Thomas H. Lee Partners is nearly doubling a fund to assist former workers at its bankrupt Art Van Furniture chain, after months of pressure from employees who said a payment of around $400 each was “grossly inadequate,” Bloomberg News reported. The private equity firm is adding $950,000 to a $1.1 million fund it established last year, according to United for Respect, the group that worked with former employees to demand health coverage or cash assistance after Art Van filed for bankruptcy last year. A representative for Boston-based T.H. Lee, which manages $11.6 billion, declined to comment on the decision. The firm had previously said that it couldn’t increase the size of the fund because it lost its own investment in Art Van. Art Van was a family-run chain founded by Art Van Elslander in Detroit in 1959. By 2015, Art Van had 100 stores and $725 million in annual sales. The family sold in 2017, with T.H. Lee paying $215 million to take over the retail operations. A separate group of funds purchased its real estate. The furniture business soon began to deteriorate, and Art Van filed for bankruptcy early last year, just as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic was starting to hit the U.S.
