Heilig-Meyers To Close All Stores
By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 4/16/2001
RICHMOND, VA. — Heilig-Meyers said it will close its remaining 375 Heilig-Meyers stores this summer and concentrate its resources on the company's 54 RoomStores units.
The struggling home furnishings chain began a draconian restructuring last August under Chapter 11 protection that included shutting more than 400 Heilig-Meyers outlets.
The company filed a motion with the Bankruptcy Court last week seeking authorization to shut the remaining stores and liquidate their inventory and is finalizing an arrangement with a third party to conduct going-out-of business sales, which are expected to be completed by mid- to late summer.
President/CEO Donald Shaffer said the company's RoomStores format, which allows customers to purchase entire rooms of furniture, will become "the centerpiece of ongoing reorganization efforts." The stores, concentrated in metropolitan markets within Maryland, Texas and Washington, D.C., generate about $300 million in annual sales. Sixteen Heilig-Meyers stores have been converted to RoomStores since the bankruptcy and the company is considering additional conversions.
