SupeRx pares down to shore up

Drug Store News, June 18, 1990

SupeRx pares down to shore up

PHOENIX -- Moving quickly to shore up its financial foundations after filing for Chapter 11 protection, SupeRx Corp. has closed seven stores in Arizona and another five in Missouri and Illinois.

The store closings were predicted by SupeRx officers shortly after the bankruptcy filing May 11. Senior vp-administration Jim Jumpeter noted last month that SupeRx would "look at the stores that are not contributing to the bottom line" and "close them quickly to stop the bleeding, as it were."

Six of the seven Arizona drug stores closed over the past few weeks were in the Phoenix market area. In the East, the chain has shuttered two Medicare-Glaser stores in Springfield, Mo., one in Jefferson City, Mo., another in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo., and a single store in Mt. Vernon, Ill. The chain also shuttered a closeout merchandise outlet called Megs.

Jumpeter indicated June 6 that it was uncertain whether any other stores would be sold or closed, saying, "It will all be part of our reorganization plan."

SupeRx chairman and ceo Gerald Wolken has said reorganization plans call for a "moderate downsizing" rather than "a wholesale reduction in our scope of operations."

The chain filed for Chapter 11 protection after the well-publicized collapse of its chief lender, Lincoln Savings & Loan. The failure of Lincoln kicked off a "domino effect" among SupeRx's other lenders, at a time when the company was strapped for cash and burdened by higher interest payments following its debt-laden acquisition of Medicare-Glaser in 1989.