Lord & Taylor to close 24 store locations

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Aug 25, 2020

U.S. department store chain Lord & Taylor is set to close two dozen stores, as it continues to search for a buyer to restructure under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In May, the retailer announced plans to liquidate inventory in its 38 department stores as soon as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. Now in August, 24 locations are already conducting store closing sales and significant price reductions.

Among the store closures, seven locations will close in New York, two in Massachusetts, three in Connecticut, three in New Jersey, two in Maryland, two in Illinois, and more in Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Deals will be up to 40 percent off, the company said in a news statement, and will leave just 14 locations open.

Lord & Taylor filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month, joining a growing list of retailers who have taken a similar route in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including Neiman Marcus and Brooks Brothers.

The filling comes about a year after the legacy department store operator was acquired by fashion rental service start-up Le Tote, from the Hudson’s Bay Company for C$100 million ($74.62 million).

As part of the deal, HBC equally acquired an equity stake of around 25 percent in San Francisco-based Le Tote, and agreed to continue to pay rent on the 38 Lord & Taylor locations over three years.

Le Tote’s plans for Lord & Taylor included merging the two businesses where Le Tote’s buy, rent and subscribe options would be introduced to Lord & Taylor.

A turn-around plan was, however, still not yet successful, though it did attempt to revive the brand with a pop-up store in New York City and existing store remodeling, with a focus on technology.