Did Bed Bath & Beyond Ever Really Plan to Restructure?

In her first interview since the final shutdown of the company, Bed Bath & Beyond chief finance officer and chief restructuring officer Holly Etlin said once the company filed for bankruptcy it focused all its efforts on liquidation rather than trying to keep the retailer in business.

Etlin, speaking to CFO Dive, an online newsletter for the financial sector, said that while there were efforts to try to keep the company afloat prior to the filing, once it declared bankruptcy all her work went towards getting “maximum value” for lenders and creditors.

In the interview, which appeared earlier this week, Etlin said up until about two weeks before the filing, the company “continuously was working with its lender and others in an attempt to secure sufficient liquidity to continue as a going concern.” Most of these efforts focused on unusual and unorthodox schemes to raise funding through stock sales to meme day traders, rather than the more traditional asset sales. During this period industry observers speculated that it could have sold its BuyBuy Baby division for as much as $1 billion as well as subleasing its prime retail locations for profits, something that its landlords ended up doing once the company closed. Baby was eventually sold for only about $16 million and the Bed Bath intellectual properties themselves for about $21 million to Overstock which went live with its revised e-commerce platform this week.

Etlin, who came to BBB from her senior position with turnaround specialist Alix Partners where she retains her partner and managing director position, seemed to indicate in the interview that there was never an attempt to reorganize the retailer once the decision to file bankruptcy was made.

Other retailers in similar situations recently, including Tuesday Morning, Christmas Tree Shops and David’s Bridal, all declared their intentions to reorganize when they filed for bankruptcy even if ultimately the first two ended up being liquidated and David’s is in the process of being taken over by a new owner.

Etlin’s interview was focused more about lessons to be learned as a CFO handling a bankruptcy. Even though she has impressive credentials in the restructuring process, clearly – at least according to this report — her mandate at BBB became more about monetizing assets than trying to bring the company out of chapter 11 as an ongoing entity.

Kind of makes you wonder what a chief restructuring officer is supposed to be doing in the first place, doesn’t it?