Mattress Firm could lay 700 locations nationwide to rest

Mattress Firm, that ubiquitous dealer of sleeping surfaces, announced Friday that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it embarks on a corporate restructuring that could see it close up to 700 stores across the United States.

The Houstonbased company, which markets itself as the nation’s leading specialty mattress retailer, currently operates thousands of stores across the country, including more than 65 in Colorado.

A bloated real estate portfolio was tagged as one reason the business is entering into a courtsupervised restructuring process.

“Leading up to the holiday shopping season, we will exit up to 700 stores in certain markets where we have too many locations in close proximity to each other,” Mattress Firm CEO Steve Stagner said in a statement.

The money saved through those closures will be put toward upgrading product offerings, opening new stores in new markets and expanding in places where the company is profitable, Stagner said.

Around 200 Mattress Firm locations are expected to close in the coming days, though company officials did not identify which stores were earmarked for rapid closure in Friday’s announcement.

Mattress Firm has stores in 29 Colorado cities and towns from Montrose to Fort Collins. A look at its 20 metroarea locations illustrates Stagner’s concern about having too many stores too close to one another. The company operates three stores along a halfmile stretch of Colorado Boulevard south of Cherry Creek. In Parker, it has two stores within a few blocks of each other.

In addition to internal challenges, Mattress Firm has seen its market share challenged by more nimble, techfocused startups such as Casper, which delivers onlineordered mattresses direct to consumers’ doors. Some of those businesses have moved into the brickandmortar realm — such as Amerisleep, which opened a location in the Park Meadows mall this summer — but their physical footprint remains much smaller than legacy competition.

Mattress Firm has vowed to ensure mattress deliveries continue on time and aims to continue honoring warranties and paying its suppliers and contractors as it navigates bankruptcy.