Wren US Holdings Inc., the American subsidiary of UK kitchen retailer Wren Kitchens, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in Delaware on April 24, 2026, and simultaneously shutting all 15 of its U.S. showrooms.
The business is closing its studios inside Home Depot locations, and disconnecting its phones, leaving thousands of customers across the East Coast with cashed deposits, ripped-out kitchens, and no clear path to a refund.
The filing lists assets and liabilities each between $100 million and $500 million. Chapter 7 means liquidation, a court-appointed trustee will sell off the company’s available assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors.
The first creditors meeting is scheduled for May 20. For customers who paid thousands of dollars in deposits for kitchens they will never receive, the question of whether they will see any of that money again is not yet answered.
What Happened To The Company?
On the afternoon of Thursday April 23, UK management convened a Zoom call with U.S. employees.
The message was immediate and final, all American showrooms and studios were closing at once, effective now.
Employees were to receive their final paychecks but no severance and no continuation of benefits.
Anes Hodzic, who managed the Newington, Connecticut showroom, described the experience plainly, “No one got any pink slips.”
Doors were locked within hours. Computers were shut down. Phones were disconnected. Appointments were canceled without notification.
The website, where customers had browsed cabinet styles and booked design consultations, was replaced with a message, “We regret to inform you that our showrooms and studios are now closed. If you require assistance, please click button and complete the form.”
The next day, April 24, Wren US Holdings filed for Chapter 7.
Home Depot, which had partnered with Wren to open kitchen studios inside select stores starting in 2024, said it had no warning.
“Wren Kitchens has alerted us that they’ve ceased operations in the United States, which includes closing their showrooms in our stores,” the company said in a statement. “We had no previous notice of Wren’s intent to close, and we’re actively evaluating how this has affected Wren customers to help those who may have questions or issues.”
What Customers Are Dealing With
The most immediate problem for many customers is not the money, it is the kitchen. To have a kitchen installed, you first have to remove the existing one.
Demolition typically happens on the customer’s side before the new cabinets arrive. Contractors rip out the old fixtures.
Walls go down. Existing appliances get moved. Then the new kitchen arrives and installation begins.
Several customers had already started that process when Wren closed.
Kimberly Tanski of Connecticut had been in the Newington showroom on Tuesday April 22 to make her final payment, less than 48 hours before the closure.
Her husband had already gutted their kitchen. He was putting up insulation and sheetrock when she learned through a news broadcast that Wren had closed its doors.
Her refrigerator is sitting in her living room. Wren is holding $11,000 to $12,000 of her money.
Richard Follo of the Philadelphia area paid a $13,000 deposit three months before the closure.
Demolition was already underway at his house when his installer informed him that Wren had shut down. “As soon as they got our money, a month later they closed,” Follo said. “I haven’t slept since. My wife and I did not get any sleep last night.”
His question to NBC10 cut to the center of the situation, “They’re still functioning in the U.K. So, why can’t I get my money back?”
That question has no clean answer. The UK parent company, Wren Kitchens Ltd., has not filed for bankruptcy and continues operating its 110-plus locations across England, Scotland and Wales.
The entity that filed for Chapter 7 is its American subsidiary. The two are legally separate, and what happens in Delaware bankruptcy court has no direct effect on the parent company’s operations in the UK.
Melissa Dethlefsen of Connecticut told NBC Connecticut that Wren was holding “over $23,000 from us.” Gloria Dorau said she was out more than $20,000 and described her situation simply, “My head is just spinning.”
The Legal Actions Already Filed
A proposed class action complaint landed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware within days of the closure.
It targets Wren US Holdings and associated entities for alleged violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, the federal WARN Act, which requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees to provide 60 days’ notice before plant shutdowns or large-scale layoffs.
Employees were not given 60 days. They were given a Zoom call in the afternoon and told to go home.
The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection confirmed it is investigating Wren’s closure. The Connecticut Attorney General is also examining the situation.
Connecticut customers have one avenue that others may not. The state’s Home Improvement Guarantee Fund can reimburse homeowners up to $25,000 for contractor failures where the home improvement act was not complied with, and Wren Kitchens does hold a home improvement contractor registration in Connecticut.
Whether individual customers qualify depends on the specifics of their contracts, but legal experts in Connecticut have flagged this as one pathway worth investigating.
Connecticut’s DCP has advised customers to fill out the form on Wren’s website, send a certified mail letter to the location where they made their purchase requesting a refund within 10 days, and file a complaint with the agency at DCP.Investigations@ct.gov if no refund is received.
What Customers Should Do Right Now
For anyone who paid Wren Kitchens money and has not received their order, the sequence of steps that legal and financial experts recommend is clear.
If you paid by credit card, contact your card issuer today and initiate a chargeback dispute, these windows are time-limited and every day of delay narrows your options.
If you paid by check or bank transfer, call your bank and ask about reversal options, which are narrower but may still exist.
File a claim in the bankruptcy proceeding as a creditor. The case is In re Wren US Holdings Inc. in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, and the first creditors meeting is May 20.
Filing a claim does not guarantee recovery but it places you in the official queue for any distributions from the liquidated assets.
File a complaint with your state’s Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau regardless of what else you do, it creates a documented record that becomes relevant if class action litigation develops.
The path to recovery for most customers will be long and partial at best. Chapter 7 liquidations pay creditors based on priority, secured creditors first, then unsecured creditors including customers who paid deposits.
How much is left after secured claims are satisfied depends on what the trustee recovers from Wren’s assets, which the filing lists at somewhere between $100 million and $500 million.
What Was Wren Kitchens?
Wren Kitchens was founded in the UK in 2009 and became one of Britain’s largest kitchen retailers, with more than 110 showrooms.
It entered the American market in 2020 with two Connecticut locations and a manufacturing plant in Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania.
Its American showrooms were large, the Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, location featured more than 40 full-sized kitchen displays and 17 design suites equipped with virtual reality headsets.
In 2024, Wren announced a strategic partnership with Home Depot to place kitchen studios inside select Home Depot stores, a partnership that was seen as a meaningful step toward broader American expansion.
Fifteen standalone showrooms and an unknown number of Home Depot studios in less than six years. Now those 15 showrooms are closed, those studios are dark, and the parent company has not said a word publicly about why.
