Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Linens ‘n Things, the US’ second-largest housewares and home furnishings retailer, has lost its battle to find a buyer to take the business forward and is going into liquidation.
The company cancelled an auction due to have gone ahead yesterday when it failed to find a bidder prepared to continue to run all or some of the stores.
Instead, a joint venture of investment groups specialising in liquidation is buying the company’s assets, and liquidation sales are expected to start in stores as early as tomorrow.
Linens ‘n Things, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May, now operates some 370 outlets – down from its original 600. The liquidation sales should last for about 11 weeks.
One US analyst said that the credit crunch underpinned Linens ‘n Things’ failure to find a buyer willing to give the chain a future. The retailer did have value but “value is too difficult to purchase at this time”.
