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BAG'N BAGGAGE, LTD. RETAINS CLEAR THINKING GROUP TO HELP FIND BUYER FOR COMPANY
DALLAS, TX (5/6/08) — Bag'n Baggage, Ltd , which filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection on Sunday in Texas's Northern U.S. District Court in Dallas, today announced that it has retained Clear Thinking Group LLC to help find a buyer for the company.
"We had some significant interest just prior to the bankruptcy petition being filed, and believe that we will have a going concern buyer finalized in the next couple of weeks," said Patrick Sullivan, CEO of Dallas-based Bag'n Baggage, which currently operates 33 stores in 10 states.
With the assistance of Hillsborough, N.J.-based Clear Thinking Group, the company plans to take bids from potential bidders for all of its assets during the next 10 days, with an auction expected to be held in late-May. "We anticipate that this will be a very quick sale process, and hope to have a buyer approved by the bankruptcy court by the end of this month," Sullivan noted.
Discussing events leading to Sunday's filing, Sullivan said the company's management had spent the past year examining the business, looking for ways to strategically improve performance across all its stores. "Over the last year, we made some very positive strides in improving our performance," he stated. "However, the impact of the uncertainty in this current economic market resulted in a downturn in our business that we simply did not have the means to withstand. Given the challenges currently faced by the entire retail marketplace, you've got to be nearly perfect to survive."
Concurrent with that effort, management began a process in mid-2007 to find investors or to sell the business outright. The company entered into an exclusive arrangement with one investment group, but negotiations floundered for months, Sullivan said. With that exclusive arrangement expiring just a few weeks before the bankruptcy filing, the process to sell the business had started anew.
"The company has a very sound business model, a great retail platform and, with the right capital structure in place, this business could grow significantly," Sullivan explained. "Unfortunately we just didn't have the capital we needed and just ran out of time, culminating in the Chapter 11 filing."
Sullivan added that throughout this period, the company continued to receive significant support from its vendor community. "The support from our vendors has been phenomenal; they all really want this business to continue," he said. "They have always appreciated the great locations of our stores, how their product is displayed, and the customer service level that our employees have given."
He also expressed gratitude for the patience and cooperation exhibited by the company's employees in recent weeks. "We are all experiencing a great amount of uncertainty at this time, and the understanding exhibited by our employees has been outstanding," Sullivan said. "They've continued to stay focused on our customers, which will remain the number one priority for all of us as we move forward through this process."
About Clear Thinking Group
Clear Thinking Group is a national advisory organization that provides a unique perspective on business opportunities and challenges in a variety of industries such as: retail, consumer products, manufacturing, automotive, entertainment, textiles, and temporary staffing services. For further information, visit the firm's website at www.clearthinkinggrp.com.
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