Al Boscov, who repurchased his family’s department store chain to rescue it from bankruptcy, appeared in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the technical proceeding to mark the chain’s exit from Chapter 11 — one week before his 80th birthday — even though it was unnecessary for him to be there,
the
Philadelphia Inquirer
reported.
According to the report:
He had a primal urge to see and hear from U.S. bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross. He had to personally thank every lawyer. But most of all, Boscov had to witness for himself the ordeal that had broken his heart, almost left thousands unemployed, and nearly ruined the business his once-penniless immigrant father had started a century ago in Reading [Pa.].
Since Boscov bought the 39-store chain in December, it has been running as a new company, the
Inquirer
article said. At the hearing, the judge credited Boscov for his company’s successful emergence from bankruptcy:
“It is the integrity that you brought to your work, the quality of your product, the way you treat your employees and your customers.”
When the chain went bankrupt, Boscov had retired. His successor was his nephew Ken Lakin, who acquired ten new stores that ended up underperforming, the article said.
Unsecured creditors will be paid 6.5 cents to 15 cents for every dollar owed at the time bankruptcy was declared under the plan approved by the judge, the
Inquirer
reported. (Source:
Philadelphia Inquirer,
Sept. 18, 2009.)
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