Saks Global Closing More Than 60 Stores in Bankruptcy Move

The lights are going off at dozens of Saks Off 5th locations as part of the Saks Global bankruptcy, many going dark as soon as next week.

Saks announced it would be closing 62 stores in the coming weeks as it goes through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. All but five of those stores are Saks Off 5th locations, while the other five are Neiman Marcus discount outlets known as Last Call.

A majority of the stores closing will see massive sales begin over the weekend. A handful of stores, however, will simply shut their doors on Monday with little fanfare. Saks is also set to shut down the e-commerce platform linked to the Saks Off 5th brand.

The closures will leave a dozen Saks Off 5th stores open, concentrated in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas and California. Shoppers are unlikely to discover fresh finds there, however, as those stores will largely sell overstock from the various brands under the Saks umbrella.

“We are taking decisive steps to realign our business to better serve our luxury customers and drive full-price selling across our core luxury businesses,” Saks Global chief executive officer Geoffroy van Raemdonck said in a statement.

Saks — which is the parent company of the Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman brands, among others — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month. The move came just over a year after Saks acquired Neiman Marcus in a $2.7 billion deal intended to create a luxury retail heavyweight with the scale to cut costs and stabilize vendor relationships.

In addition to the Saks Off 5th, the company operates 33 Saks Fifth Avenue stores, 36 Neiman Marcus locations and two Bergdorf Goodman flagships. When filing for bankruptcy, Saks said it was evaluating its “operational footprint,” signaling store closures, lease renegotiations and asset sales among likely outcomes of the process.

Saks secured about $1.75 billion in financing to fund the restructuring, including $1 billion in debtor-in-possession loans from a bondholder group led by Pentwater Capital and Bracebridge Capital. It has access to $500 million today.