Christopher & Banks Closing Plymouth Corporate Headquarters

Women’s clothing retailer Christopher & Banks has started layoffs as part of a move to permanently close its Plymouth headquarters.

A letter to the state, made public this week, details the termination of 361 employees. The layoffs began Jan. 15 and are expected to continue until mid-March.

“In particular, the company has experienced, and continues to experience, liquidity constraints as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Keri Jones, CEO of Christopher & Banks, in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act letter submitted to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. “Although the company has been attempting to attract new investors and financing to maintain its business operations, the company was unable to obtain the required capital, and the company’s current cash position is such that the company has insufficient funds to maintain its business operations.”

The clothing company has been hit hard by the pandemic with in-store sales continuing to plummet.

It has started closing sales at each of its nearly 450 brick-and-mortar stores across the country. There are two such stores in the northwest suburbs, one in Maple Grove and one in Plymouth.