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One day after retail giant Express announced it is filing for bankruptcy protection and will close nearly 100 stores across the country, the Ohio-based clothing company announced plans to lay off dozens of employees at its corporate office in Manhattan, according to a state unemployment notice made public Tuesday.
With a restructuring of the mall staple imminent, Express announced it will part ways with 169 employees who work out of its design center at 111 Fifth Ave. by the end of July.
Express Inc., the limited liability company that filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Monday and also owns its eponymous brand Express along with UpWest and Bonobos, opened its first store in 1980. It expanded to 600 stores throughout the 50 states and Puerto Rico in the decades since. Employing about 9,300 workers, roughly 2,800 of whom are full time, Express plans to shutter 95 of its brick-and-mortar shops across the U.S. by June 30, according to the court filing.
Five of those stores are in New York City, according to the documents: 5036 Kings Plaza in Brooklyn; 23-96 Bell Blvd in Queens; and 1552 North Broadway, 514 Broadway and 129 Fifth Ave., all in Manhattan.
Corporate employees for both Express and Bonobos currently work at 111 Fifth Ave., between East 18th and East 19th streets. A spokeswoman for the company, who asked that her name not be used, claimed, however, that the unemployment notice filed with the state’s Department of Labor is “just precautionary,” pending the sale of the company and its forthcoming reshuffling. It’s not clear how many retail workers will lose their jobs as part of the store closures—the spokeswoman declined to provide a number.
In the past year Express began reducing its footprint by closing about 100 stores across the country, leaving about 584 stores in operation at the time the company filed for bankruptcy protection, citing economic and retail-specific market pressures, as well as reduced foot traffic in malls and other shopping centers, according to court documents.
And according to its most recent financial filing, Express, the parent company, had reported $34.6 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the third quarter of 2023, compared with $24.6 million at the end of the third quarter of 2022; and it recorded $274.7 million in total debt at the end of the third quarter of 2023, compared with $235.4 million at the end of the same quarter in 2022.
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Julianne Cuba , 2024-04-23 22:54:53
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