HOBO files for bankrupcty, announces liquidation sale

HOBO stores filed for bankruptcy Thursday and said it would “wind down” its operations.

The discount home improvement retailer has a store in Crest Hill that employs 41 workers.

Home Owners Bargain Outlet, which uses the HOBO name as its brand, last week filed notices with state workforce office in Illinois and Wisconsin that it would close its seven stores by Dec. 31 if it could not find a buyer.

In a statement, the company said it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Thursday afternoon “to wind down its operations in an orderly manner while liquidating its assets to maximize return to its creditors.”

Bankruptcy attorney Jonathan Friedland said the company has contracted with a liquidation firm to help HOBO conduct storewide sales.

Friedland said in the statement that HOBO has been hurt by some of the same factors affecting other retailers.

“But other factors also contributed, including intense competition from new and rapidly expanding competitors and a slowing of discretionary spending, including do-it-yourself projects,” Friedland said.

HOBO sales in 2017 totaled nearly $80 million, the statement said. The company employs more than 200 people.

The company is headquartered in Waukegan.

It was founded in 1996 when the current owners bought assets out of a bankruptcy of Handy Andy, a regional home improvement retailer that had occupied the same location as the Crest Hill store.