April 18, 2018

The Bon-Ton Stores Inc., including Younkers in Sioux Falls, will be going out of business, the company has confirmed.

The winning bid in a two-day auction this week came from a joint venture of lienholders and liquidators who will acquire the inventory and other company assets.

An investor group had been working to acquire the company, which filed for bankruptcy in February, and keep well-performing stores open.

“While we are disappointed by this outcome and tried very hard to identify bidders interested in operating the business as a going concern, we are committed to working constructively with the winning bidder to ensure an orderly wind down of operations that minimizes the impact of this development on our associates, customers, vendors and the communities we serve,” Bon-Ton president and CEO Bill Tracy said

“We are incredibly grateful to all of our associates for their dedicated service to Bon-Ton and to our millions of loyal customers who we have had the pleasure to serve as their hometown store for more than 160 years.”

The company’s stores, e-commerce and mobile platforms under the Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s and Younkers nameplates will remain open throughout a court-supervised process and closing sales.

Bon-Ton expects to provide more details about the liquidation plans and going-out-of-business sales at its stores following approval of the winning bid by the bankruptcy court, the company said. A hearing is scheduled for today.

Earlier this month, Bon-Ton filed a notice with South Dakota that it planned to lay off 158 workers at Younkers in The Empire Mall starting June 5 if it could not find a buyer. In South Dakota, the company also owns Herberger’s stores in Aberdeen, Rapid City and Watertown.

Bon-Ton has been in business since the mid-1800s and has not been profitable since 2010. Younkers was an original tenant at The Empire Mall in the 1970s.