Grocery Courier Boxed Files for Bankruptcy, More Than a Year After SPAC Deal

Dow Jones2023-04-03
 

By Dave Sebastian

 

Grocery courier Boxed Inc. said it has filed for bankruptcy and will wind down its retail e-commerce operations in the next few weeks, more than a year after it combined with a blank-check company to go public.

The New York-based company, which sells bulk pantry items to businesses and households, on Sunday also said it would sell its Spresso software business to senior secured lenders. The company filed for Chapter 11 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, citing a "challenging business environment."

"This was an incredibly difficult decision, and one that we reached only after carefully evaluating and exhausting all available options," Chieh Huang, the company's co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.

Boxed said it plans to fund its near-term operations and administrative expenses through access to its cash collateral as it winds down and carves out its Spresso business into a separate legal entity. The company said it doesn't expect Spresso customers to see service disruptions during the sale process.

The company warned of a possible bankruptcy last month as it explored a sale of the business.

Founded in 2013, Boxed took orders through its website and app and delivered items to customers' doorsteps within an average of one to three days, it said. In November 2022, the company posted a net loss of $26.4 million for the third quarter, wider than the $5.9 million loss it had in the same period the year before.

Boxed is the latest company to file for bankruptcy after previously merging with a special-purpose acquisition company. The company closed its combination with Seven Oaks Acquisition Corp. in December 2021, near the tail end of the popularity of blank-check deals and before Russia's invasion of Ukraine roiled markets a couple months later.

The company's shares closed 15% lower at 19 cents Friday.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (US) LLP and Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP are serving as Boxed's legal advisers, and FTI Consulting is the financial adviser. Solomon Partners Securities LLC is the firm's investment banker.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com

 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2023 23:09 ET (03:09 GMT)

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