With a h/t to LoLo, Esq, we’ve learned that Eddie Bauer is about to join the ranks of retail fail (Claire’s, can you be next?):
The Bellevue-based retailer has seen a mountain of losses and struggled with servicing its debt as sales have dropped during the economic downturn. According to several news sources, including the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News, the company is close to a bankruptcy filing.
Company executives have scrambled for months looking for relief from creditors.
Eddie Bauer (NASDAQ: EBHI) had reported having $268 million in outstanding debt, including $193 million in term loans and $75 million in convertible notes, which company executives have been trying to convert into shares of the company.
“The single biggest issue facing this company is our debt burden. Our capital structure simply has too much debt for the economic reality we now face,” Eddie Bauer CEO Neil Fiske told industry analysts in a May 14 conference call, according to a transcript.
According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Eddie Bauer had total assets of $525.22 million as of April. The company listed total liabilities of $448.9 million.
They’re collapsing under debt, but sales and revenue are also down, and they’ve reported losses in the last several quarters. No surprise – as South Park taught us many years ago, no one has shopped at Eddie Bauer since 1996:
mr_clueless // Jun 11, 2009 at 12:53 am
Most retailers have forgotten how make good clothes. They make stuff nobody wants. Tons and tons of chemically treated clothing (because it’s cheaper to produce), instead of simple, natural stuff.
We need more of these places to go out of business so that we get some stuff like it was made in the good old days.
alyx // Jun 11, 2009 at 7:49 am
That’s one good gripe about retail – too much disposable, fast-fashion, poor-quality stuff.
(And so everyone knows I agree — I’m wearing an organic tank top and yoga pants while I write this. C&C California.)
When I browsed Eddie Bauer’s website while writing this post, though, I was taken by how completely I was unable to differentiate their stuff from LLBean, or Talbots, etc… it seems that EB has joined the list of too many stores making really unremarkable clothing. As much as we hate on JCrew around here they’ve found a way to make women’s tees different enough that I know people who probably have fifty of them in their dresser – a formula for shopper sensibility, no, but a formula for retail success, much better than selling the same v-neck eight of your competitors have.
LoLo,Esq. // Jun 12, 2009 at 6:53 am
Yeah but the first time you throw a J Crew tee in the wash it falls apart and somewhere, on a yacht, Mickey Drexler smiles.
alyx // Jun 12, 2009 at 10:28 am
Yeah, either on a yacht or in his helicopter!
And then people go out and buy more of them. Must be gluttons for punishment or something.