Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992 TAG: 9203110061
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Norfolk-based retailer has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The petition, which seeks financial reorganization, is intended to allow the company to re-establish its core markets of Virginia and North Carolina, said President Aubrey L. Layne Jr..
The Bootery occupied 700 square feet at Tanglewood Mall. It closed at 5 p.m. Monday, a mall spokesman said. The remaining Hofheimer's stores are at Tanglewood and Valley View malls.
The Hofheimer's chain, founded in 1885, once had 100 stores from Florida to Pennsylvania. But it has suffered financially since it underwent a $29 million buyout in 1988. The leader of that management buyout, Anthony V. Beechey, resigned last month.
Last month, Hofheimer's laid off about 20 people on its corporate staff and closed 20 out-of-state stores, leaving it with about 70 stores.
Layne said the company's new business plan includes financing that will "allow it to continue operations and protect the jobs of its 600 employees." He did not reveal specifics about the additional financing and he said he did not know the extent of the company's debt.
The Chapter 11 filing offers the company a financial reprieve, said Carl Marshall of SDN Market Research, a retail analysis firm in Hampton.
Hofheimer's regional size leaves the company in an awkward position, Marshall said.
"They're not a national shoe chain and they have neither the buying structure nor the administration structure to do a multistate operation to compete," he said.
But Marshall said the company appeared to be "getting back to basics in terms of corporate structure and location of stores within the markets that they know best." - Staff and wire report
by CNB