Going-out-of-business sales are entering their final days at the two remaining Boyles Furniture & Rug stores in Pineville and High Point, barely a year after the stores' parent company announced it was exiting Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a plan to survive and pay off debts.
Conover-based Hendricks Furniture Group filed for bankruptcy in 2009, citing the dismal housing market and decline in home furnishing purchases. At its height, the company operated 34 stores in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, many under names other than Boyles, and Hendricks had retail sales of more than $270 million a year, according to court filings.
But after emerging from bankruptcy, the company was down to five Boyles stores in the Carolinas, which it said at the time were profitable. Since last year, three have closed, in Mocksville and Hickory.
By October, court filings show Hendricks had repaid about $28 million to its creditors and $2 million in legal and accounting fees. In December, a judge officially closed the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. On December 31, the company announced it was liquidating the last two Boyles stores, 61 years after Boyles opened.
Commercials posted online Monday urge customers to get to the Boyles stores in Pineville and High Point for the "final days" of liquidation sales. No final date for the sales was given, and no one at Hendricks Furniture Group could be reached immediately on Wednesday.
"We are now closed for business," announced a recorded message at the company's corporate offices.The message said that the remaining stores are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, but didn't say how long the liquidation sale will last.