Brooks Brothers, the first luxurious ready-to-wear fashion for men in America was founded in 1818, 202 years ago as a family business by Henry Sands Brooks.
It is mainly located in Manhattan, New York, Madison Avenue. It is owned by a private billionaire, Claudio Del Vecchio. Apart from men’s clothing the company also designs a variety of clothes for women and some high-quality vintage furniture.
FILES BANKRUPTCY, JULY 2020:
The company Brooks Brothers filed bankruptcy for Chapter 11 in July 2020, in order to survive through any turbulence amidst the ongoing pandemic COVID-19.
The founder Henry Sands Brooks informed about more than 50 stores being closed and opting for a sale. Brooks Brothers are amongst one of the many other retailing companies who have filed bankruptcy after falling deep into the loss they had as a result of COVID-19.
They had to shut down due to health concerns. Other companies who filed for bankruptcy included Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penny, J. Crew, and Chuck E. Cheese. According to the report, the company owes around $500 million to $1 billion to a huge number of creditors that are over 25,000. Apart from this, they owe $8 million rent money.
DEL VECCHIO’S STATEMENT:
He states that ‘the company wants to start this new venture with a new owner who’s competent enough to run it and knows the importance of Brooks Brothers’.
Reportedly, before filing the case the company was allegedly shutting down around 51 of its 250 stores located in North America. The company has 424 stores globally and around 4,000 employees out of which about three-fourths of them were downsized due to the current situation.
One of the reasons for this was that the company was failing recently to meet the demands of their consumers and were unable to give products according to the consumer’s tastes and styles.
Brooks Brothers were without a shadow of a doubt one of the best retailers who designed clothes, watches, ties, and what not, for men and many products for women. 40 out of 45 U.S. Presidents wore their designs. They also made uniforms for the U.S. Military during the Civil War.
POTENTIAL SALE PLANS:
Stephan Marotta, a chief restructuring officer, said that the company had planned to survey a potential sale before the outbreak of the pandemic, in 2019.
These talks vanished in the air because of the outbreak of COVID-19 and the company managed to open and run only 18 stores out of 236 all around the U.S. due to the deadly Coronavirus.
The company also makes and supplies clothes to other companies like Macy’s and Nordstrom, in addition to its own stores. They make uniforms for U.S. military and other companies like United Airlines,
NOVEL CORONAVIRUS:
Due to the contagious virus, the company had to shut down a majority of its stores which resulted in a huge loss. The company put their items on a 70% clearance sale and said that it will take a while for the company to go back to its normal state.
