Saks Owes Hundreds of Millions to Top Brands From Chanel to Burberry

Saks Global has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — and court filings reveal that the luxury retailer owes hundreds of millions of dollars to some of the fashion industry’s biggest names.

The question is, will they get paid?

In US bankruptcy proceedings, unsecured creditors generally stand at the end of the line for repayment, behind secured creditors and lenders.

“There will be a lot of hardship for those brands,” Gary Wassner, the CEO of Hilldun Corp., which acts as a guarantor or insurer for brands, told Business Insider about independent designers who aren’t part of a big conglomerate or use factoring firms, like Hilldun.

Saks Global, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman, said in a statement on Wednesday that it expects to pay for future goods shipped as it restructures its debts.

Fashion industry experts, meanwhile, have told Business Insider that brands big and small are likely to keep doing business with Saks Global because they need the retailer and have few alternatives.

“In some cases, smaller brands, 40% or 50% of their business is done with Saks Global, so you can imagine what it’s doing to those companies,” said Wassner, whose firm represents about 140 brands that sell to Saks.

Documents filed by Saks Global in federal Texas bankruptcy court show the retailer owes its 30 largest unsecured creditors more than $700 million. Below is a breakdown of how much Saks Global owes some of its largest luxury suppliers, according to the retailer’s bankruptcy court filings.