History
In 1955, a small storefront was erected by Henry Harold and Fansy Gregg on the north side of Indianapolis. The new store featured home appliances, featuring washing machines, clothes dryers, refrigerators, and grills. Shortly thereafter, they began selling televisions and other electronics.
In 1975, Jerry W. Throgmartin began working in his grandfather's store while attending middle school. He eventually worked his way through many positions there over the next 24 years, and in 1999, took over his father's position as Chairman, CEO, and Director of H. H. Gregg Appliances and Electronics.[7]
Dennis L. May succeeded Throgmartin as H. H. Gregg's president and Chief Executive Officer in 2009, and Throgmartin was named Executive Chairman of the Board.[8] Throgmartin died in January 2012.[9]
Despite market trends that have diminished profit margins on high-tech devices, Throgmartin and May expanded the business to 125 stores in 9 states as of October 2009. Throgmartin said, "We've been fortunate in that the areas of the [consumer electronics] business that have been strong are the areas in which we excel: high-end large-screen flat-panel TVs and home theater, and higher-end appliances".[7]
In 2009, the company announced that it planned to open 22 stores in the following year, primarily in Richmond, Virginia, Tampa, Florida, and in Memphis, Tennessee, many of them being in buildings formerly occupied by defunct Circuit City, as part of an aggressive growth strategy to fill the gap created by Circuit City's bankruptcy. In December 2009, construction began on several stores in the central and eastern parts of Pennsylvania, the first in the state. March 2010 brought the openings of the first stores in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach metro area, in converted Circuit City and Linens 'n Things locations. In Spring 2011, the company expanded into the Youngstown, Ohio market with the opening of a store in the Youngstown suburb Boardman.[10] Ten stores opened in July 2011 in South Florida along the east coast from Miami to West Palm Beach.
In the fall of 2010, H. H. Gregg opened several stores in former Circuit City locations in Maryland and Virginia.[11] Also, in late 2010, hhgregg partnered with The Cellular Connection, a cellular phone wholesaler based out of Indianapolis, to roll out kiosks to sell Verizon Wireless products.[12]
In 2011, H. H. Gregg opened locations in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,[13] the Pittsburgh metropolitan area,[14] the Chicago area,[15] and the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area.[16]
In August 2012, H. H. Gregg made its debut in Wisconsin by opening stores in Appleton, Brown Deer, Greenfield, Green Bay, and Racine.[17] In November 2012, it entered Louisiana with stores in the New Orleans metropolitan area and in Baton Rouge.[18][19]
The company's motto was "Gregg's Got It!", and their official mascot was an animated talking catalogue called HH, voiced by Wally Wingert and bearing likeness to that of the video-game character Rayman.[20]
In 2016, May resigned as CEO, and Robert Riesbeck was named interim CEO[21] and later the permanent CEO.[22] After a buyout offer fell through, Riesbeck was terminated along with CIO Tom Schuetz and Chief Merchandising Officer Aaron Trahan. Kevin Kovacs (CFO at the time) was named CEO and president in 2017.[23]
Bankruptcy
On March 6, 2017, H. H. Gregg filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing followed the closure of 88 unprofitable locations outside of its core markets.[5] BML Investment Partners, L.P. acquired at least 7.5% of the company by January 26, 2017.[24] On February 15, 2017, the company announced it was exploring "strategic alternatives", implicitly a sale of all or part of the business.[25] On March 6, 2017, the bankrupt company filed for reorganization under Chapter 11.[26][27] On March 16, 2017, the company announced that the sale had not been completed.[28] On April 7, 2017, the Chapter 11 case was converted to Chapter 7 liquidation, and H. H. Gregg said it would close all 220 of its locations (the 88 stores previously announced to be closing, plus the other 132 locations) and lay off about 5,000 employees.
