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Oddly, their online sales were growing 11%. Spin off the name into online only presence? It does seem that debt was the biggest problem. >> Sales fell 4.1% to
by adamredwoods 2y ago
Oddly, their online sales were growing 11%. Spin off the name into online only presence? It does seem that debt was the biggest problem.
>> Sales fell 4.1% to $539.8 million. Same-store sales also dropped 4.1%, including a jump of 11.5% for e-commerce sales.
- mattmaroon 2y agoThe debt was a symptom of a bad management team. The first bankruptcy could have been survivable if they had not taken such a hard line against layoffs. They wanted so much to keep all of their stores and employees, which is a lovely goal but was unfeasible. Had they cut underperforming stores and reduced headcount, they could have survived. I know first hand how awful it is to lay people off due to your own mistakes, but I also remember my investors advising me to get to sustainable in one round.
- jordanb 2y agoThe debt was caused by the LBO...
- mattmaroon 2y agoSure, and they had a boost in 2021 from Covid that let them IPO. But still, their revenue in 2024 was below even pre-pandemic levels. They could have downsized their way out of it, they just really wanted to say they didn't let anyone go. I live ten miles from their HQ and know people who work for corporate finance for them. I was at the party they threw when they re-emerged from bankruptcy last year. It would have been survivable with deeper cuts though, even then, getting back to thriving would have been more difficult and required substantial changes and nobody seemed to have much of a plan for it.