Wren Kitchens UK update as 15 stores closed with all jobs lost | UK | News
Wren Kitchens has provided an update on its UK stores after ceasing operations in the US. Company, The UK’s number one ready-made kitchen retailer abruptly closed 15 of its US stores, along with all staff, last week They lose their jobs without warning.
It has now been confirmed that the decision to withdraw from the US market was made to “focus investment” on accelerating the firm’s development in the UK, including new showrooms and product categories. Wren Kitchens chief executive Mark Pullan said the stores had been closed “reluctantly” but that it now intends to expand its business in the UK after a period of encouraging market growth. He also thanked his colleagues and customers in the US for their support.
Mr Pullan said: “We have reluctantly taken the decision to appoint a Board of Trustees to manage our exit from the US market in line with US regulations. We regret the impact of this decision on our US colleagues and customers and thank them both for their support.
“Our focus is to further grow our business in the UK, where last year we recorded our second most successful year since the start of the business and reached the £1bn turnover mark with strong profits despite being a depressed market.”
He added: “Encouragingly, market growth was reflected in the first quarter. These results reflect the hard work and dedication of our teams across the business and our continued reinvestment into the business of over £500 million over the last 15 years.”
“We are starting to see early benefits from our investment in our new factory, increasing both capacity and efficiency, while ongoing investment in our UK operations is helping to improve resilience, support fuel cost stability and reduce our environmental impact.”
The boss of Wren Kitchens now hopes to open 15 new showrooms across the UK in the near future. The company also plans to introduce new product categories.
This comes after the US branch filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation on Friday (April 24), a legal process in the US that allows businesses to eliminate debts by selling assets to creditors. Staff were informed in a Zoom call the day before that all stores and showrooms would be closed with immediate effect.
In a statement, Wren Kitchens added: “After careful consideration, we have taken the difficult decision to withdraw from the US market and focus investment on accelerating our core business in the UK, which is experiencing double-digit growth.
“The US business, which is a separate legal entity from the UK which is not affected by this decision, was growing from a small base – accounting for around 4% of our Group’s total turnover. However, its future success relied on expanding our US retail property. Despite our best efforts, unfortunately we were unable to achieve acceptable terms that would enable us to do this.”
