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True Value declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy and lines up sale to Do it Best
True Value, a national hardware retailer whose roots go back more than 70 years, said Monday that it has declared bankruptcy and will sell itself to a competitor.
The Chicago-based company filed for Chapter 11 protection from its debts in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. As part of the filing, most of the privately held retailer’s assets will be acquired by home improvement rival Do it Best. True Value, which was founded in 1948, said it will continue providing independently owned retailers with products.
“We believe that entering the process with an agreed offer from Do it Best, who has a similar decades-long history in the home improvement space and also operates with a focus on supporting members and helping them grow, is the most beneficial next step for True Value and our associates, customers and vendor partners,” True Value CEO Chris Kempa said in a statement.
Individual True Value stores, which are independently owned, are not part of the bankruptcy expect for one company-owned outlet in Palatine, Illinois.
True Value operates as a member-owned wholesaler cooperative that sell its products mostly to hardware sellers, garden centers, industrial distributors and other merchants, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Do it Best chief Dan Starr said buying True Value represents a strategic milestone for the Fort Wayne, Indiana-based company, which also operates as member-owned co-op.
“This acquisition, if consummated, would provide True Value and independent hardware stores the strongest opportunities for growth for years to come,” he added.
True Value said it has filed motions with the bankruptcy court to continue paying wages and benefits to its employees, as well as offer support programs for customers. The company aims to complete its sale to Do it Best by year-end.
True Value serves more than 4,500 stores worldwide with total retail sales of $10 billion, according to the company.
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The Pentagon freed two prisoners Wednesday from Guantánamo Bay, marking the second and third releases this week from the notorious wartime detention camp.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep were repatriated to Malaysia, where both are nationals, according to the United States Department of Defense. The men had been held by the U.S. since 2003 and imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay since 2006, for their ties to al Qaeda and an Indonesian extremist group called Jemaah Islamiyah.
The repatriation of Amin and Lep came as part of a plea deal and an agreement with the government of Malaysia, Defense officials said. Each pleaded guilty before a U.S. military commission to various war crimes, including murder, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, conspiracy and destruction of property. They also provided deposition testimony that can be used against a different prisoner, Encep Nurjaman, who is believed to be the “mastermind” responsible for al Qaeda attacks in Bali and Jakarta between 2002 and 2003.
Their conditions for release from Guantánamo Bay call for an additional five-year period of confinement for each prisoner, to be served either in the country where they are repatriated or a third-party sovereign nation.
Amin and Lep’s releases were announced one day after the Pentagon said another prisoner, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, was freed from incarceration at Guantánamo Bay and repatriated to Kenya. Detained by the U.S. for 18 years without criminal charges, Bajabu was the first prisoner freed from the camp in roughly a year. U.S. defense officials said a review board determined in December 2021 that detaining Bajabu “was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States.” The board recommended with that determination that Bajabu be transferred out of Guantánamo Bay.
“The United States appreciates the support to ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Defense Department said in statements on the releases of all three prisoners.
The latest repatriation efforts leave 27 prisoners still detained at Guantánamo Bay. Of them, 15 are eligible for transfer, three are eligible for evaluation by the review board, and seven are being tried through the military commissions process. Only the final two prisoners have been convicted and sentenced by military commissions, according to the Pentagon.