Deptford Modell's To Close As Company Declares Bankruptcy

DEPTFORD, NJ — Modell’s Sporting Goods will close all its stores, including the Deptford location, after announcing it will file for bankruptcy on Wednesday. The 100-year-old family-owned sporting good business has a location in the Deptford Mall, 1750 Deptford Center Road. The stores will begin liquidation sales this Friday.

The retailer joins several other sporting goods giants to shutter in recent years as online retail hurt brick-and -mortar sales, like Sports Authority and City Sports. Modell's currently has over 130 stores on the East Coast.

“Over the past year, we evaluated several options to restructure our business to allow us to maintain our current operations. While we achieved some success, in partnership with our landlords and vendors, it was not enough to avoid a bankruptcy filing amid an extremely challenging environment for retailers,” Modell’s Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Modell said in a statement. “We are extremely appreciative of the support that our lenders (JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo), vendors and landlords provided during this difficult period, engaging in extensive renegotiation efforts and allowing us to pursue every possible avenue to preserve the jobs of our loyal associates. I want to thank each and every one of our associates for their support over the years and our customers for their historic support of Modell’s. This is certainly not the outcome I wanted, and it is one of the most difficult days of my life. But I believe liquidation provides the greatest recovery for our creditors. We have partnered with Tiger Capital Group to liquidate the remaining stores beginning Friday morning, March 13. The return from the liquidation of the first 19 stores managed by Tiger has been beyond spectacular, and we are confident this performance will continue across the remaining stores, maximizing return for our creditors.”

The company will continue discussions it began with its creditors on recapitalization of the business through a potential sale of some or all of its assets or an equity investment.
Robert Duffy, Managing Director, BRG, has been named Chief Restructuring Officer of the Company. RBC Capital Markets is acting as investment banker for the Company; BRG is also acting as the Company’s restructuring advisor, Cole Schotz is the Company’s legal counsel, and A&G Realty Partners is marketing the store leases.