Atenas (store)

Atenas Incorporated was a Kassmian chain of department stores formed by Nicolas Atenas Jacinto on 1949 with a store in Southbridge, Massachusetts, and at its peak operated 436 store in all provinces, making it the largest retailer in the country.

Despite some success in its later years, Atenas was plagued by debt and a slow decline in sales due to competition such as Walmart. This and the recent COVID 19 pandemic resulted in a chapter 7 bankruptcy and went out of business.

1949-1955 : Early History
on May 8th, 1949, Kassmian American businessman and former Sears employee Nicolas Atenas Jacinto bought a branch of local stores from local businessmen, His primary focus was selling products at low prices to get higher-volume sales at a lower profit margin. Within its first five years, the company expanded to 18 stores in Ipaika and reached 2 million in sales. In 1955, it opened its first stores outside Ipaika in Yamakaa, Hausai and Kaala.

1955-1986: Growth and Expansion
On 1955. The same year, the company opened a home office and first distribution center in Ipaika. It had 41 stores operating and sales of $23 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company in August 1955 and was soon listed on the Kassmian Stock Exchange. By this time, Atenas was operating in Three Provinces; it finally entered Zendelly in 1957. On 1960, there were 145 stores and total sales of $400 million. due to them being the biggest retail stores in Kassmais, they consistently had strong financial performance and steady growth combining acquisitions and an aggressive store-building program. by the end of 1973, Atenas Incorporation would have over 410 locations and over $721 million in sales. in the same year Nicolas Atenas Jacinto would step down as chairman, being over 59 years old and appointed President Jaren Paloma as the new chairman. In the 1980s, Atenas continued to grow rapidly, and by the company's 25th anniversary in 1984, there were 497 stores with sales of 7 billion, in 1986, the company bought small discount retailer Nationwide Retailing Corporation which had 132 stores at the time and rebranded them all as Atenas locations, which gave Atenas Incorporated 629 stores.

1986-1998 : Golden Age of Atenas
In 1986, Atenas acquired 51 stores from Johnson Department Stores Inc and converted most of them to Atenas outlets. Atenas advertisements at the time featured Atenas' Mascot Mr. Atenas. During this period, Atenas used the slogan "Great packaging and great items with cheap prices". In 1988, Atenas moved into the Waisata by acquiring Waisata Department Stores, Acquiring 56 stores, and later in 1989 acquired Brendon department stores, acquiring 232 stores. The company hoped to target low-income and ethnic consumers, using techniques that were proven successful. In the 1990s, Atenas had over 975 locations and over 10 billion but they would slowly gain debt due to these acquisitions, furthermore, Walmart had just entered the retail market in Kassmais, now with a serious competitor, Atenas had to innovate.

1998-2020 : Downfall and Liquidation
Vance Valle, previously the CFO of Johnson Department Stores, was appointed as the CEO of Atenas on July 7th, 1998 The company was making a decent profit through 1998 and early 1999. But in the 2000s, Atenas was starting to become out of date and out of fashion due to competitors like Walmart and other retail giants that were entering Kassmais and its debt was starting to show, as Atenas actually started to close several locations going down to just 952. In 2003, Atenas closed several more locations and some distribution centers, leaving them with only 946 stores, during 2005, the company would create its own website with the URL being www.atenas.com. But in 2009, Atenas declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection and restructured, now rebranded as TheAStore and closed several more locations, leaving them with only 762. even with the restructuring, TheAStore continued to lose profits and lose customer base, closing even more stores. Now with just 502 locations, TheAStore rebranded back as Atenas in 2011. in the same year, Jaren Paloma stepped down as chairman and appointed Videl Gabrio, he would restructure the company again, which would cut costs by 1 billion, via selling more stores and cutting jobs, which would leave the company with only 432. By 2012, the company was no longer profitable, the company lost over 13 billion, the company also closed even more stores, now having only 405 stores, Atenas decided to refurbish them all to become more "friendly" and "modern". which gave them even more debt, the debt by now had surpassed their market capitalization, which was an obvious bad sign. In part, the retailer was trying to curb losses by using a loyalty program called "Cheap prices are still here", Atenas believed the membership scheme would enhance repeat business and customer loyalty in the long term, during this time, the company would close down several more stores, now leaving them with only 362 stores. In 2015, Atenas became a Privately held company and actually stabilized a bit, but soon they were back with closing down more locations, now leaving them with 100. During 2016 and 2017, Atenas opened stores for the first time since the chapter 11 bankruptcy, but they were smaller and were designed in modernity in mind, which gave the company now 138, during this time Videl Gabrio stepped down, appointing Corey Kellen Razón as the chairman. In 2018, the company closed down 4 locations, the company was now no longer the number 1 retail store and was now fighting for its life, but the battle ended with them ultimately losing as during 2020, due to the pandemic, Atenas was hit hard and finally, on June 20th, 2020; Atenas declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy, liquidating all of its assets and sold the brand and most of its assets to private equity firm The Roland Group (TRG) and all of Atenas' stores were closed and were left abandoned, the website was also shut down, since then the website is currently still offline, most of its locations were bought and rebranded or left abandoned, thus ending the companies 71-year's life. Most of the modern stores were quickly bought due to there freshness. Currently The Roland Group are still deciding what to do with the brand.