J.C. Penney has begun filing for bankruptcy protection, a report from CNN says.
The 118-year-old company was already facing challenges—even after having one of their best financial years back in 2010—and now with the rapid spread of COVID-19 causing businesses to close for an unspecified amount of time, the company does not look like it will be able to withstand the lack of business.
"Until this pandemic struck, we had made significant progress rebuilding our company under our Plan for Renewal strategy -- and our efforts had already begun to pay off," said CEO Jill Soltau. "Implementing this financial restructuring plan through a court-supervised process is the best path to ensure that J.C. Penney will build on its over 100-year history to serve our customers for decades to come."
Following this news, the company also decided to approve bonuses of one million dollars or more to its top four executives.
"At J.C. Penney, we are making tough, prudent decisions to protect the future of our company and navigate an uncertain environment, including taking necessary steps to retain our talented management team," the company said in a statement.
It appears that the plan is designed to try and keep the executives on-board as the company begins to embark on this tough journey, citing that executives who resign before Jan. 31, 2021 will be forced pay back 80 percent of their bonuses and that they will have to repay the other 20 percent if certain milestone-based performance goals are not met.
"Maintaining continuity of leadership is and will continue to be critical to the future of our company's long-term success," they said. "Our compensation program is in line with those of other companies in similar situations and is aligned with milestone-based performance goals to continue incentivizing our team to drive results."
J.C. Penney had around 90,000 employees as of Feb. 1 this year. Following this bankruptcy filing, this also puts many of the companies workers across the country in jeopardy as well.
