Hardware wholesaler True Value has filed for bankruptcy amid plans to sell its business to its home improvement rival Do It Best.

Long-time hardware retailer True Value announced Monday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is entertaining a bid to sell its assets to competitor Do it Best.

Central Iowa's five independently owned True Value stores are unlikely to feel direct effects from the chain's bankruptcy

True Value, which sells a variety of home improvement goods like tools, lumber and plumbing, said in bankruptcy court filings that it has succumbed to slumping sales that have affected other companies in the sector.

Tenured hardware business True Value Co. LLC revealed Monday it has filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to sell itself to a rival. Chicago-based True Value said it will sell substantially all of the company's business operations to Fort Wayne, Indiana-based home-improvement company Do it Best Corp.

Thompson True Value — a full-service hardware business in Marshalltown which can trace its origins to 1860 — remains open for business. “We will continue to offer our extensive product selection, machinery repair,