Mattress Firm Inc., the nation’s biggest specialty mattress retailer with eight stores in the Chattanooga and North Georgia region, filed for bankruptcy reorganization today and said it is in the process of closing 200 stores across the country, including an outlet on North Dug Gap Road in Dalton, Georgia and another store on Kingston Pike in Knoxville.
The Houston-based retailer said it expects to shut down about 700 of its 3,230 company-owned stores by the end of the year.
“Leading up to the holiday shopping season, we will exit up to 700 stores in certain markets where we have too many locations in close proximity to each other,” Mattress Firm CEO Steve Stagner said in an announcement of the bankruptcy filing.
Mattress Firm filed a Chapter 11 petition to reorganize its finances under the protection of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The prepackaged plan submitted to the court today provides the company access to new financing to support the business, establishes an efficient and orderly process for closing certain economically inefficient store locations, and provides for all trade creditors to continue being paid in full for goods and services provided. The company has nearly 10,000 employees and another 125 franchised locations.
“We intend to use the additional liquidity from these actions to improve our product offering, provide greater value to our customers, open new stores in new markets, and strategically expand in existing markets where we see the greatest opportunities to serve our customers,” Stagner said in a statement today.