(Filed Under Financial and General Interest News). Discount retailer Syms Corp. and its subsidiary, Filene’s Basement, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced plans to liquidate inventory and close its remaining stores.

25 Syms stores and 21 Filene’s Basements stores will be shuttering, most likely by the end of January 2012. According to interim chief financial officer Gary Binkoski, the chains plan to capitalize on the 2011 holiday shopping season to clear out inventory.

Company C.E.O. Marcy Syms said in a statement that increased competition from similar off-price retailers as well as department stores offering discounts led to these proceedings and that the Chapter 11 filings were "the results of a process that has taken place for several months." The companies reported $236 million in assets and $94 million in liabilities as of September 2011. Approximately 2,400 employees are currently with the companies.

Filene’s Basement was founded in Boston in 1909. Seacaucus, N.J.-based Syms Corp., founded in 1959, acquired Filene’s Basement out of bankruptcy protection for $62.4 million in spring 2009.

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Published 11-04-2011 by Katherine Rautenberg