 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, it reported a sales decline of 25 percent in the first quarter of 2022, along with $358 million in losses for the three-month period that ended in late May.
The publicly traded company hopes the cuts will reduce its expenses by about $250 million in fiscal year 2022. It has also lessened its planned capital spending from $400 million to $250 million.
Interim CEO Sue Gove said she hoped to strengthen foot traffic and sales numbers by “changing our merchandising and inventory strategy” by bringing popular brands and products back to the shelves. It will discontinue three of its nine in-house labels — including Haven, Wild Sage and Studio 3B — while significantly reducing the inventory of the others.
Bed Bath has also seen its stock price rapidly rise and fall during a push from Reddit meme traders this month. Its stock was down 24 percent Wednesday morning after the company announced that it would sell shares for an undisclosed price.
In 2020, Bed Bath renewed the lease for its Chelsea store and then remodeled it. While the home goods chain has not disclosed a list of its latest closures, it released a list of planned store shutterings in January that included several stores in upstate New York and Westchester County, as well as one in the northern New Jersey town of Edgewater.
Rebecca Baird-Remba can be reached at rbairdremba@commercialobserver.com.
