Several Buy Buy Baby And Harmon Stores Could Reopen Under New Owners

ACROSS AMERICA — Several Buy Buy Baby and Harmon retail stores in the Northeast that were shuttered in the Bed Bath & Beyond bankruptcy will reopen as early as this fall, according to news reports.

Baby goods retailer Dream on Me, which acquired Buy Buy Baby’s intellectual property in June, plans to reopen 11 stores in the Northeast, Avish Dahiya, the company’s chief marketing officer, told CNBC. More could follow as Dream on Me works to restore the Bed, Bath & Beyond brand, she said.

Dahiya, who leads the Buy Buy Baby transition team, told CBNC that 100 to 120 stores could be open within one to three years.

“We definitely see merit in expanding to that number across the U.S.,” Dahiya said in the company’s first interview since its acquisition. “Similar to what we have done in the Northeast, it will be more cluster-based versus one-off.”

Private investor Jonah Raskas, the new owner of Bed, Bath & Beyond sibling Harmon, will reopen five stores in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

“This business never failed. This business was shut down because Bed Bath was failing,” Raskas told CNBC. “We have the luxury of deciding which stores to reopen … we have that ability to focus on the right places at the right time where the customers really want us back again.”

Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director of GlobalData, told CNBC the new owners of Buy Buy Baby and Harmon stand a good chance of succeeding.

“People have picked over the carcass of Bed Bath & Beyond and they’ve managed to get some quite good bargains in terms of the value that they’ve paid for the intellectual property and the business,” he said.

» For more details, go to CNBC