Marcus Lemonis, Bed Bath & Beyond executive chairman and CEO, revealed in a letter to shareholders details of the company’s latest agreement to acquire The Container Store.
Lemonis also announced Adrianne Lee, Bed Bath & Beyond’s chief financial officer, was leaving the company. Sally Beauty Holdings announced Lee had joined its organization as CFO.
Amy Sullivan, named Bed Bath & Beyond president in conjunction with its merger with the Brand House Collective, after Bed Bath & Beyond’s acquisition of the former Kirkland’s Home business, will serve in the same capacity at the enlarged company after it acquires The Container Store. In that role, Sullivan will be responsible for performance and integration of the entire enterprise, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Buy Buy Baby, Overstock.com and Kirkland’s, as well as The Container Store and its ancillary operations. Lisa Foley will transition from Bed Bath & Beyond chief marketing officer to COO, with responsibility for operational execution across the enterprise. Former Petco financial chief Brian LaRose will serve as CFO, overseeing financial strategy, capital allocation and performance discipline.
Sullivan, Foley and LaRose will form a senior leadership team with Lemonis, working to execute corporate strategy and integrate acquisitions.
In the Container Store transaction as negotiated, Bed Bath & Beyond will pay out shares of its common stock priced at $7 each as well as notes convertible into common stock at approximately $9.10 per share, Leminis said. He said the price paid represents a meaningful premium to Bed Bath & Beyond’s recent trading levels, including its 30-day volume-weighted average price. In the letter, Lemonis said the financial structure of The Container Store deal reflects the value of the Bed Bath & Beyond platform, aligns all parties around long-term performance and reinforces our commitment to executing transactions that are both strategically and economically sound.
The Container Store acquisition includes the namesake operation, as well as its auxiliary Elfa and Closet Works businesses. For the past 18 months, Lemonis said, Bed Bath & Beyond has studied The Container Store’s business closely, including a move in 2024 to acquire the organization. Lemonis said Bed Bath & Beyond chose not to move forward with the initial deal because of concerns around leadership, strategic direction of the brand and the health of the company’s balance sheet. The Container Store subsequently entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with lender-based plans to emerge as a private company.
Lemonis said acquiring The Container Store will help fill out Bed Bath & Beyond’s retail and home services strategy, which underpins efforts to build a structure that can provide a full range of resources to support households throughout their lifetimes. The strategy, Lemonis said, rests on three pillars: the Omni Channel Retail Pillar, the Products and Services Pillar, and the Home Services Pillar.
With a 21,000-square-feet per-store average size, The Container Store locations will feature a range of merchandise across bed, bath, kitchen, entertaining and storage and organization as they integrate into the Bed Bath & Beyond operation while significantly expanding their existing home services offerings, Lemonis said. The stores, as integrated, will assume the brand designation The Container Store/Bed Bath and Beyond. The Elfa home organization systems, based in Malmö, Sweden, and Closet Works, headquartered in the Chicago metro, will serve as foundational anchors of Bed Bath & Beyond’s Home Services Pillar, Lemonis said. As such, Bed Bath & Beyond will add to the modular and custom offerings, including flooring, lighting, kitchen, laundry room and bathroom cabinetry, creating a more complete solution, which Lemonis said should drive both revenue and margin expansion.
As part of the Bed Bath & Beyond company integration, Kirkland’s will operate 230 locations across the United States. It is strengthening Bed Bath & Beyond’s presence in key categories that drive traffic and margin while providing a flexible store base as a company asset. Already, some reconstituted Kirkland’s Home stores have switched banners to Bed Bath & Beyond Home.
Lemonis added that Bed Bath & Beyond is working on additional acquisitions that align with its three-pillar strategy.
Lemonis said Bed Bath & Beyond can deliver at least $40 million of annualized cost savings and productivity efficiencies within 12 to 18 months from fully integrating Kirkland’s Home, The Container Store, Elfa and Closet Works. Plans call for closing the Container Store acquisition in July.
In the 2026 first quarter, Lemonis said Bed Bath & Beyond is demonstrating year-over-year revenue growth and earnings improvement. Bed Bath & Beyond has closed the Kirkland’s acquisition even as it signed the definitive agreements to bring The Container Store operations into Bed Bath & Beyond’s “Everything Home ecosystem,” he said.
