David’s Bridal has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and given notice that it may be laying off 9,000-plus employees nationwide, including at its location on West Canal Drive in Kennewick.
But stores remain open and orders are being fulfilled as the company looks for a buyer, David’s Bridal officials have said. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Chief Executive Officer James Marcum said that brides “are going to get every dress they’ve ordered … we will fill each and every (order).”
He characterized the layoff notification as something that’s required as part of the process, adding that there’s “still a lot of uncertainty … as to who the buyer is, and how many stores they may want, and those kind of things,” but noting that the company is optimistic.
A manager at the David’s Bridal in Kennewick referred questions to the company’s spokeswoman, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
In an FAQ section on the bankruptcy case website, David’s Bridal says it intends “to fulfill orders without disruption or delay” while it goes through the bankruptcy process. Customers can still shop at stores and online, get alterations, use gift cards, make returns and exchanges in accordance with existing policies, and access the Pearl event planning platform.
David’s Bridal — headquartered in Pennsylvania — bills itself as the largest bridal and special occasion retailer in North America, with 278 stores in the United States, 12 in Canada and four in the United Kingdom. It also provides support to eight franchised stores in Mexico.
The company has about 10,000 employees, including about 2,000 full-time and about 8,000 part-time, court documents said. The layoff notification, called a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, lists 9,266 affected employees nationwide.
The WARN came through the state Employment Security Department. In Washington, David’s Bridal has locations in Lynnwood, Tacoma, Tukwila, Kennewick and Spokane, the WARN said.
David’s Bridal previously sought bankruptcy protection in 2018.
Since it emerged from that reorganization in 2019, it’s been led by a new senior management team that worked to stabilize and make improvements, from updating branding to launching new product lines, the company said in court documents. But it’s “suffering under severe liquidity constraints brought on by a confluence of adverse macroeconomic trends and industry specific headwinds, including the lasting impact of Covid-19 on the wedding industry,” court documents said.