Corral West to sell stores as part of company restructuring
By Michelle Dynes
mdynes@wyomingnews.com
CHEYENNE -- Details are emerging around the bankruptcy filing of Dallas-based BTWW Retail, the parent company of Corral West Ranchwear.
According to court documents, BTWW will liquidate some of its stores in bankruptcy court on Nov. 25 to pay off debts.
It was unclear Friday if any Corral West stores Cheyenne stores would be affected by the liquidation.
However, it was learned later in the day that BTWW has retained a national advisory firm to assist in the sale of its assets. That is according to a report from PR News Wire.
The release indicates that BTWW intends to “take bids from potential bidders for all of the company’s assets with a bid deadline” of Nov. 21.
Dallas-based BTWW Retail filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas on Monday.
BTWW Retail was created as a limited partnership after the original corporation, Boot Town, filed for bankruptcy in 2003.
Cheyenne-based Corral West merged with BTWW in January 2007 to form the largest seller of Western and work apparel in the nation.
BTWW Retail owns and operates more than 130 stores nationwide, including Boot Town, Sergeant’s Western World, Western Warehouse and Workwear Depot.
Seventy-two stores operate as Corral West Ranchwear locations, including 12 in Wyoming.
Earlier this year BTWW sold nine Corral West stores in California and Nevada to rival company Boot Barn.
The retailer also allowed two other Corral West leases to expire and surrendered the company’s license to do business in California.
Corral West CEO Larry Hagar resigned Oct. 21, nearly two weeks before BTWW filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Telephone calls to Corral West’s Cheyenne headquarters earned a response of “no comment.”
BTWW reported assets and liabilities of $50 million to $100 million, according to the filing petition. Court records also indicate that the number of creditors ranges from 5,001 to 10,000.
Filing Chapter 11 gives a struggling company time to reorganize, Cheyenne attorney Greg Dykeman explained.
He is not directly involved in the situation BTWW.
The goal is to create a more profitable business that can start to repay old debts. The debtor may alter loans or sell property to raise cash, he said.
In the case of a retail business, this often means terminating some store locations. For airline companies, for example, this could equal a merger as it did for Delta and Northwest this year.
But it’s in everyone’s best interests that a business stays afloat, Dykeman said.
If a company is completely liquidated under a Chapter 7 filing, the only ones who get paid are the most qualified creditors, which generally includes the bank. And even banks prefer that companies restructure and draft repayment plans, Dykeman said.
“Banks don’t want a fleet of used airplanes to have to figure out what to do with,” he added.
Businesses that fail to regain profitability after filing Chapter 11 are likely to file a Chapter 7 next. That then is “pretty much a going-out-of-business bankruptcy,” he added.
Reader Comments
Brad Wagner wrote on Nov 30, 2008 4:39 PM:
Karen Wright wrote on Nov 30, 2008 4:37 PM:
Dana wrote on Nov 30, 2008 8:39 AM:
Boot Town's liquidator is here in my city of Boston right now, ending the era of Tweeter, etc., a stereo chain. To see how liquidation works (and that you, shoppers, may not be getting the deals you think you are), The Boston Globe ran an informative article today on Tweeter and its liquidator:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/11/30/as_retailers_reel_a_call_for_the_liquidators/?page=2 "
Lynette wrote on Nov 29, 2008 2:55 PM:
dg wrote on Nov 25, 2008 7:37 PM:
good will come of this "
R.H wrote on Nov 19, 2008 8:47 PM:
i was with a store that just closed for the same reason. People it's not fun to lose your job. never want that to happen again to me. So be nice, if you have nothing good to say dont say anything at all.I have a family member that works for this company and she has children. and with the hollidays fast aproching, its not a good thing to lose her job. "
PK wrote on Nov 15, 2008 3:14 PM:
Oh, got run out of town, did you? "
PK wrote on Nov 15, 2008 3:12 PM:
Use some of that plains ingenuity and toughness to figure out what to do with Warren if it does close. Lots of good infrastructure there.
All towns go through good and bad times. It's how you handle it that counts. "
RH wrote on Nov 15, 2008 9:23 AM:
JGJ wrote on Nov 15, 2008 7:29 AM:
wkc wrote on Nov 15, 2008 5:19 AM:
remember which president allowed NAFTA to go forward??
Helped mexico and canada while USA took it in the back. Thats what you get when our government wants to be so friendly to others that they forget about us.
