EXPRESS, parent company of Bonobos, files for Bankruptcy

Reuters: EXPRESS files for Chapter 11

EXPRESS, who as part of a partnership bought Bonobos from Walmart just last year, has filed for bankruptcy.

As part of the filing, Express will close about 95 of their retail stores. They currently operate 530 Express retail and Express Factory Outlet stores.

But someone is looking to buy them, already.

From CNBC:

Express said it filed for bankruptcy to “facilitate” a sale process of most of its retail stores and operations to the investor group, which includes WHP, Simon Property Group and Brookfield Properties. It received a nonbinding letter of intent from the investors to buy the assets, and has also secured $35 million in new financing from some of its existing lenders, subject to court approval.

So the brand management firm that partnered with EXPRESS last year to buy Bonobos is looking to partner with new partners to buy EXPRESS… which (for now) owns Bonobos.

Okay but what’s that mean, to us on this end, who might want to, say, buy a blazer or something else from Bonobos at 30% off to wear to a wedding or whatever this summer?

Back to the Reuters article:

The multi-brand fashion retailer said it expects to conduct business as usual as it initiates a court-supervised process to facilitate a formal sale process.

Well okay then.

It is worth pointing out that the words “expects to” are not the same as the word “will.”

But it does seem like they have a plan, they have pros on board to make this all happen, and some of the new partners (Simon property group in particular) seem like they could be promising.

Somebody give the team at Bonobos a hug. They’ve had a rough few years.

That’s all.

Carry on.