Updated: Lowe’s Emerges as Likely Buyer of Orchard Supply, After Helping Push Competitor into Bankruptcy

Orchard Supply Hardware Stores, a neighborhood hardware and garden supply retail chain spun off by Sears Holding Inc. a little more than a year ago, this week filed for voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization in Delaware. In doing so, it also reached an agreement to sell itself to one of its competitors that drove it there: Lowe’s Companies Inc.