Bankrupt fabric retailer Joann Stores has announced they will close their West Coast distribution center in Visalia in late March and 209 people who work at the plant will be laid off permanently. The word comes from a state WARN notice that requires a 60 day notice for workers published January 29.
Closure of the big distribution center is expected to be followed by the closure of most or all of the retail stores it supplies including the retail outlet on S. Mooney Blvd although no notice has been filed for retail outlets, as of yet.
One of the long time anchors of the Visalia Industrial Park, JOANN Stores has declared bankruptcy in March and now a second time in January 2025 that dims the future of both the entire 880 store chain and the local Visalia retail store, and now the seals the fate of its landmark distribution center on Plaza Drive – a fixture here since 2001.
The 635,000 square-foot facility employs around 200 year-round and more during the holiday season. The company says the Visalia distribution center handles all the stores west of the Mississippi, about a third of the Ohio company stores nationwide. The company leases the building in Visalia from a Texas real estate investment trust.
As of March 2020, Joann has 865 stores in 49 states. Joann was privately owned by Leonard Green & Partners before going public in 2021. It is privately held now.
The company is currently in bankruptcy for the second time in a year, filing on January 15, 2025.
In 1943, German immigrants Hilda and Berthold Reich, Sigmund and Mathilda Rohrbach, and Justin and Alma Zimmerman opened the Cleveland Fabric Shop in Cleveland, Ohio. After further expansion, in 1963, the name was changed to Jo-Ann Fabrics. The store’s name was created by combining the names of the daughters from both families: Joan and Jacqueline Ann, says Wikipedia.
JOANN is an 81-year-old fabric and craft retailer that has suffered in the past few years as customers cut back on discretionary spending. The company says it is the nation’s category leader in sewing and fabrics with one of the largest arts and crafts offerings,They announced that is continuing their voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Court”) to facilitate a sale process to maximize the value of its business.
Through the bankruptcy proceedings there’s always a possibility that a buyer will emerge for the chain, but the filing of this notice by the company is not good news for JoAnn or for Visalia. Many of the workers at this Plaza Drive plant have worked there for decades.