Party City closes 45 stores in light of global helium deficiency
On Thursday, Party City announced that it will close 45 stores across the country this year in light of a global helium deficiency.
The company currently owns 870 locations. The closures will take place throughout the year, according to a press release.
"Every year, Party City closes 10-15 stores as part of our cautious network optimization process, and as a result of ongoing consumer, market and financial changes that naturally occur in the business," says CEO James Harrison. After careful consideration and assessment of the merchant fleet, it decided to close more stores than usual to help optimize market level performance, focus on the most profitable locations and improve the overall health of our store portfolio. "
A list of end shops has not yet been released.
The latest helium deficiency has negatively affected the company's latex and metallic balloon categories. Harrison said the company has entered into a new helium source that will provide additional amounts of helium starting this summer and extends over two and a half years.
"We believe that this new source should greatly eliminate the deficiency we experience current allocation rates and improve our ability to return to a normal level of latex and metal balloon sales," says Harrison .
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