Wren Kitchens has given an update on its UK stores after ceasing operations in the US. The company, Britain’s number one retailer of fitted kitchens, abruptly shut 15 stores in the US last week, with all staff losing 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. Mark Pullan, CEO of Wren Kitchens, said the stores were shut “reluctantly” but he is now intent on growing the business in Britain following a period of encouraging market growth. He also thanked colleagues and customers in the US for their support.
Mr Pullan said: “We reluctantly took the decision to appoint a Trustee who is managing our exit from the US market, in line with US regulations. We regret the impact of this decision on our US colleagues and our customers and thank both of them for their support.
“Our focus is on further growing our UK business where last year we recorded our second most successful year since the business began and hit the £1bn turnover mark with strong profits despite what remains a subdued market.”
He added: “Encouragingly, this market growth has carried through into the first quarter. These results reflect the hard work and dedication of our teams across the business and our sustained re-investment in the business – over £500m over the past 15 years.
“We are beginning to see the early benefits of the investment in our new factory, which is enhancing both capacity and efficiency, while continued investment across our UK operations is helping to improve resilience, support fuel cost stability and reduce our environmental impact.”
The Wren Kitchens boss is now hopeful of opening 15 new showrooms across the UK in the near future. The company is also planning on introducing new product categories.
It comes after the US branch filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, a legal process in the US that allows businesses to eliminate debts by selling assets to repay creditors, on Friday, April 24. Staff were informed on a Zoom call the day before that all stores and showrooms would be closing with immediate effect.
Wren Kitchens added in a statement: “After careful consideration, we made the difficult decision to withdraw from the US market and focus investment on accelerating our core UK business, which is experiencing double-digit growth.
“The US business, a separate legal entity from the UK, which is unaffected by this decision, was growing from a small base – accounting for around 4% of our Group’s overall turnover. Its future success, however, relied on expanding our US retail estate. Despite our best efforts sadly we could not reach agreeable terms that would enable us to do that.”