Wren Kitchens suddenly shut down its U.S. showrooms and stores Thursday afternoon, telling employees on a Zoom call around 3 PM that all locations were closing effective immediately. By 4 PM, former employees said the Newington showroom doors were locked, and more than three dozen workers were out of a job.
For customers, the closure came with bills already paid and no clear path forward. Melissa Dethlefsen said she ordered $23,000 worth of cabinets and countertops from Wren Kitchens and was expecting delivery the following Wednesday. She said she paid by debit card and check and got a call late Thursday night from her contractor telling her the company had shut down.
Dethlefsen said she spoke with someone at the UK offices Friday morning, but came away with little clarity. "He said that they had been told to be prepared for phone calls from the United States, not to speak to anybody from the press and to just take our information. And he was like; I don’t know what to tell you," she said. Wren’s website directed customers to fill out a form after the shutdown, but the company did not respond to calls or emails from WFSB.
The abrupt closure left former employees with the same sense of confusion. Anes Hodzic said, "No one got any pink slips. No one got anything. Once they walked out of the offices, all the computers went black, black screens," adding that workers received no explanation about customers or severance. He said he got his last paycheck Friday and learned he no longer had insurance. "I wanted to talk to you guys because I feel like the media and the public will put a little pressure on them to make sure these people get their money back," he said.
Dethlefsen, who said she is part of a family of five, said the loss hit hard because the project had been more than a kitchen order. "As a family of five, it’s been hard to live in one room essentially. S to be so close and then to have it ripped away, is it’s like devastating," she said. "Not that I want to be spiteful, but like somebody has to be held accountable for this," she said.