Party City has reportedly been closed

Party City will be closed permanently.

CEO Barry Litwin said it was “essential to begin the divestiture process immediately” for the party supply retailer, CNN reported Friday, citing comments from a Party City conference call with company employees.

While speaking Friday with Party City employees, Litwin reportedly said that Party City’s “best efforts were insufficient to overcome” the issues it was facing and that the company “did everything in its power to try to avoid that outcome.”

Party City employees will lose their jobs after Friday, according to the outlet. The company is reportedly looking to close stores broadly at the beginning of February.

Lots of things to start making “knock out” sales in the remaining locations

Party City’s North American retail footprint is included More than 700 company-owned and licensed stores As of late October, according to a press release published that month.

Difficulties From inflationDebt and other factors reportedly hurt the company. FOX Business has reached out to Party City for comment on its announced plans to permanently close.

This is said to come nearly four decades after the company was launched and about 14 months after it emerged from bankruptcy.

American Freight closes all stores amid parent company’s bankruptcy filing

When party city Completed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process Last year, it said it “significantly strengthened its capital structure by eliminating approximately $1 billion of debt, enhancing its liquidity, and improving its Party City store portfolio by negotiating improved lease terms and exiting less productive stores.”

It converted this debt into equity shares owned by its lenders.

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Party City was removed from the New York Stock Exchange in January 2023 due to… Bankruptcy process. Before that, it was traded on the stock exchange for about eight years.

Speculation about the retailer weighing whether to file for bankruptcy surfaced again last week.

While all corporate-owned stores are closing, a few dozen independently owned Party City locations will remain in operation.

“Local Party City franchisees are not affected by the bankruptcy,” Mitesh Patel, a franchisee from the Austin, Texas, area, told FOX Business. “There are a total of 29 franchise stores that will have their stores open and ready to continue serving their local communities.”

Brick Dumas contributed to this report.