Bed Bath & Beyond to wind down Canada operations

Bed Bath & Beyond’s Canadian operations are going out of business, according to a court filing on Friday, two days after the retailer quickly raised cash to stave off a US bankruptcy.

The Canadian division, which operates 54 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 11 buybuy BABY stores, is insolvent, the filing posted on the website of consultancy Alvarez & Marsal showed.

The Canadian business does not have the “capacity or ability to independently effect a recapitalization or restructuring of the Canadian operations without access to cash and the support” from the parent company and its lenders, according to the filing.

Alvarez & Marsal has been appointed as a monitor of the business in the Canadian court case.

The struggling retailer, which has been trying to avoid bankruptcy, raised about $225 million in an equity offering earlier this week and said it may get another $800 million over the next 10 months.

Bed Bath & Beyond in January had raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern just months after it announced more than $500 million in new financing, as well as job cuts and 150 store closures.

The Union, New Jersey-based home goods retailer, which shot to popularity in the 1990s as a go-to shopping destination for couples making wedding registries and planning for new babies, has seen demand drop off in recent years as its merchandising strategy to sell more store-branded products flopped.

As of Nov. 26, the Bed Bath & Beyond banner in Canada had total assets of about $427.4 million and total liabilities of about $342.8 million, the filing showed.

Buybuy BABY Canada had assets worth $52.7 million and liabilities of about $86.9 million.