Leslie’s files for Chapter 11, closes 76 stores

Leslie’s, Inc., the pool and spa supply retailer, and nine subsidiaries filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions on September 30, 2026 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, under a bankruptcy plan the company had already agreed with its lenders before filing. The day before, it closed approximately 76 US stores it had identified as under- or non-performing.

What the filing says

The company entered a restructuring support agreement with holders of about 81.1 percent of its outstanding term loan debt before it filed. Under the plan's term sheet, those lenders can elect, within ten business days of the filing, to fund a $90 million debtor-in-possession term loan that converts into new long-term debt once the plan takes effect, and to put in $60 million of new cash in exchange for 55.80 percent of the equity in the reorganized company. Separately, lenders under its existing asset-based credit line are providing a $225 million debtor-in-possession facility to fund operations during the case. All existing common stock is to be cancelled under the plan, with no payment to current shareholders; general unsecured creditors are to split a cash pool, pro rata.

The 76 store closures are disclosed under Item 2.05, Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities. The company says it cannot yet estimate in good faith the amount of the resulting charges, whether from impairment of long-lived assets, inventory write-offs or future cash expenditures, and expects to vacate the closed locations within two weeks of the filing.

The Nasdaq notice

Separately from the bankruptcy, Nasdaq told the company on September 25 that its stock is subject to delisting because it closed below the $1.00 minimum bid price for 30 consecutive business days, and that the company is not eligible for the usual compliance grace period because it already did a reverse stock split within the past year. Nasdaq will suspend trading at the open on October 6, 2026 and file to delist the stock with the SEC unless the company requests a hearing by October 2; the filing says Leslie's does not intend to appeal.

What the filing says about employees

The company says it filed customary first-day motions asking the bankruptcy court for authority to pay tax, insurance and critical vendor obligations in the ordinary course, and specifically "to continue to pay all wages and continue all employee benefits and other employee programs in the ordinary course of business" during the case. That request, if granted, is routine in a Chapter 11 case meant to keep a retailer's stores open and staffed while its balance sheet is restructured behind the scenes. It does not cover the roughly 76 already-closed stores, and the filing gives no employee count for those locations or any further ones.

What this is, and is not

A pre-arranged Chapter 11 filing like this one is a negotiated debt restructuring, not a liquidation: the company's own filings describe continuing stores, continuing operations and a plan to hand majority ownership to its term lenders in exchange for reducing debt and injecting new cash. It is also not a small matter for anyone who holds the stock or works in one of the closed locations: equity holders are slated to be wiped out under the plan, and employees at the 76 closed stores have lost their jobs regardless of what happens to the rest of the chain. The first 30 days after a layoff sets out what to do next if your store was one of them. How to read an 8-K Item 2.05 explains this kind of SEC filing in general, and the layoffs tracker records it beside the other restructurings the desk has read.