Bankrupt David’s Bridal receives tentative bid to keep most stores open

David’s Bridal has received a tentative going-concern bid that would keep more than 190 stores open, spurring optimism that the wedding dress retailer might be able to survive bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg.

The deal would also keep more than 7,000 jobs by staving off mass store closures, lawyers for the company said in a bankruptcy court hearing Tuesday. The bid deadline has been extended to July 3 and a new sale hearing is scheduled for July 14.

”We think the opportunity to save 7,000 jobs and over 190 stores is fantastic for the vendors and the landlords,” Brad Sandler, an attorney representing the company’s official creditor committee, said during the hearing.

In April, the wedding retailer, based in Conshohocken, said in a notice to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry that it would lay off 9,236 people across the United States. At the time, the company believed that 15 locations in Pennsylvania would be affected, including six stores in the Philadelphia suburbs. Days later, David’s Bridal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in five years.

At the time, James Marcum, David’s Bridal’s CEO, said that the company faced a challenging “post-COVID environment and uncertain economic conditions.”

The company announced in May that it expected to accelerate layoffs to comply with requirements imposed by bankruptcy court.

David’s Bridal began as a bridal salon in Florida in 1950 and grew to be the nation’s leading retailer for affordable wedding gowns with over 300 stores, mostly in the United States with a few in Mexico and Canada. The retailer is owned by a group of lenders including Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Group.

The company’s recent financial history has been checkered. In 2018, David’s Bridal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the first time. Retailers file for bankruptcy to get rid of debt and streamline costs, often through structural changes such as closing stores.

Though David’s Bridal emerged from bankruptcy in early 2019, the company, like many retailers, struggled during the pandemic with supply chain delays and other issues. According to the New York Times, David’s Bridal was forced to make many costly moves to ensure that customers received their orders on time, including moving production to and from Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and China and relying on airfreight, which is more expensive than shipping by boat.

Despite the financial challenges facing the company, David’s Bridal intends to fulfill all existing orders for customers.

Price and precise terms of the tentative going-concern bid were not disclosed.

Bloomberg contributed to this article.