Polishing Off Florsheim

Florsheim Group Inc. (Chicago) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday and said it would sell its assets to Weyco Group Inc. in a deal worth about $47.3 million.

Under the plan, the men's shoe company will close most of its 210 stores and sell its remaining assets, including the Florsheim brand name, to Weyco, a Milwaukee-based shoe company whose brands include Stacy Adams, Brass Boot and Nunn Bush. Weyco plans to keep 23 stores open under the Florsheim name.

The agreement is subject to bankruptcy court approval and could be trumped by a higher bid. According to Florsheim's most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company owed $116.9 million to bondholders and bank lenders as of Sept. 29.

Florsheim said it reached an agreement, subject to court approval, with a group of existing lenders to provide debtor-in-possession financing. The funding will primarily be used to pay employees, suppliers, vendors and other business partners.

Weyco Group's chairman, Thomas W. Florsheim, is the grandson of Milton Florsheim, who founded the Florsheim Shoe Co. in Chicago in 1892. Thomas Florsheim Jr. is Weyco's president and ceo and John Florsheim is coo.

Thomas Florsheim Jr. said, “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Florsheim Group, and believe that the acquisition of the Florsheim brand complements our own, and strengthens our position as one of the leading manufacturers and marketers in men's footwear.We are also very excited about the prospect of developing the potential of the Florsheimbrand, which is an important part of our family's history.”

In 1952, Harold Florsheim sold the family's interest in the Florsheim Co. to InternationalShoe Corp. Thomas W. Florsheim Sr., left Florsheim in the early 1960s to join Weyenberg Shoe Manufacturing, which later changed its name to Weyco Group Inc.