Failed supermarket chain Nagasakiya Co. will close around 30 of its 84 outlets as part of a rehabilitation program, according to company sources.
To be closed at the end of January are mostly loss-making small and medium-size stores that are unlikely to climb into the black, the sources said Monday.
Nagasakiya will call for hundreds of voluntary retirements from the stores.
The Tokyo-based company has already applied to the government-funded Development Bank of Japan for loans to cover restructuring costs, including the refunding of security deposits put up by tenants of the stores to be closed.
Nagasakiya filed with the Tokyo District Court for protection from creditors under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law in February 2000 and was given the nod for launching court-mandated rehabilitation procedures in May the same year.
Although Nagasakiya is required to submit a rehabilitation plan by Nov. 19, the company said it will ask the court to postpone the deadline to February as it is taking longer than expected to determine the amount of debt.
The company is trying to reconstruct operations with financial support from its main bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, and U.S. investment fund Cerberus Group. Japanese investment company Advantage Partners is expected to join DKB and Cerberus in supporting Nagasakiya.