HOUSTON -- Sakowitz, the exclusive department store chain that last week filed for protection under federal bankruptcy laws, will sell its Amarillo store to a Fort Worth company that operates clothing stores in four states.
The 90 employees will keep their jobs when the store is taken over by The Dunlap Co., a privtely held firm that operates 33 stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and New Mexico.
The store will close Monday for inventory and reopen Tuesday as Dunlaps.
Dunlap will technically operate the store for Sakowitz pending court approval of the sale, said a Dunlap executive.
Officials of Sakowitz, an 83-year-old family-owned company, said when it filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankrupty laws that it hoped to make money by concentrating on its profitable Houston stores. Chairman Robert Sakowitz said at the time that unprofitable stores in other southwestern cities might be closed or sold.
The sale would leave Sakowitz with 10 stores and six boutiques. In addition to Houston, the company has stores in Dallas and Midland, Texas; Tulsa, Okla., and Scottsdale, Ariz.
Sakowitz earlier this week closed a small boutique in Dallas.
Dunlap, a moderately priced retailer, operates stores under the names Stripling & Cox in Fort Worth, McClurkans in Wichita Falls and Goldstein-Migel in Waco.
In its bankruptcy filing, Sakowitz Inc. listed total assets of $59.7 million, including $712,158 in cash, and liabilities of $49 million. Its four subsidiaries that also filed bankruptcy petitions listed total combined assets of $73.6 million and liabilities of $63.9 million.