After securing a last-minute buyer, LL Flooring is reversing course on shutting down all of its stores.
The hardwood flooring retailer formerly known as Lumber Liquidators signed an agreement with private equity firm F9 Investments for a sale of its business on Friday afternoon. Under terms of the deal, expected to close by the end of September, F9 will acquire 219 stores and a Virginia distribution center—as well as LL Flooring’s intellectual property and other assets.
Another 211 LL Flooring stores are still set to close, however. That includes 117 locations where closings were recently initiated and 94 others that were already in the process when the Virginia company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Aug. 11. It’s unclear whether the closures will impact the company’s Louisiana footprint, which includes a store in Baton Rouge as well as five other locations.
Just weeks after filing for Chapter 11, LL Flooring said last week that it would be “winding down operations” and closing all of its stores after failing to find a buyer in negotiations. The retailer expected the process to take about 12 weeks.
