Clint Engel
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal bankruptcy court yesterday approved the liquidation of Storehouse, the 70-store subsidiary of The


Rowe Companies, as time ran out on efforts to find a buyer to keep the Top 100 chain operating.

Liquidator Hudson Capital Partners was the only party to make a formal offer for Storehouse. Liquidation sales at all stores began today and should be competed no later than Dec. 31, said A.R. Williams, chief financial officer for Hudson, based in Ridgeland, Miss.

Rowe Cos. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 18. Its other subsidiary is upholstery manufacturer Rowe Furniture.

According to bankruptcy court documents, Hudson will pay 85.16% of the cost value of Storehouse’s inventory, estimated to be between $19 million and $24.6 million.

Williams wouldn’t say how much he expects the going-out-of-business sales to generate, adding the company hasn’t decided whether to bring in additional goods.

Caroline Hipple, president of the Atlanta-based chain, said, “I believe Storehouse had a future, and until the last moment there were (suitors) madly trying to get a bid together. We tried to be good to our vendors and we created something that was vibrant and unique.”

Rowe President and CEO Gerald Birnbach said, “We felt (Storehouse) was a wonderful company. But in the end, you have to make money.”

Storehouse, acquired by McLean, Va.-based Rowe in 1999, never achieved profitability, Birnbach said. Hipple said the retailer posted a profit from operations in 2004.

Birnbach said proceeds from the liquidator and monies to come from the marketing of Storehouse leases would go toward paying down Rowe’s roughly $38 million credit-line debt to GE Capital.

Rowe plans to close its upholstery and framing facilities in Poplar Bluff, Mo., as part of the reorganization. Birnbach has elected to defer his salary and will be paid $1 a month.

Julius Feinblum, president of Julius M. Feinblum Real Estate, said he expects some Storehouse leases will remain in industry hands because of their good locations and because the properties are furniture-ready.

“We’re currently evaluating (the leases) and will be working within the industry,” he said.

The GOB sales do not include Storehouse’s lone franchised location in Greensboro, N.C. That’s store’s owner, Dave Hardwick, declined to comment except to say he hasn’t decided the store’s future.

Hipple and others said the court deadline for bids to keep Storehouse afloat was too tight for prospective bidders. Court documents indicate Rowe had been trying to sell Storehouse as a going concern in the year before the filing, hiring an investment banker for that purpose in early 2013.

Rowe was in discussions with “several interested parties” but “these efforts did not bear fruit,” the documents said.

Hipple said she believes Rowe’s implementation of an enterprise resource planning system in 2012 “created a spiral of events that brought us to this point.” While Rowe deliveries now are back on track, bugs in the system had created some four-month lead times for Storehouse. Half of the chain’s customer orders included product from Rowe, she said.

Hipple said Storehouse posted same-store sales increases for 30 consecutive months until early 2012, when the ERP system went online. Asked about her plans, she said, “I have some cool ideas, but I have to get through this first.”