Retailers to be bought by debt collection company
By Alan Wolf, YSN
There are two less big box competitors in the marketplace.
Any chance of Conn’s HomePlus and its Badcock Home Furniture subsidiary reemerging from bankruptcy was quashed last month when the sprawling home goods chains were acquired by a debt collection company.
Stalking horse bidder Jefferson Capital Systems of Sartell, Minn., was unchallenged in its $360 million offer for the failed appliance, CE and home furnishings chains, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July. Texas-based Conn’s, which operated 553 appliance, CE, furniture and bedding stores at its peak, built its business around easy financing for credit-challenged customers and grew to span 15 states from Nevada to Virginia.
But the 134-year-old business overextended its own finances with last December’s purchase of W.S. Badcock, operator of the 380-store Badcock Home Furniture & more home furnishings chain, and was ultimately felled by a confluence of factors including sky-high interest rates and the changing shopping habits of its lower-income customers.
A planned auction of Conn’s assets was cancelled earlier this week and a hearing to approve the sale to Jefferson will be held in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on Oct. 24. The deal is expected to close on Feb. 20, 2025.
Conn’s was founded as Eastham Plumbing and Heating in Beaumont, Texas in 1890. It was acquired during the Great Depression by Carroll Wayne Conn, Sr., who added refrigerators to the assortment in 1937. It launched an in-house consumer financing operation in 1964 and beginning in the late 1990s pursued a course of aggressive expansion that made it a major multi-regional player in the appliance market. The company added furniture and mattresses to the mix in 2011.
Following short-term disruptions from going-out-of-business sales, Conn’s departure will provide real estate opportunities for large-format BrandSource dealers and can free up market share for neighboring members who can capture its customer base through AVB’s consumer financing programs.
