7/11/2008

Steve and Barry's Have Filed Bankruptcy

Popular retailer Steve & Barry’s known for their signature, inexpensive clothing lines from NBA player Stephon Marbury and actress Sarah Jessica Parker has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to The Wall Street Journal, the decision comes just months after seeing increased sales around 70 percent since the start of the year. Despite growing profits, the company claims the soaring fuel cost has led to this result.

“High costs of materials and fuel prices have increased our cost of good and cost of operating,” founders Steven Shore and Barry Prevor said in a statement. “Our customers are feeling the pain of high food and gas prices and declining home values, and many of them are being forced to shop closer to their homes and cut back on discretionary purchases.”

Under Chapter 11, the company will be allowed to reorganize under the bankruptcy laws of the U.S. It is only allowed to businesses with unsecured debts of at least $336,900 or secured debts of at least $1,010,650. Shore and Prevor also claimed the overall market for clothing retailers has become more competitive. “The generally poor environment for apparel retailers has reduced funding to our suppliers, landlords, and to our Company.”

Known mostly for reasonable and inexpensive prices under $10, the company has reportedly cut 172 corporate and field positions this week. Steve & Barry is home to the popular Stephon Marbury “Starbury” sneakers and features clothing lines from actress Sarah Jessica Parker and tennis star Venus Williams.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I work for a company that manages and tracks gift cards, and I've been following retailers filing for bankruptcy on savvywallet.com. My advice? Go spend your gift cards, you may not know how long they will be accepting them. Don't forget The Sharper Image incident: $75m in unused gift cards.