The Collected Group, which owns lifestyle brands Joie, Current/Elliott and Equipment, has filed a petition under chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Fibre2Fashion.com reported. The U.S. company, which closed stores even before the pandemic, plans to focus on e-commerce and wholesale, according to the company’s filings on April 12. The company plans to use the bankruptcy proceedings to facilitate those store closures and cut more than 80 percent of its debt, it said in a statement. James Miller, the chief executive officer since 2017, will step down and take on an advisor title and be on the company’s board. The new CEO will be Silvia Mazzucchelli, a board member who was also the former CEO of Modcloth. The bankruptcy filing follows dwindling sales, liquidity issues and a disrupted sale process, all of which have been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, which was founded in 2001 and is owned by private equity firm KKR, owned 33 branded stores across the US at its peak. With store closures during the pandemic, retail revenues fell by 85 percent in 2020 and wholesale revenues by 70 percent. E-commerce, however, grew 37 percent during the year to $27.8 million, which was about half the company’s revenues for the year.
