Five Ashley stores in North Carolina closing

Owner says some or all will reopen in new format

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, November 4, 2010

RALEIGH, N.C. — The owner of five Ashley Furniture HomeStores in North Carolina, which filed for bankruptcy this summer, is closing the stores.

Liquidation sales at the five HomeStores operated by FreDe Enterprises LLC, in Raleigh, Durham, Clayton, Fayetteville and Goldsboro, N.C., began last week and are expected to run for about 120 days, said DeShon Hodge, a partner in the licensed HomeStores with Fred Hudson, CEO of Sanford, Fla.-based furniture retailer Hudson's.

Planned Furniture Promotions is running the going out of business sale.

Hodge and Hudson told Furniture/Today in July that the bankruptcy move followed failed lease renegotiations and was made to force the reopening of a store that had been locked by the landlord.

He said today that the company expanded with the HomeStore concept at "an inopportune time," and this combined with the inability to work out satisfactory lease arrangements led to the filing.

"The inability to adjust to the needs of the marketplace with a single-branded store, and some challenges we faced with lack of shipments over the first part of the year, helped us make a decision to change all of our stores to a new prototype as we move forward," he said.

Hodge added that the company plans to open a new format in "some if not all" of the locations some time in the first quarter of 2011. He wouldn't elaborate on the new format.

In June, Hudson and Hodge had said they would close two HomeStores, in Durham and Goldsboro, with plans to relocate one to a better site in the Raleigh-Durham area and possibly open a new format at the Goldsboro location.

Hodge wouldn't say how much money he expected to raise through the GOB sale. He did say the company will take care of all outstanding Ashley orders and that customers with goods on layaway will have their existing orders filled or can select new goods with an equal value to what has been paid in.