Paul Harris Forced to Liquidate

Paul Harris Stores (Indianapolis) announced that it has been unable to obtain the financing or vendor support needed to implement the plan of reorganization that it filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court on Feb. 13, 2001. The reorganization plan would have permitted the retailer to continue operating its 166 stores if its suppliers, landlords and principal lender agreed on terms for the shipment and payment for additional inventory for the stores. However, said the retailer, the efforts to obtain such cooperationhave not been successful. And so the 52-year-old retailer is in the process of developing a plan of liquidation, featuring store closing sales and sales of other assets.

“This unfortunate action marks the end of an era,” said president and ceo Glenn Lyon. “Over the past 12 months, the management team has diligently worked to improve all areas of our operations to better serve the wardrobe needs of our customer base. The customers'reactions to the changes were extremely positive, based upon the rate of sales of the new product since November. However, we were unable to obtain the bridge financing and vendor cooperation necessary to sustain the company through the confirmation of the reorganization plan.”