A company that stepped in and purchased over 1,000 Claire’s locations that were scheduled to close around the country has announced that it is keeping hundreds of the stores open, including the one at Ocala’s Paddock Mall.
At the beginning of August, Claire’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court of Delaware.
At the time, the company enlisted Hilco Merchant Resources, LLC, to handle the proceedings and announced that it would be closing over 1,000 of its locations, including its spot at the Paddock Mall.
On August 20, Claire’s Holdings LLC announced that it had agreed to the sale of its assets to Ames Watson, a private holding company.
On August 25, a new filing in bankruptcy court indicated that the company would be keeping approximately 830 of the stores open.
That filing included a complete list of the 291 stores scheduled to close, as well as a separate list of stores scheduled to stay open. The Claire’s in Ocala was included on the “non-closing” list.
When it made its initial bankruptcy filing, Claire’s cited a “challenging commercial environment” over the past several years as being the largest contributing factor to its decline.
The company attributed that environment to “macroeconomic and retail-specific market pressures, including reduced foot traffic in stores, a rise in interest rates, inflation, tariffs, heightened competition from comparable retailers offering substantial discounts, and a disparity between inventory and customer demand.”
At the time, the company indicated that it was still in active discussions for alternative solutions.
The bankruptcy filing comes just seven years after Claire’s filed another Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. At the time, the company cited similar reasons for the filing, including a decline in demand.
Recent court filings show that a hearing was held for the sale to Ames on September 9. The sale to the company should be finalized over the coming weeks, with a deadline for any objections set for the end of October.
Claire’s was founded by Rowland Schaefer in a suburb of Chicago in 1961 as Fashion Tress Industries. When it first opened, FTI focused on fashion wigs. In 1973, the company acquired Claire’s, a local jewelry chain, and assumed the name. Over that decade, it transitioned from selling wigs into selling jewelry accessories.