Bon-Ton Gets Saks Stores for More Than $1B

(Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

YORK, PA-The Bon-Ton Stores is buying Saks Inc.’s Northern Department Store Group for about $1.2 billion in cash. The transaction will give the department-store owner 142 units in 12, mostly Midwestern states under the Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Herberger’s and Younkers names.

The deal follows Saks sale of its Southern group, which consists of 25 McRae’s and 22 Proffitt’s stores located throughout 11 states, to Belk, for $622 million. It will leave Birmingham, AL-based Saks with 55 Saks Fifth Avenue stores, 50 Saks Off Fifth discount units, 40 Parisian department stores and the 56-unit Club Libby Lu specialty apparel chain.