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“Penney’s” cited COVID-19 when filing for bankruptcy late last week – the fourth national retailer to do so this month following J.Crew, Neiman Marcus and Stage Stores.
"Until this pandemic struck, we had made significant progress rebuilding our company," CEO Jill Soltau said in a statement Friday.
"Implementing this financial restructuring plan through a court-supervised process is the best path to ensure that JCPenney will build on its over 100-year history to serve our customers for decades to come," Soltau said.
The company's efforts "had already begun to pay off," she said.
Officials didn’t identify which of its 846 stores are targeted (Penney's has 11 locations in New Jersey).
The Plano, Texas-based company said it expects to close 200 this year and more than 40 next year. Penney’s employs 85,000 people.
More than 95% of JCPenney stores remained closed because of the pandemic following the reopening of some before last week’s filing.
JCPenney officials said the company planned to reopen 115 more stores this Wednesday and hopes to have more than 600 locations remain in business by the end of next year.
That would reduce the number of stores by nearly 30%.
The explosion of online shopping and staggering competition from Walmart, Target and Costco have crippled retailers of all sizes.
A bankruptcy filing doesn’t always spell the end of a company. Some use the process to reduce debt and close unprofitable locations.
Penney's reported $4 billion in debt.
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