Borders Store Closings Top 200 with 28 More Shuttered Units

Borders Group announced it will close an additional 28 stores on top of the 200 stores it began liquidating after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month. The retailer was given additional time to renegotiate store leases and decide which ones the company would reject before announcing the 28 stores it would shutter.

 

"We reached the determination about these stores after a further review of their ongoing economic viability," said Mary Davis, a spokesperson for Borders, in a statement. "Borders is receiving shipments from most of our largest vendors on cash-on-delivery terms, and we hope to resume getting book shipments under regular terms soon."

 

Borders will close the first 200 stores by the end of April and the additional 28 by the end of May. The additional store closures will be in several states, with seven in California. The total closings will leave the retailer with half the store count it had before declaring bankruptcy.

 

The chain, which aims to emerge from bankruptcy protection by September, listed debt of $1.29 billion and assets of $1.28 billion as of December 2010 in the petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The company plans to restructure and continue to operate with $505 million in debtor-in-possession financing from lenders led by GE Capital’s Restructuring Finance division.