Noted Retailer Liquidates: Fortunoff: The End

Rob Bates -- JCK Online, 4/1/2009 2:00:00 AM

After filing for Chapter 11 twice in little over a year, and being up for sale three times in the last five years, the 87-year-old 20-store chain Fortunoff in February became the latest jewelry chain to liquidate.

Fortunoff, an icon in the Northeast, was sold in 2004 by its founding family to investors Trimaran Capital Partners and Kier Group. Three years later, the company went Chapter 11 and was sold to another investment company, NRDC, which also owns Lord & Taylor. NRDC had planned to install "Fortunoff"-branded jewelry counters in Lord & Taylor stores.

But with losses mounting, the company again went Chapter 11 in February and was put up for sale by NRDC, but the only buyers it attracted were liquidators.

Vendors were furious, with one telling JCK: "NRDC pulled the rug out from under the people at Fortunoff after barely owning the company 11 months. They could have at least finished paying off their Christmas sales. Why hurt their vendors two years in a row?"

The liquidation covers inventory valued at approximately $212 million.

Robbins Brothers Goes Chapter 11

Robbins Brothers, the 16-store California-based jeweler that calls itself the "world's largest engagement ring store," with locations in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Diego, has filed for Chapter 11.

The company plans a sale and auction of its assets. It already has an agreement with stalking horse bidders Spence Diamonds, a chain of diamond and jewelry stores based in Vancouver, Canada, for some of its Houston-area and Chicago-area stores. The rest is slated to be purchased by Robbins Brothers Jewelry, an affiliate of Weston Presidio Capital, an equity firm that already has a 49 percent stake in the company, and Dorset, another minority equity holder.

The company's net sales in 2008 were $103.71 million, but it incurred a $6.4 million loss, its filing said.

The company estimates it owes $15 mil-lion in accounts payable. It estimates the book value of its assets at $66 million and its liabilities at $77 million.