Bed Bath & Beyond Store Closings: Will More Stores Closures Help The Retailer’s Struggles?

More store closures are expected from Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), which reported its second-quarter fiscal earnings on Wednesday. The retailer said during its earnings call that it will close 60 stores in the fiscal year across all its brands, increasing its April expectations by 20 locations.

Bed Bath & Beyond, which operates the buybuy Baby, Harmon Face Values, and World Market brands, expects the store closing to occur after the holiday shopping season in early 2020, USA Today reported. The store closures will comprise about 20 Bed Bath & Beyond stores with 20 other locations falling under its other brands, according to interim CEO Mary Winston (via USA Today).

The company had a total of 1,534 stores as of the end of August, with 993 of them branded as Bed Bath & Beyond.

The news of the store closures comes as Bed Bath & Beyond looks to renegotiate its leases and pare down its inventory by $350 million before the holiday season through markdowns and clearance sales, the news outlet said.

Bed Bath & Beyond reported a net loss of $138.8 million for Q2. Its net sales for the fiscal quarter were about $2.7 billion, a decrease of 7.3 percent over the same time period last year. Comparable sales also declined, down by 6.7 percent. The company did declare a $0.17 dividend to shareholders.

The future outlook expects that full-year net sales will be around $11.4 billion, the company said.

Part of the initiatives to cut costs at the retailer included a 7 percent reduction of its workforce, including executives and managers, and the outsourcing of some business functions. The company is also looking to “refresh” 160 store locations and is still actively looking for a CEO, which it intends to announce soon, it said.

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond stock were down 2.50 percent as of 12:20 p.m. ET on Thursday.