Business & Tech
Tully's Files for Bankruptcy Protection
The announcement comes more than a month after Edmonds location closed.
Tully's Coffee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday and announced plans to close nine underperforming Seattle-area locations.
Tully's closed its downtown Edmonds location on Aug. 26. Another Tully's location in Edmonds is inside Top Food and Drug on Highway 99.
Go to the Edmonds Patch directory for a full list of coffee shops in Edmonds.
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The Bella Bottega Tully's in Redmond will close Sunday, as well as the Bridle Trails store in Kirkland and the Hollywood Vineyard location in Woodinville, a company spokeswoman confirmed to Patch via e-mail.
The announcement came just a few days after the company shut the doors to its Redmond Town Center shop—the only other Tully's location in Redmond. As The Seattle Times reported, the Seattle-based chain is strapped for cash and has been working to renegotiate its leases at several locations.
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In addition to closing several stores, CEO Scott Pearson told the newspaper Tully's is working to reduce costs by eliminating positions through attrition and renegotiating contracts with suppliers.
“We’re at a point where we need to position Tully’s for the future,” Pearson told The Times. “We need to be able to keep this company operating, and this is the best option for us.”
At Bella Bottega, Tully's appeared to be ready to expand its drink menu after applying for a liquor license earlier this year. Company spokeswoman Diane Geurts told Patch as recently as last week that those plans were still in the works.
Geurts also said last week that each Tully's store employs about 10 people and that the company was "making every effort to relocate staff" from closing locations to other stores. Those sentiments were reissued Wednesday regarding the new round of closures, with the company saying it expects to be able to place the majority of employees in other Tully's locations.
"Our priority is retaining our team," Geurts said via e-mail.
Read the announcement on the Tully's Web site.
Edmonds Patch Editor Brian Soergel contributed to this story.
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