Mattress Firm announced a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday.
The company is asking a bankruptcy court in Delaware for permission to terminate up to 700 leases.
Mattress Firm expects to close about 200 stores in the next few days and up to 700 over the next 45 to 60 days. Stores are expected to close “in certain markets where we have too many locations in close proximity to each other,” said Mattress Firm Executive Chairman, President and CEO Steve Stagner.
Mattress Firm operates 20 locations in Northeast Florida, according to its website.
The company has not released a list of store closings but several Jacksonville locations fit Stagner’s description of stores that are in close proximity to each other.
Two stores are less than a mile apart on Town Center Parkway. Two more Jacksonville stores are within a few blocks of each other in the Hodges Boulevard area, and three stores are clustered on San Jose Boulevard between Claire Lane and Old River Road.
“We thank our suppliers and partners for their continued support, as well as the contractors we partner with to make deliveries across our markets, all of whom will continue to be paid in full in the normal course for products and services provided,” said Stagner.
Mattress Firm, based in Houston, has more than 3,000 stores in 49 states.
Filing for bankruptcy allows Mattress Firm to improve cash flow and profitability, analysts at Piper Jaffray Companies (PJC.N) wrote in a research note more two months before Friday’s announcement, as Reuters reported.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
