Plus-Sized Retailer Avenue to Close All 222 Stores

DALLAS, United States — Another plus-sized women's retailer will be closing its doors.

Avenue Stores LLC, owned by private-equity firm Versa Capital Management, has decided to shutter all 222 of its retail locations, Hilco Merchant Resources said in a statement announcing the closures. The company, which operates in 33 states, has hired Hilco and Gordon Brothers to oversee inventory sales.

Versa, Avenue, Gordon and Hilco didn’t reply to requests for comment. Calls to stores in New Jersey, New York and Florida directed Bloomberg to the corporate office in Rochelle Park, NJ, where calls weren’t answered.

Retail Dive and Dow Jones reported on the closures earlier.

The specialty plus-sized apparel industry has been under pressure as online rivals like Amazon.com Inc. and big-box retailers from Walmart Inc. to Target Corp. increasingly compete in the space. Plus-sized women’s retailer Fullbeauty Brands Inc. filed for Chapter 11 earlier this year before winning court approval for its plan to restructure the company in less than 24 hours.

By Olivia Rockeman; editors: Crayton Harrison, Anne Riley Moffat and Jonathan Roeder.