Ascena Retail Group, the parent company of Lane Bryant, Catherines, Ann Taylor, Loft, Lou & Grey and Cacique, announced July 23 it filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and will close thousands of stores.
Bloomberg reported Ascena expects to cut its 2,800 stores down to 1,200. Some of those stores closing will be in Jacksonville.
Acena will close all its plus-size Catherines stores. The chain has one location in Jacksonville at River City Marketplace at 13221 City Station Drive.
The chain will close 600 of its tween-fashion Justice stores, according to a USAToday.com.
Closing are Justice stores in The Avenues mall, at 10300 Southside Blvd.; The St. Johns Town Center store at 4712 River City Drive, Suite 103; and the Oakleaf Town Center store at 9630 Applecross Road.
After the closures, two Justice stores will remain in Northeast Florida, in Orange Park and at the St. Augustine Outlets.
Ascena also operates three Lane Bryant, two Ann Taylor and three Loft stores in the region. None of those are on the initial closings list, according to USA Today.
Last year, Ascena shut down its Dressbarn chain and sold its value brand Maurices.
“The meaningful progress we have made driving sustainable growth, improving our operating margins and strengthening our financial foundation has been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we took a strategic step forward today to protect the future of the business for all of our stakeholders,” said Carrie Teffner, interim executive chair of Ascena said in a news release.
According to CNBC, Ascena said it owes between $10 billion and $50 billion to more than 100,000 creditors.