“Bed Bath & Beyond is in a world full of mischief because they burned an enormous amount of available money, their business had no future momentum, and now as we all know, they have an enormous leadership gap that they have to fill,” said Mark Cohen, professor of retail studies at Columbia University and CEO. The former of longtime Sears Canada, on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they’re rocking a restructuring sometime at the beginning of 2023.”
Bed Bath & Beyond spokesperson Eric Mangan did not respond to a Yahoo Finance request for comment on Cohen’s comments.
Bed Bath & Beyond is the story of a true retail disaster ahead of the holiday shopping season.
In late June, Bed Bath & Beyond reported a quarterly loss of $224 million to its adjusted operating profit. The company ended the quarter with just $107 million in cash.
The retailer also said it saw same-store sales collapse 27% at its namesake brand in the last quarter as shoppers backed away from discretionary purchases. Shoppers also continued to avoid the retailer’s misguided move to cut back on their popular coupons.
Besides the disastrous results, the company fired its esteemed CEO, Mark Triton, who joined Bed Bath & Beyond in 2019 after a successful stint as Target’s lead dealer. Board member and retail veteran Sue Gove now leads the company on a temporary basis.
The story is so bad that Wall Street is wondering if the company will survive.
“We’re looking at a situation where this company might not exist,” Lobe Capital analyst Anthony Chucumba said on Yahoo Finance Live. “It won’t take years. We could be talking about months at this point. We’re in the final days. These results were a garbage fire, there’s no other way to put it.”
Others on Wall Street share Cohen and Chucumba’s concerns.
“BBBY’s liquidity is draining liquidity,” Bank of America analyst Jason Haas said in a note.
Bed Bath & Beyond shares have crashed 66% year-to-date compared to a 16% decline for the S&P 500.
Brian Suzy It is a comprehensive editor and Announcer at Yahoo Finance. Follow Suzy on Twitter Tweet embed and on LinkedIn.
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