The Container Store Group Inc. (TCS) is officially bankrupt.
The storage and organization retailer filed its Chapter 11 petition on Sunday in a Texas bankruptcy court in Houston. The good news is that the process will be a quick in-and-out bankruptcy tour lasting just over one month. The retailer filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11, meaning that is has an agreement in place with the support of lenders. All 104 stores will stay open, and at this point there is no indication of any closures ahead.
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If bad news comes in threes, then TCS is the final leg of a trio of retail misery within the past week. First it was bankrupt Big Lots that said it was shutting down and closing 870 stores, after its $760 million acquisition deal with Nexus Capital Management fell through. Then on Saturday Party City, which survived one tour of bankruptcy last year, said it has started a wind-down process that would see all 700 store locations go dark by the end of February.
The TCS petition listed total assets as of Sept. 28 of $969,204,000 and $836,372,000 in liabilities. Four other affiliates also filed. According to court filings, the company’s Elfa subsidiaries in Europe—TCS acquired the Swedish vendor in 1999—are not part of the bankruptcy and continue to operate outside of the Chapter 11 cases. The retailer also had $243 million in secured debt at the time of the Chapter 11 filing, of which $80 million is due in November 2025 and just over $163.1 million due in January 2026.
The largest unsecured creditor is IRIS USA Inc., holding trade debt of nearly $3 million, followed by Interdesign Inc. at nearly $1.9 million and Oxo International Ltd. at $1.8 million.
Also on the list of unsecured creditors are import export firms, such as Ningbo Vacane Import & Export Co. Ltd in Ningbo, China, holding trade debt of $520,846, shippers and logistics firms that include Evergreen Shipping Agency (America) Corp. at $394,583, FedEx at $343,855, RXG Freight Forwarding at $277,244, Transcon Shipping Co. Inc. at $271,810 and Echo Global Logistics Inc. at $221,313 to round out the top 15 on the list.
TCS chief restructuring officer Chad E. Coben, who is also a senior managing director in the corporate finance and restructuring group at FTI Consulting Inc., said in a court filing that upon court approval of the company’s restructuring plan, the indications are that all trade vendors and similar claims “will be paid or otherwise satisfied.” He also said TCS will continue to operate, which would save the jobs of more than 3,800 employees, of which 2,900 work at the store locations.