Party City bankruptcy and closing store near me

Hello friends!

Today we will talk about a company which taught not only us but the whole world how to party?

How to celebrate which festival?

What clothes to wear in a party?

How much our lifestyle can change with a party?

You must have already known the name of the company which tried to teach us all these things by looking at its thumbnail that for whom our article is going to be?

Along with this we will also try to know those things by which we are seeing the downfall of party city and the stores of party city are getting closed?

These questions are constantly coming to my and your mind whether Party City is closing down or has it already closed or by when will all the stores of Party City be closed and what will be the exact date of closure?

Will all the Party City stores be closed or only a few and what will be the names and locations of the stores that will be closed?

Will Party City be able to be reviewed in the coming time and what effect will the closure of Party City have on layoffs?

Will the Party City store near your house remain open in the coming time and what products has Party City released in the form of New Year and closing sale?

Is the business of Party City company of more than 700+ stores over?

And what has CEO Berry Litwin done for this?

And many other news of the party city which have come before me, I am going to put them all in front of you one by one.

Any big company is not established in a day, planning is carried out well in advance to reach its founding day and this is what I want to say about our favorite company Party City whose planning had started in the beginning of 1980. But the legal beginning of Party City was in 1986 in East Hanover, New Jersey whose primary focus was on selling party related items. The first store of the company was opened in a land size of 4000 sqft.

It was started by Steve Mandell who in the very next year of starting this company i.e. in 1987 he also started a custom warehouse for one of our most favourite festivals, Halloween, after which we started getting customers for Halloween from Party City stores.

When the company saw that they are getting good sales at their stores and customers are also liking to buy their products again and again, to grow their business better, the company also launched their franchise model, whose first store was opened in Hazlet New Jersey in 1989, which had good sales. 

By the end of 1990, the company had 11 stores including its own and franchise stores.

And in 1993, this figure increased to 58 stores, out of which 5 were opened in 1991, 16 in 1992 and 26 in 1993, whose total revenue crossed 2.4 million USD.

After this, a twist in the company's strategy is seen when in 1994, the company opens its first own store, with which it is understood that the company now intends to open its own stores along with the franchise model.

The company, in its strategy, The sky was rising and in the meantime a news came that in the year 1999 the founder, chairman and CEO of the company Steve Mandell resigned looking at the growth challenges of the company which was a shocking decision for everyone because just three years ago the company had become a public registered company in the year 1996.

As a public company, Party City was listed on NASDAQ and the ticket symbol was PCTY. P for party, CTY for city.

After listing on NASDAQ, questions were raised on the performance of the company due to which the company was delisted from NASDAQ but despite all this the company maintained trading on the exchange and focused on its marketing. 

Even after doing so much, it was understood that the company was getting away from its roots but it was not so because in 2005 aah holdings corporation which is a leading designer manufacturer and distributor of party goods acquires Party City and in this step the strategy of Party City surprises everyone again. 

From here the game starts due to which today we all know Party City. Amscan which is Holding of AAH starts buying companies related to party goods one after the other and merges them with the network of party city, due to which party city becomes the largest retailer of USA in 2007.

Party America and Factory Card & Party Outlet were the big names among the companies bought by Amscan.

After this, in 2011, party city also enters the international market and first of all acquires Canadian retailer Party Packagers and along with this, it also signs product related licensing with big brands like Nickelodeon and Hasbro.

After which it becomes the largest party goods retailer in North America.

It also acquires iparty in 2013. By doing this the company continues to expand its presence strategically and all this happens from 2007 to 2014

Now when a company is doing such a good business and trust building for itself and its customers, it understands that now it should hand itself over to the public again, meaning this was the time of Party City IPO. 

IPO means initial public offerings in which the company becomes a public company from a private ltd and the public like us have the right on the maximum shares of the company which we get by buying shares. 

Party City IPO takes place in 2015 with Thomas H. Lee Partners and Advent International in which they launch their IPO by keeping 55% and 19% stake i.e. share with themselves. This IPO is launched on New York Stock Exchange NYSE with PRTY, which has a trading ticket symbol. The IPO price was 17USD per share, which opened at 17.50USD and closed at 17.25USD. The high price of this stock was 22.32USD and the low was 24.50USD.

During this time the growth of the company was happening so fast that in 2018 the company made a new announcement in which it was said that 50 new toy city pop-up stores would be opened, for which capital was being arranged by closing the toys'r' stores in America. Along with this, a decline is also seen in the share price in which the share price goes up to 10$.

After these decisions were taken, the public started to get the message that something is going on in the company management due to which the company is closing some businesses and opening new ones but this is a normal thing in a business which does not affect the customers of the company much.

Berry Litwin joins Party City in 2019 as CEO and President and to improve the company's condition, he activates the company for online shopping in ecommerce and also tries to improve the customer experience. 

