Mandee and Annie Sez Restructuring

Big M Inc., the firm that houses the Mandee Shops, Annie Sez and Afaze, is planning a huge restructing to exit bankruptcy proceedings WWD reported.

"We are reorganizing the company and getting additional financial strength [to go] forward as an ongoing operation," said Alan Mandelbaum, chairman of Big M in a telephone interview.

The N.J.-based firm filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition for bankruptcy court protection in a Newark bankruptcy court Sunday night. Mandelbaum said that the filing was due to some bumps they encountered during a costly addition of a merchandising information system.

"The implementation did not go well, and there was a backup of inventory that were [neither] processed into the system nor [sent] to the stores. That set us back," the chairman said.

After the implementation issues were resolved, Big M was then hurt by the impact of Hurricane Sandy, which resulted in the temporary shutdown of some stores. Three stores were completely distroyed: one in Brighton Beach, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and two on Long Island, in Oceanside and Merrick. Mandelbaum plans to rebuild all three.