Furnishings 2000 Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Furnishings 2000, the financially ailing operator of 37 furniture stores in California, on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York City. The filing occurred just days after Furnishings 2000 executives met with the company’s creditors in New York.

Andrew Brozman, an attorney representing GF Holdings, the New York-based company that owns 67% of Furnishing 2000’s shares, declined to comment on whether Furnishing 2000’s stores would remain open. Company officials were not available for interviews Monday, and a management firm in Illinois that has been hired to operate Furnishings 2000 did not return repeated telephone calls Monday.

Furnishings 2000 recently reported a $7.1-million net loss for the six-month period ended July 28. It reported an $8.9-million net loss during the like quarter a year ago. The troubled company has reported only a handful of profitable quarters since its initial public offering in 1983.

A GF Holdings spokesman last week linked the company’s woes to inventory problems that were inherited when GF Holdings acquired its shares of Furnishings 2000 in late 1989.

In addition to severe financial problems, Furnishings 2000 has also suffered from a string of name and product changes that clouded the public’s perception of what the stores had to offer. In recent years, its stores were known as Furnishings 2000, Cousins Home Furnishings and Family Furniture. The company has at times offered refrigerators and other appliances for sale, along with electronic goods such as stereos. But at other times, it has billed itself solely as a furniture store.

During the past year, GF Holdings moved Furnishings 2000’s corporate offices to Mira Loma from San Diego. The stock, which trades over-the-counter, has been mired at about $.0625 in recent weeks.

GF Holdings, a privately held company, also owns Atlanta-based Leath Furniture, a profitable 40-store chain in the Midwest and Florida.