{"id":100503,"date":"2026-01-14T21:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/100503\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T21:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:29:16","slug":"luxury-retailer-saks-seeks-bankruptcy-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/100503\/","title":{"rendered":"Luxury retailer Saks seeks bankruptcy protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue is seeking bankruptcy protection, buffeted by rising competition and the massive debt it took on\u00a0to buy its rival in the luxury sector<\/a>, Neiman Marcus, just over a year ago.<\/p>\n

Saks Global has secured roughly $1.75 billion in financing, the New York company said as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday in the Southern District of Texas.<\/p>\n

The private company said that stores will remain open as it restructures company debt, meaning that it will honor the programs it has for customers. Suppliers and employees will be paid, Saks said.<\/p>\n

There are about 33 Saks stores and 36 Neiman Marcus locations, according to the company, as well as two Bergdorf Goodman stores and roughly 70 Saks Off 5th discount stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a defining moment for Saks Global, and the path ahead presents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future,\u201d said Geoffroy van Raemdonck, who took over for CEO and Executive Chairman Richard Baker this week. Baker had assumed control after the company’s CEO Marc Metrick, stepped down earlier this month.<\/p>\n

When Saks said that it\u00a0would buy Neiman Marcus for $2.65 billion<\/a>\u00a0in the summer of 2024, the goal was to create a powerhouse in a luxury sector that had grown more fragmented. Online sellers were siphoning customers and big name brands had begun to sell goods from their own stores.<\/p>\n

But the tie-up with Nieman Marcus only worsened Saks\u2019 debt situation as luxury sales weakened.<\/p>\n

Global sales of\u00a0luxury goods<\/a>\u00a0are expected to contract for the second straight year in 2026 as consumers anxious about the global economy pare back their spending, according to a study by\u00a0Bain & Co. consultancy released in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hudson\u2019s Bay, Canada\u2019s oldest company, began\u00a0liquidating all but six of its stores<\/a>\u00a0in March 2025.<\/p>\n

The upscale department store landscape has been volatile in recent years.<\/p>\n

Neiman Marcus\u00a0entered bankruptcy protection for about four months<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic spread. The privately held department store chain was forced to close its stores for several months during the pandemic, like other competitors such as\u00a0Lord & Taylor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lord & Taylor sought bankruptcy protection in August of that year, then said it would close all of its stores and operate as an online retailer only.<\/p>\n

The century-old department store Nordstrom\u00a0agreed to be taken private by Nordstrom family members<\/a>\u00a0and a Mexican retail group in a $6.25 billion deal last year.<\/p>\n

Sales at the long-suffering Macy\u2019s\u00a0have begun to improve<\/a>\u00a0under new CEO Tony Spring, who has shuttered unprofitable stores and improved service. He\u2019s also trying to attract the same luxury shoppers who power\u00a0sales at Bloomingdale\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0and upscale beauty retailer Bluemercury, which are both owned by Macy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

There is concern among vendors about Saks and how things will move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very nervous, very concerned, very worried about spring deliveries for merchandise that they\u2019ve already produced,\u201d said Gary Wassner, CEO of Hilldun Corp., which ensures suppliers get paid for products shipped to retailers. \u201cThey weren\u2019t able to complete deliveries on what they had produced for the fourth quarter of (2025), so they\u2019re sitting with that inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wassner said Saks Global accounted for 40% to 50% of the business of some of his clients. He said that he told his clients to stop shipping to Saks last month given the uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Wassner said that his clients have $130 million in spring orders waiting to be delivered to Saks. They are seeking guarantees of payment from Hilldun before shipping.<\/p>\n

Saks said that it has financing commitments of $1.5 billion from some of its creditors and another $240 million in \u201cincremental liquidity\u201d from its lenders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue is seeking bankruptcy protection, buffeted by rising competition and the massive debt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105,117,118,5877,288,7472,9,11,10,12,9416,1777],"class_list":{"0":"post-100503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-all-markets-rank-everywhere","9":"tag-app-for-your-consideration","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-austin","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-dallas","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-san-antonio","19":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}