Cash Crunch Sees Home Retailer Conn’s Shutting Down Operations

Add retail chain Conn’s Inc. to the home retailers’ bankruptcy graveyard.

The Woodlands, Tex.-based Conn’s on Tuesday filed its Chapter 11 petition for bankruptcy court protection as it conducts an orderly winding-down of operations. The filing in a Texas bankruptcy court will see the shut-down of its Conn’s banner, as well as that of nameplate W.S. Badcock, which the chain acquired from Franchise Group Inc. this past December. While the filing will see the stores liquidate their inventories, the banners are intellectual property assets and there’s a chance they could follow the recent trend where buyers acquire the names to operate as an online operation. The most recent example is the acquisition of the Bed Bath & Beyond banner that was bought by Overstock.com. Overstock has since renamed its corporate entity Beyond Inc.

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Home retailers have been particularly hard hit by consumer spending changes, as well as higher shipping costs for bulky items such as furniture for both imports and deliveries to customers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sector has carried the  highest default risk across retail since 2021, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Last year saw the mega filings of Bed Bath & Beyond and the second Chapter 11 filing—the so-called Chapter 22—of Tuesday Morning.

“The company’s continues growth and success has faced significant headwinds,” Conn’s CEO Norman L. Miller said in a court document.

He explained that those headwinds include drastic shifts in consumer behavior due to macro-economic trends including spending patterns associated with federal government stimulus connected with COVID, market-wide interest rate pressures, inflation and integration delays and increased costs associated with its W.S. Bradcock acquisition. Miller said the company completed the Bradcock merger with the intention to strengthen and widen Conn’s existing operations and customer reach, as well as benefit from “significant synergies around credit, merchandise, logistics and more.” He also noted that while certain synergies were realized, the “full realization of all cost and revenue synergies is estimated to take approximately 12 to 18 months.”

“The resulting slowdown in the company’s growth has placed a strain on [its] sales and liquidity position,” Miller said. He also said that the increased cost of capital and the impact of higher interest rates contributed to a reduction in liquidity. In the court document, Miller said interest rate expense was $25.7 million for the year ending Jan. 31, 2021, but jumped to $81.7 million for the year ending Jan. 31, 2024, due to increased rate pressures.