Joe’s Sports & Outdoors liquidation sales starts today

Friday, April 10, 2009

Associated Press

 

PORTLAND – Joe’s is folding its tent.

The sporting goods chain that began with an Army surplus sale in a Portland field and grew to symbolize the Northwest’s passion for outdoor recreation couldn’t find enough protection in a Delaware bankruptcy court.

Its owners hoped to restructure the business or sell the stores, but only liquidators put in bids.

Editor’s note: Holders of Joe’s gift cards are advised to use them immediately.

So the announcement came Thursday of a going-out-of-business sale at the 31 Joe’s stores in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

The company is based in Wilsonville and employs about 1,600 people.

Gordon Brothers Group, a liquidator, offered to buy the chain and sell its $128.5 million worth of merchandise for $61 million.

The sale is to begin Friday, the liquidator said in a press release, and continue until the goods are gone.

In its filing for bankruptcy protection, a company adviser said Joe’s had suffered like other retailers from “very weak sales” in the recession. It was also hurt by poor holiday sales caused by “unseasonably dry weather throughout the Pacific Northwest.”

In turn, Joe’s pumped up promotional spending to try to boost sales, and its profit margins shrank, the filing said.

In its bankruptcy petition, Joe’s said it has between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors. It listed both assets and liabilities between $100 million and $500 million.

The company owed top suppliers such as Columbia Sportswear and Nike nearly $13 million.

Long known as G.I. Joe’s, the company was a fixture in the Pacific Northwest. The first store was an Army-issue hospital tent set up in 1952 by Edward Orkney, an Army Air Corps pilot recently returned from World War II.

Orkney died in 1976, and his son David took over. In 1992, Norm Daniels, who had worked for the family since he was a teenager, took over as chief executive. About six years later, Daniels led a management buyout.

A San Francisco private equity firm, Gryphon Investors, bought the retailer in 2007 for a reported $50 million, changing its name to just Joe’s.