Tailored Brands Inc., the parent company of Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, has filed for bankruptcy after the coronavirus pandemic slashed demand for dress clothes, the Wall Street Journal reported. The publicly traded company filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. The move comes after the menswear retailer warned in late July that it had substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern and that it was likely to file for bankruptcy as soon as its third quarter, which begins Aug. 2. The company operated more than 1,400 stores and employed 19,300 people in the U.S. and Canada as of Feb. 1, according to a securities filing. A regulatory filing in May showed that money-management giant BlackRock Inc. owned about 15.8 percent of Tailored Brands’ common stock, private investment firm Scion Asset Management LLC had about 8.3 percent and investment adviser Vanguard Group had about 7.2 precent. In response to the pandemic, Tailored Brands has said it was evaluating various alternatives to improve its liquidity, such as securing rent concessions and deferrals, cutting costs and raising more capital.
