New Owner for Bob's, EMS

SIMSBURY, CT — A British firm, Sports Direct International plc, has agreed to acquire the remaining Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob’s Stores.

Sports Direct made the announcement on Friday. The $101 million deal is expected to close next month, according to the announcement.

The current parent company for the stores, Meriden-based Eastern Outfitters LLC, had filed for federal bankruptcy protection in Delaware earlier this month and announced plans to close half its stores. As of Jan. 27, the businesses had posted operating losses totaling $26 million and carried assets of $126 million, Sports Direct said.

According to a company profile, Sports Direct was founded in 1982 and is the U.K.’s largest sporting goods retailer.

The company will acquire about 50 Bob's and EMS stores, according to the announcement. Eastern Outfitters had announced plans to close 48 of its 86 stores, according to bankruptcy records.

Locally, as of Tuesday, it appears the Manchester Bob's will be closing, but the Enfield, Newington and Simsbury stores will he spared from the corporate carnage, according to an area store employee.

The EMS store in Avon appears to be remaining open but the Manchester store is closing, according to the company's website.

More than 1,400 of the chain’s 2,600 employees would be laid off, according to bankruptcy records, and liquidation sales at the doomed stores would begin as soon as the court grants its approval and continue for about 10 weeks, the company says.

Bob's roots can be traced back to Bob Lapidus, who started the chain in 1954 as Bob’s Surplus with a single no-frills store in the center of Middletown, according a company profile. The first expansion was in Enfield in 1975. EMS was founded in Massachusetts in 1967.

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