Goodwill of Southern Nevada has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the organization announced Friday.
“In Fall of 2016, our stores began to experience a decline in sales corresponding with the nation-wide retail downturn,” the nonprofit said in a release. “The recent expansion, the retail downturn, and increased operating costs to run our retail stores all have led us to make the difficult decision to file for Chapter 11 reorganization.”
Retail stores and donation centers will continue to run business as usual, as will the Career Connection Centers where local unemployed individuals can seek free job training and placement services.
“We have a great team of hard-working, passionate employees and volunteers here at Goodwill,” they said in a release. “With this team, we are confident we will become a more efficient Goodwill focused on our mission to serve the needs of the unemployed in our community and fight poverty with jobs.”
In 2016 alone, Goodwill of Southern Nevada served the job training needs of 14,465 people and directly placed 3,004 into local jobs. Also helping the environment, there were 873,624 generous donors of goods who helped Goodwill divert over 26 million pounds from local landfills.
Goodwill of Southern Nevada made changes atop their leadership this spring, hiring chief financial officer Beattie Dustin in March and interim chief executive operator John Helderman in May.
Despite the positive results from the changes, the company said “reorganization is required to address our obligations and implement a long-term business plan that will make our organization viable long-term.”
“Higher operating costs, increased debt, and the slumping retail industry have led us to the tough choice to file Chapter 11,” Helderman said. “With the support of Goodwill’s Board of Directors, we are moving forward with plans to voluntarily file for reorganization and implement a plan to strengthen our financial situation, streamline our operation, improve our retail business, and grow our mission.”
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