Corral West was a nice store, if a little bit too pricy.
But if you want quality, you pay for it. Never been to Merrits, so I don't know about that store.
Walmart is not doing anything any other major corporation wouldn't be and is doing right now. Its called capitalism people.The next time you whiners and snifflers talk about other countries, look what our own country is doing to itself. "
Curt McNally wrote on Nov 15, 2008 4:30 AM:
Ralphinphnx wrote on Nov 14, 2008 9:10 PM:
A Life Of Your Own And
Go Solve Cheyenne's
Own Problems You Big
Shot Tough Guy Punks! "
PK wrote on Nov 14, 2008 7:13 PM:
Ummm Ralph wrote on Nov 14, 2008 6:00 PM:
Chris wrote on Nov 14, 2008 8:27 AM:
murdochs wrote on Nov 14, 2008 6:27 AM:
Ralphinphnx wrote on Nov 13, 2008 9:25 PM:
has become in the last
25 years just a big
unfriendly know it all
big mouths and who would not know the front end of a horse or cow from the back
end as well. No wonder
Cheyenne is losing all
its business as no one
wants to shop there! "
SENIOR CITIZEN wrote on Nov 13, 2008 8:08 PM:
blank wrote on Nov 13, 2008 5:18 PM:
to chip wrote on Nov 13, 2008 11:53 AM:
Chip wrote on Nov 13, 2008 6:06 AM:
Murdoch's has a great selection of westernwear, at better prices.
Stop whining, Cheyenne. "
to changing face wrote on Nov 12, 2008 3:27 PM:
mij wrote on Nov 12, 2008 5:02 AM:
WOW wrote on Nov 11, 2008 8:02 PM:
PK wrote on Nov 11, 2008 1:49 PM:
Change is the only thing that is constant. Cheyenne will survive. "
W wrote on Nov 11, 2008 12:36 PM:
SS Lives wrote on Nov 11, 2008 8:28 AM:
Ralphinphnx wrote on Nov 10, 2008 9:31 PM:
Cowboy Corral as well
so do you mr/ms Know
It All? And that I
bought my best Resistol Cowboy hats
and Hyer boots at
Merritts! I still like
good western clothes
and still wear levis
even yet today. "
to changing wrote on Nov 10, 2008 4:34 PM:
To Martha wrote on Nov 10, 2008 4:32 PM:
long gone wrote on Nov 10, 2008 12:14 PM:
Your ideas are to good and have a good chance of working BUT Cheyenne city goverment won't even consider such an idea, they will let the downtown area die first.
I remember when downtown Cheyenne, every store was full, 3 walk in movie theaters, bars, entertainment, places to eat. It was the place to go when in high school, late 60's to the 70's. "
Juice Box wrote on Nov 10, 2008 10:05 AM:
Martha wrote on Nov 9, 2008 3:02 PM:
to ChangingFaceof Wyo wrote on Nov 9, 2008 10:15 AM:
ChangingFaceofWyo wrote on Nov 8, 2008 7:20 PM:
Diana wrote on Nov 8, 2008 5:01 PM:
PK wrote on Nov 8, 2008 4:32 PM:
It is headquartered in Cheyenne Corral West began in 1951 in Red Lodge, Mont., under the name Red Lodge Trading Post. The stores eventually ranged from Alaska to Georgia and west to California.
So yeah, it's a shame Cheyenne is losing any stores, not just western wear.
Tell all your conservative friends that you are violating George W. Bush's prime directive: Go shopping to save 'Murica!
P.S. Looks like Obama in 08, whaddya think? "
long gone wrote on Nov 8, 2008 1:30 PM:
Someone could open a wind and tumbleweed store, cus thats about all thats left of downtown, opps, except the goverment, and thats so over employed with waste. "
still here wrote on Nov 8, 2008 11:24 AM:
Store wrote on Nov 8, 2008 10:04 AM:
Robin Buckles McIntosh "
HUH wrote on Nov 8, 2008 9:53 AM:
lou wrote on Nov 8, 2008 8:29 AM:
Ralphinphnx wrote on Nov 8, 2008 7:57 AM:
Great Western City of
Cheyenne Wyoming keep
on losing Western Wear
Stores,once you stop
and just recall how
Cheyenne has already
lost WRO,Merritts and
others in the last
few decades and what
a vital part of the
local economy those
western wear stores
are to Cheyenne. "
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barbie dali wrote on Dec 6, 2008 7:09 PM: