HARLINGEN — Children’s apparel retailer Gymboree filed for bankruptcy yesterday, just one more brick-and-mortar chain fighting the tide of online shopping.
Gymboree has stores at the Rio Grande Premium Outlets in Mercedes and at La Plaza Mall in McAllen.
Subsidiary brand Crazy 8 has locations at La Plaza Mall and at Sunrise Mall in Brownsville, while another subsidiary, Janie and Jack’s, has a location at La Plaza Mall.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing seeks to restructure the company and it’s finances. It is common during bankruptcy proceedings for retailers to eventually announce store closings, but no list of stores to be closed had been released as of yesterday.
“We have three great brands, strong operations and dedicated employees, and throughout this process, we will continue to deliver superior service to our customers and put them at the center of all we do,” said Gymboree President and CEO Daniel Griesemer, who joined the company as chief executive just last month.
The San Francisco-based company signed a restructuring agreement with its lenders to reduce Gymboree’s debt load by more than $900 million. Most of that was the result of a leveraged buyout of the company by Bain Capital seven years ago at a cost of $1.8 billion.
Fox Business reported yesterday that most recent quarterly sales at Gymboree and Crazy 8 declined 6 percent. The Fox website reported same-store sales at Janie and Jack rose 1 percent, although that number is far lower than the 11 percent gain it reported a year ago.
