Pier 1 Imports has become the first national retailer to announce widespread store closings and worker layoffs after a holiday shopping season that was anything but merry for the struggling home goods seller.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based chain said it will shrink its national footprint by nearly 50% when it shuts the lights off on 450 stores. That also will result in corporate and staff layoffs that Bloomberg reported ahead of the announcement would number some 300 people, or roughly 40% of its workforce.
Noting that sales and margins “remained under pressure,” Chief Executive Robert Riesbeck said the stores going dark “will enable us to move forward with an appropriately sized store footprint and operating structure as an omni-channel retailer, and better position Pier 1 to meet our customers where they shop.”
The longtime go-to retailer for home décor and merchandise ranging from welcome mats to wine glasses to patio furniture said its fiscal third-quarter loss widened to $59 million from the year-earlier $50.4 million. Sales dropped about 13% for the period ended Nov. 30.
For the 39 weeks of its fiscal year, Pier 1’s operating loss nearly doubled to $222.9 million compared to a year earlier, as did its net loss of $241.2 million. These losses included costs tied to a multiple-year transformation as well as a store-impairment cost of $18.7 million, the company said.
Bloomberg also reported that Pier 1 canceled merchandise orders and has put a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan for protection from creditors in draft form. Pier 1 did not respond to a request for comment.
Pier 1 said it hired a third party to handle the store closings, but it did not disclose the company name. The actions come two months after Pier 1 put a bankruptcy veteran in place at the helm and within a year of a number of other store closings in 2019.
Riesbeck, who had been hired in July as the firm’s chief financial officer, was named chief executive in early November as it became clearer to the company that its efforts to rein in costs and boost sales were not working as quickly as hoped. The issues are not new to retailers across the United States, many of whom have either gone out of business or severely slashed their brick-and-mortar footprint amid a shift in consumer shopping behaviors.
Riesbeck is a retail veteran who has led Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings for FullBeauty Brands Inc. and HHGregg, the electronics retailer, according to a statement issued at the time.
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