Bealls’ parent company files for bankruptcy
Bealls locations in Marble Falls and Burnet are scheduled to reopen Friday, May 15, but their future is uncertain. Stage Stores, which owns Bealls, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy May 11. The partner company is looking for a buyer for its assets. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
While Bealls locations in Burnet and Marble Falls are slated to reopen Friday, May 15, their longterm future is uncertain after parent company Stage Stores recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“This is a very difficult announcement, and it was a decision that we reached only after exhausting every possible alternative,” Stage Stores President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Glazer said in a statement. “Over the last several months, we had been taking significant steps to attempt to strengthen our financial position and find an independent path forward. However, the increasingly challenging market environment was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which required us to temporarily close all of our stores and furlough the vast majority of our associates.
“Given these conditions, we have been unable to obtain necessary financing and have no choice but to take these actions,” the statement continued.
Stage Stores also filed a “notice of sales process” with the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas-Houston Division. The company is looking to sell the business or its assets.
Stage Stores owns and operates locations in 42 states under the Bealls, Goody’s, Palais Royal, Peebles, Gordmans, and Stage Stores names. Last year, Stage Stores announced it would be transitioning most of its Bealls stores, including the Burnet and Marble Falls locations, into Gordmans, a discount retail chain founded more than 100 years ago.
Stage Stores can trace its beginnings to the 1920s, when Bealls and Palais Royal were founded.
Stage Stores acquired Gordmans in 2017 when the discount retail company filed for bankruptcy.
In a letter to customers on the Gordmans website, Glazer stated that the company in going to “initiate an orderly wind down of our operations.” He added that, if Stage Stores can sell the business, “we will terminate our wind down of operations at certain locations.”
The company will post updates on the Gordmans website.