The retail landscape in America is witnessing the return of Bed Bath & Beyond locations, albeit not in the form of conventional store openings.
Rather, the parent firm Beyond Inc. is preparing financial alliances with two current retail chains, one of which it anticipates will start transitioning some of its locations to Bed Bath & Beyond in the early months of 2019. Furthermore, negotiations are underway between the corporation and another party to introduce the Overstock.com banner into actual retail locations.
“We will be revealing over the next few weeks three distinct transactions that position us as partners rather than owners of any business,” said Marcus Lemonis, chairman of Beyond Inc., to investors this afternoon at the Piper Sandler Growth Frontiers Conference.
Three major initiatives are currently in progress:
Format of neighborhood store. Terms have been reached between Beyond Inc. and a business that runs hundreds of 5,000–7,000 square foot outlets. In addition to being a senior secured shareholder in the business, it will supply senior secured loans. The Bed Bath & Beyond brand will be licensed to the business by Beyond Inc. By February or March of the following year, the first store conversions ought to be completed.
Bigger format for the store. Beyond Inc. intends to establish a comparable financial alliance with an established retail company. He just said that the 30,000 square foot model employed for the now-defunct legacy Bed Bath & Beyond retail chain was “insane,” without going into further detail.
Overstock retailers. A liquidator who runs what Lemonis referred to as “off-price and reverse logistics stores” is negotiating with the corporation. In addition to providing it with a $50 million secured loan, Beyond Inc. will grant it access to the Overstock.com liquidator’s inventory. Furthermore, he stated that the partnership company will transition stores to the Overstock brand.
Lemonis went on, “We have no inventory liability, labor liability, or lease liability.” “We have a joint venture fee to charge.”
He made it clear that these partnerships are neither multichannel plays or franchise concepts.
He said, “We are keeping our balance sheet neat and tidy by leveraging other people’s balance sheets.” Thus, we may maximize value while lowering risk.