Also, the functionality of buy online pickup in store is also added to the website and mobile app. The manufacturing of latex and foiled balloons is further improved so that the company can get a competitive advantage.

With the advent of COVID-19, the company had to stop many activities, due to which the company's problems started increasing again and this was contrary to Litwin's strategy, which had a very bad effect on the company's core business model.

Litwin showed understanding here and tried to make the company pandemic product centric so that the company does not have to bear further losses on account of COVID19.

Due to reasons like 1 billion USD debt, inflation, entries of new players, decrease in sales, COVID 19 etc., the financial challenges of the company were constantly increasing.

Seeing the deteriorating conditions of the company, the management considers taking decisions ranging from suspending cost to closing the low performing party stores and also takes steps like layoff so that the company can be recovered.

The company closes its 45 stores so that it can maintain its value in the market and also talks about selling its Canadian business to Canadian Tire for 174.4 cad million.

It was clear from here that the company is going into a rapid downfall and there was no way in sight to save the company's status and business.

And with this comes the time when everyone can believe that Party City is going to become a bankrupt company because in January 2023 it files for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, in which it is told that the company has a debt of 1.8 billion.

The intention of the company to file for bankruptcy was that the company was trying to restructure itself financially while also wanting to continue its operations, which created a new kind of challenge in which the management and operations of the company were put under question.

By September, 60 stores of the company are closed and the debt falls from 1.8 billion to 1 billion.

In March 2023, Ceobarry Litwin steps down from his position and Jennifer Fleiss is appointed in his place due to her strong retail business experiences. 

Fleiss also focused on restructuring and new futuristic opportunities to bring growth to the company but this also could not last long. During this period the share price also decreased to 0.10 USD.

Now comes the year 2024 in which we and your company can see closure. Despite various unsuccessful years of its growth, the company continues to struggle with financial crisis and in December 2024, CEO Barry Litwin again files Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announces to his employees that the wind-down process is being stopped immediately because there is no increase in sales. 

At the same time, the company plans to file its second bankruptcy report in which it is announced that in the coming year 2025, all the stores of Party City will be closed one after the other. 

After filing this bankruptcy, the stock gets delisted from NYSE and starts trading over-the-counter (OTC) with ticket symbol PRTYQ. By the end of the year the share price falls to 0.004usd.

During its bankruptcy, the company works with H.I.G capital in which H.I.G capital buys Party City's assets worth 100 million usd. These assets include the company's brand, intellectual property, and some remaining stores.

H.I.G capital's plan was to manage Party City's underperforming stores, debts, and manage the company's retail business online and through third party channels etc.

The news of closure of stores also creates panic among thousands of employees of the company and news of their layoff also comes to the fore. 

Many employees also say that no notice was given for this in advance, due to which this news becomes shocking for them. The employees of the party city expressed their layoff emotions on issues such as shock and disbelief, lack of prior notice, emotional impact. 

Due to this unemployment, the entire party goods industry has been adversely affected, in which all the stakeholders from supplier to customer have been badly affected. 

If we talk about the biggest employee of the company i.e. the CEO, then a decrease is seen in his salary too, in which the base salary is 1 million and with bonus etc. the salary amounts to approx 2.5 million.

All this happens due to continuously changing consumer behaviour, declining sales, increased competition, mismanagement of finances, continuously increasing debts, problems in the supply chain, increase in cost of goods with inflation, outdated business model and lack of focus on innovation etc.

Such are the reasons which can close even the biggest business and something similar happened with party city.

Party City also ignored these things with changing times due to which the losses of Party City kept on increasing.

Party City started its closing sales on January 25 after the news of its closure which includes party supplies such as balloons, decorations, tableware, themed party kits

costumes such as costumes for different occasions like Halloween or other events.

The company is also trying to sell as many party accessories as possible in its closing sales, such as decorations and party items for seasonal events or party favors, hats, stickers, noisemakers, and gift bags.

In the first phase of closing sales, the discount range can be from 20 to 40% off and with time it can be seen up to 80% in some stores.

As we already know, the CEO of Party City has ordered the closure of all Party City stores by February 2025 or early March 25, the number of which is approximately 748 in North America.

Some stores in Paramus New Jersey or Chicago area can be seen open till the last.

The number of stores till October 2024 can be seen like this - 88 stores in California, 82 stores in Texas, 63 stores in Florida, 49 stores in New York, 39 stores in Illinois, 27 stores in Georgia, 26 stores in New Jersey, 26 stores in Pennsylvania, 24 stores in Ohio, 21 stores in Michigan.

Apart from these, there are some places where there are no party city stores - Idaho, South Dakota, Utah, District of Columbia, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Montana, U.S. Virgin Island, Northern Mariana Islands.

So from all these things we can understand that how a wrong decision in life or business ruins all our future plans.

It is expected that you will have learnt something for your business from the story of party city.

Thanks a lot for reading this and see you in the next article.