Report: Tweeter Closes Remaining Stores

After terminating its corporate staff yesterday, Tweeter has closed its remaining stores, TWICE reports.

Hudson Capital Partners and Tiger Capital Group reportedly plan to liquidate the Canton, Mass.-based big-box retailer under Chapter 7.

A source speaking under the condition of anonymity told CE Pro there's a possible disagreement between the owners of Tweeter, Schultze Asset Management, and the liquidators.

In typical liquidation agreements, the unsold inventory becomes the property of the liquidators, who typically will sell the merchandise for cash. In this case, there is still a significant amount of unsold components, which Schultze does not want the liquidators to have.

According to the report, the status of remaining inventory and undelivered orders remains unclear. Employees and liquidators reportedly had no advanced notice of the action.

The Boston Globe recently reported that Tweeter was having trouble with internal theft, which allegedly occurs during a majority of liquidations.

Tweeter was bought by a liquidator and closed its distribution centers in October, coming on the heels of the replacement of president and CEO George Granoff.

The company was reportedly trying to save $12 million per year by closing the distribution centers and having suppliers ship directly to stores.

The 36-year-old chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2007 and was bought for $38 million that July by Schultze.

Tweeter, which opened its first store in 1972 next to Boston University, once had more than 150 stores and 2,400 employees in at least 18 states. Since Spring 2007, however, the big-box retailer has closed more than one-third of its stores before this liquidation.

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