Fabric and crafts chain Joann is going out of business and closing all remaining locations, just over a month after filing for bankruptcy for the second time in a year.

The chain, open for more than 80 years, will start going-out-of-business sales as soon as a bankruptcy court approves the sale of the company’s assets to new ownership, Joann said in customer FAQs.

That approval is expected to come during a hearing Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Scott Carpenter, CEO of retail solutions for Joann’s buyer, the GA Group, told the Akron Beacon Journal that most of the closing stores will remain open through May.

GA Group also plans to offer employees time off to search for new jobs and to organize job fairs for them so as to “close these stores with empathy, professionalism and efficiency,” Mr. Carpenter told the Beacon Journal.

Before the closure of the sale, Joann announced the closure of 500 stores earlier this month, The Associated Press reported.

Locations that have already initiated going-out-of-business sales will continue them, and the chain said in its FAQs post that it will post dates for store closures as soon as it can. Joann expects these final sales to take a few weeks.

“JOANN leadership, our board, advisors and legal partners made every possible effort to pursue a more favorable outcome that would keep the company in business. … We deeply appreciate our dedicated team members, our customers and communities across the nation for their unwavering support for more than 80 years,” Joann said Saturday in a statement.

The company had sought bankruptcy proceedings in March 2024. It emerged from them in April 2024 as a private company and was delisted from the NASDAQ exchange, according to the Beacon Journal.

It then filed again for bankruptcy on Jan. 15, citing both challenges for retail at large and inventory problems as reasons for its second bankruptcy filing within a year.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.