Bed Bath & Beyond Suppliers Halt Shipments Despite New Financing

(Bloomberg) — Some Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. suppliers say they are restricting or halting shipments even after the company secured new financing, a sign of the challenges the troubled retailer faces to receive new merchandise and reverse more than a year of plummeting sales.

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Bed Bath & Beyond used a portion of the $500 million in additional financing it got at the end of August to catch up on overdue payments to suppliers. But some of those suppliers say they remain concerned about the retailer’s survival and have cut off or cut back on merchandise they ship to the company. That further complicates Bed Bath & Beyond’s turnaround strategy, which hinges on securing a steady supply of products from national brands.

Take Dbest Products Inc., which has been selling its rolling carts to Bed Bath & Beyond for more than a decade. In early September, the company for the first time asked Bed Bath & Beyond to pay upfront for its products. “We requested to alter our payment terms to payment in advance and they said no — politely,” Dbest Products Chief Executive Officer Richard Elden said. He says he previously sold around “six figures” worth of wholesale products to Bed Bath & Beyond annually.

“We’d rather keep our product for customers that we expect will pay us with no issues and no problems,” Elden said.

Similarly, Lauren Greenwood, president of kitchen storage and organization company YouCopia, said she recently stopped shipping her…