Wren Kitchens shuts all U.S. stores, files for bankruptcy, leaving customers without answers
by The Washington Times AI News Desk · The Washington TimesA British kitchen retailer that had built a footprint of 15 East Coast showrooms over five years abruptly shut every one of them last week, filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation on Friday and closing all 15 brick-and-mortar locations along with its in-store Wren Kitchen Studios inside Home Depot branches.
Employees learned the news the day before. The U.K.-based company told workers Thursday afternoon that it was closing all U.S. stores and showrooms immediately. In a statement, Wren said it had decided to withdraw from the U.S. market to focus investment on accelerating its core U.K. business, which it described as experiencing double-digit growth. The company said the US operation — a separate legal entity from the U.K. parent — accounted for roughly 4% of the group’s overall turnover, but that its future success depended on expanding the U.S. retail estate.
“Despite our best efforts sadly we could not reach agreeable terms that would enable us to do that,” the company said, adding it had “reluctantly taken the decision to appoint a Trustee who will manage our exit from the US market.”
The closure left customers across Connecticut and the broader Northeast in limbo. Melissa Dethlefsen, who spoke with WFSB’s I-Team, had spent $23,000 on cabinets and countertops scheduled for delivery days after the company went dark.
“As a family of five, it’s been hard to live in one room essentially,” she said. “To be so close and then to have it ripped away — it’s like devastating.”
Former employees told WFSB that Wren’s U.K. management informed them on a Zoom call around 3 p.m. Thursday that all showrooms and stores were closing effective immediately. Anes Hodzic, a manager at the Newington showroom, said they locked the doors by 4 p.m.
“No one got any pink slips. No one got anything. Once they walked out of the offices, all the computers went black, black screens,” Mr. Hodzic said. He received a final paycheck Friday but found out simultaneously that he no longer had health insurance. Reports from former employees indicate no severance was offered.
A proposed class action complaint was filed in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware alleging a violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees to provide 60 days’ notice before mass layoffs. Court documents list Wren US Holdings Inc.’s assets and liabilities each in the range of $100 million to $500 million. A first creditors meeting is scheduled for May 20, with David W. Carickhoff named interim trustee.
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Home Depot, which had partnered with Wren to operate in-store kitchen studios since 2024, said in a statement to WFSB: “Wren Kitchens has alerted us that they’ve ceased operations in the United States, which includes closing their showrooms in our stores. We had no previous notice of Wren’s intent to close, and we’re actively evaluating how this has affected Wren customers to help those who may have questions or issues.”
Connecticut’s attorney general and Department of Consumer Protection have both opened investigations. The DCP advises affected customers to send a certified letter to the Wren location where they made their purchase requesting a refund within 10 days, and to email DCP.Investigations@ct.gov if no refund is received. Customers can also register as creditors in the Delaware bankruptcy case — identified as No. 26-10581 — to seek recovery through that process.
A Connecticut competitor moved quickly to help. Express Kitchens, the Hartford-based cabinet company, announced a $250,000 “Wren Customer Rescue Program” offering tiered credits to displaced buyers. Customers who paid a deposit but received nothing can receive up to $1,000 in credit toward a new Express Kitchens purchase; those who paid in full but never received a kitchen can receive up to $2,500. The program, open to Wren customers in New England, runs through June 30, 2026, or until the committed funds are exhausted. “We watched our neighbors lose something they’d worked hard for. We couldn’t sit idle,” said Express Kitchens CEO Max Kothari.
According to the Hartford Business Journal, reporting on Connecticut labor officials, no WARN Act notice from Wren was found on file with state labor authorities prior to the layoffs. The state Department of Labor said it was reaching out to assist affected employees.
Wren opened its first U.S. showroom in Milford, Connecticut, in November 2020, describing it at the time as the largest kitchen showroom in the country. The company simultaneously announced its 252,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, as already operational.
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