Destination Maternity Corp., owner of such retail brands as A Pea in the Pod and Motherhood, has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and plans to shutter 183 stores. The move comes after the Moorestown, N.J., retailer has struggled for years to regain its footing for in-store and online sales of its maternity apparel. Destination Maternity (NASDAQ: DEST), which has its stock trading at 18 cents a share as of the close on Monday and failed to turn a profit in five years, said in court filings that it had upwards of $260 million in assets and $244 million in liabilities.
As part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Destination Maternity Corp. is poised to lay off upwards of 642 employees between its corporate offices in Moorestown, N.J., and a distribution center in Florence, N.J., according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the New Jersey Department of Labor. Destination Maternity leases 74,000 square feet at 232 Strawbridge Drive in Moorestown and the company has a lease on the space that expires in December 2023, according to its annual report filed in April with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has an option to extend that lease for another 10 years.
When Destination Maternity Corp. pocketed $40 million in Grow NJ incentives to move from Philadelphia to New Jersey, part of those funds went toward offsetting the costs to move to the Garden State including opening a new, 406,400-square-foot distribution center. Whitesell Construction Co. built that distribution center for the clothing retailer at 1000 John Galt Way in the Haines Center in Florence, N.J. That building — along with the hundreds of stores that Destination plans to close — has gotten mired in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings Destination Maternity is undergoing and has put Whitesell on the defense. Whitesell of Delran, N.J., filed documents Nov. 8 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, where Destination voluntarily filed Chapter 11 in October, to protect its interests in the building.
Q1 2019 Destination Maternity Corp Earnings Call
The mall-based retailer, like many of its peers, has suffered from the explosion of online commerce.
Q2 2019 Destination Maternity Corp Earnings Call
Destination Maternity Corp., an apparel company focused on pregnant women will see its Motherhood Maternity and A Pea In The Pod brands come under control of Marquee Brands. Marquee Brands was the successful bidder to buy Destination Maternity’s intellectual property. As a result, Destination Maternity canceled a bankruptcy auction, according to court documents filed Monday.
Destination Maternity will be delisted from the stock market next week, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing states: “Based on the review of the company press release dated October 21, 2019 announcing that the company had filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, Nasdaq staff determined that the company no longer qualified for listing on the Exchange.” The delisting will take effect at the opening of the Nasdaq trading session on Nov. 18. Destination Maternity (Nasdaq:DEST), which also owns A Pea in the Pod and Motherhood, voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in October.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 17, 2019 / Destination Maternity Corp. (NASDAQ: DEST) will be discussing their earnings results in their 2019 Second Quarter Earnings to be held on September 17, 2019 ...