A prearranged chapter 11 filing on September 30 came with a list of 76 stores to shut and a sentence aimed at shoppers: “All gift cards and loyalty program benefits will continue to be honored.” Both are in the press release Leslie’s attached to its SEC filing. The gift-card line is the company’s own statement of intent. As of the filing, the bankruptcy court had not ruled on it.
What the release says about the 76 stores
Leslie’s, Inc. and nine subsidiaries, among them Leslie’s Poolmart, Inc. and Cortz, Inc., filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas under the caption In re Leslie’s, Inc., et al., according to the company’s Form 8-K. The release announces 76 stores for closure. The 8-K adds a date and a tense: on September 29, the company “closed approximately 76 U.S. stores identified as under- or non-performing.”
The release describes the chain as having “more than 850 physical locations.” It gives no total store count, only that floor, so the share of the network that 76 closures represents cannot be stated from these documents, and this article does not estimate one. The company said it remains fully operational across its physical stores and digital platforms while the case proceeds.
The gift-card promise and its limits
The sentence on gift cards and loyalty benefits is a corporate commitment made on the first day of the case. It is not a court order. The release lists court approval as still pending for the financing and for what it calls first-day motions, and the 8-K says that no court approval of the restructuring plan has been obtained. The release did not itself cite an order covering gift cards.
That distinction matters for anyone holding a card. The statement describes how the business intends to behave during the case. A court order would bind the company; a press-release sentence reflects its current plan. The sentence as quoted carries no end date and no store-by-store carve-out, so it reads as a blanket pledge covering every card and every loyalty member, including customers of the closed locations. Leslie’s chief executive, Jason McDonell, framed the filing in the release this way: “Today’s announcement marks an important milestone in our commitment to our customers and our business.”
How the restructuring is built
The 8-K carries a date of report of September 25, five days before the petition date, and describes the chapter 11 filing as the vehicle for a deal already negotiated with lenders rather than a case that opened with the terms unsettled. That sequence explains why the release could quote a timetable, a financing package and an emergence target on day one.
The filing rests on a restructuring support agreement with existing lenders. The 8-K puts the participating lenders at approximately 81.1% of prepetition term loan claims, and the release describes support of more than 80%. Under the agreement, consenting lenders may take part in a $90 million new-money debtor-in-possession term loan and a $60 million equity financing that the release describes as fully backstopped. The release says the plan eliminates about 90% of the company’s debt, roughly $685 million. It also references a $225 million asset-based facility from the existing ABL lenders.
The equity picture is stark. According to the 8-K, “All existing equity interests in the Company will be cancelled and no consideration shall be paid,” and lenders who do not take part in the new financing receive 10% of the new common equity on a pro rata basis at emergence. Shareholders are therefore wiped out under the plan as drafted.
The calendar for the case
The support agreement sets milestones, including confirmation of the plan no later than 100 days after the September 30 petition date. The same agreement lets the lenders end their support if the company misses a milestone, breaches material terms, or if the bankruptcy court denies confirmation of the plan. Counting 100 days from September 30 lands on January 8, 2027, a date that is this article’s own arithmetic rather than one printed in the filings. The company expects to emerge in early 2027, which places the confirmation milestone and the emergence target within weeks of each other. Between now and then, the court’s rulings on the first-day motions decide which of the company’s day-one requests are granted.
The release names Kroll as the claims agent and points to Kroll’s case page for Leslie’s as the place where court filings and notices to creditors will be posted. Gift-card holders who want to see whether any order addresses customer programs would look there as the first-day motions are decided.
Everything in this article about closures, the gift-card pledge, the financing and the timetable comes from Leslie’s own release and its Form 8-K, both dated around the September 30 petition. Whether the court confirms the plan, and whether it enters an order that locks in the customer commitments, remains to be seen in the filings that follow.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the SEC filings linked above. It is news reporting, not legal advice.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
