Variety Wholesalers, the Henderson-based discount store company owned by Art Pope, says it is buying 200 to 400 Big Lots stores in a move that may save thousands of retail jobs in hundreds of communities.
Variety agreed to a deal with Gordon Brothers Retail Partners that will involve transferring Big Lots’ brand and stores. It still requires bankruptcy court approval, with Pope saying he’s confident that will happen.
The proposed transaction would avoid the potential liquidation of all Big Lots locations. Variety has committed to adding at least 200 stores, which now employ about 5,000 people, and as many as 400 units, Pope says.
Those locations will be mostly in the Southeast, while Variety is also considering possible additions in Ohio and Pennsylvania, he says.
An agreement to sell Columbus, Ohio-based Big Lots to Los Angeles-based Nexus Capital Management fell through earlier this month. The company had more than 1,300 locations and about 27,000 workers when it sought bankruptcy court protection in September.
Nexus stepped away after an appraisal of the company’s inventory was lower than expected, Bloomberg News reported.
Variety has been following Big Lots since about 2015, and “sitting on the sidelines” until Nexus terminated its agreement, Pope says. It worked on the deal with Boston-based Gordon Brothers, which has units that lend to distressed companies and handle liquidations.
“We want to maintain the Big Lots name,” Pope says. “We will continue to run Rose’s and Big Lots will be a new division” if the transaction is approved. He said combining Big Lots’ tradition and Variety’s best practices should help reverse the struggling company’s fortunes.
The size and scope of the deal compare with Variety’s 1996 purchase of Henderson-based Rose’s stores as its biggest expansions. At the time, Variety’s main brands were Maxway and Super 10.
Variety now runs 422 stores in about 15 states, often occupying space in malls and retail centers vacated by national operators. Pope stepped down as CEO six years ago. The post is now held by Lisa Seigies, a veteran retail industry consultant and executive who joined Variety in 2018.
Big Lots CEO Bruce Thorn said in a release that the plan by Gordon Brothers and Variety Wholesalers was the best opportunity to “save jobs, maximize the value of its assets and continue the Big Lots brand.”
The Pope family started a retail business in eastern North Carolina in 1930. Art Pope’s father, John, led the business from 1949, when it had five stores, until his death in 2006.
Art Pope became chairman and CEO that year. He is a former state budget director, four-term state representative and a current member of the UNC System Board of Governors.
