Pier 1 Imports said Tuesday it will liquidate after being unable to find a buyer, ending 57 years as a retailer of home décor and accessories.
The publicly traded company, based in Fort Worth, entered bankruptcy earlier this year. It said Tuesday it filed a bankruptcy motion seeking approval to “begin an orderly wind-down of the company’s retail operations as soon as reasonably possible after store locations are able to reopen following the government-mandated closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The company intends to sell its inventory and remaining assets, including its intellectual property and e-commerce business, through the court-supervised process, Pier 1 said in a release.
“We are grateful to our dedicated and hardworking associates, millions of customers and committed vendors who have collectively supported Pier 1 for decades,” Robert Riesbeck, CEO, said in the release.
“We deeply value our associates, customers, business partners and the communities in which we operate, and this is not the outcome we expected or hoped to achieve. This decision follows months of working to identify a buyer who would continue to operate our business going forward. Unfortunately, the challenging retail environment has been significantly compounded by the profound impact of COVID-19, hindering our ability to secure such a buyer and requiring us to wind down.”
Pier 1 said it expects to conduct its asset sales pursuant to the bidding procedures established by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Feb. 18. The company has proposed July 1 as the asset bid deadline, July 8 as the auction date, and July 15 as the sale hearing date.
Pier 1 said its debtor-in-possession lenders have agreed to allow Pier 1 to “overdraw the DIP facility by approximately $40 million to support the company’s continued operations through the wind-down period.”