The Collected Group filed for bankruptcy protection Monday to cement a rescue plan backed by the private-equity firm that controls it, KKR & Co., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Chino, Calif.-based company is the design, distribution and retail force behind the Joie, Current/Elliott and Equipment fashion labels. The private-equity giant is Collected’s largest owner and secured lender, and is backing a turnaround plan that would leave landlords and other unsecured creditors that are owed an estimated $35.5 million unpaid, according to bankruptcy court papers. Collected already has vacated its retail stores and is hoping to wrap up its bankruptcy reorganization in the next six weeks, court papers say. The fashion company is one of many that already was struggling when COVID-19 laid waste to the retail sector. Efforts to find a buyer for the brands stalled in the spring of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, battering Collected’s finances. At the time, the company was getting back on its feet from a crippling software issue that impaired its ability to ship orders for months in 2017. Pandemic-driven mall closures left Collected with only three Joie stores in operation, in Newport Beach, Calif.; Greenwich, Conn.; and Boston. Efforts to sell the brands restarted this year, as did talks with landlords, but Collected was out of cash and unable to reach deals with anyone but its secured lenders. KKR and Callodine Commercial Finance LLC are Collected’s secured lenders, owed an aggregate of more than $185 million, court papers said.
