Bashas’ Supermarkets, based in Chandler, Ariz., filed for Chapter 11 reorganization July 12 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix. Bashas’, founded in 1932, is the 15th-largest privately held supermarket chain in the U.S., according to the East Valley Tribune, a metro Phoenix publication. It announced it will close ten stores and eliminate about 1,000 jobs, but a retail analyst told the Arizona Republic the company may need to double the number, adding that he expects the company to survive. Senior vice president Edward “Trey” Basha attributed the bankruptcy to “lower sales, a shortage of capital and ongoing battles with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union,” the Republic reported. The company reported about $195 million in secured debt and nearly $50 million in unsecured debt against about $200 million in assets. It has lined up $45 million in debtor-in-possession financing, the Tribune article said. According to the report, Basha said the DIP loan gives “the family the ability to control the operation.” Basha said his stores’ regular prices were higher than those at chains like Wal-Mart, Safeway and Kroger, and that Bashas’ plans to change its pricing structure to make itself more competitive, the Tribune reported. (Sources: East Valley Tribune, July 12, 2009; Arizona Republic, July 14, 2009.)
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