by Factors ranged from a slow housing market to competition from online shopping, culminating in the economic chaos created by Trump tariffs
COPPELL, Texas — Despite a $200 million cash infusion in May 2023, along with the recruitment of a new CEO and senior management team, Home News Now 125 retailer At Home suffered under a perfect storm of economic challenges ranging from a slow housing market to competition from online shopping and the onslaught of tariffs as high as 145% on China, one of its main sourcing countries.
These and other factors led to the company’s Chapter 11 filing Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. It cited between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets and the same amount of liabilities, along with a staggering list of up to 25,000 individual creditors.
The company also announced it is closing some 26 stores, according to a report in USA Today, representing about 10% of its 260 large-footprint stores averaging just over 100,000 square feet per store. The report said that the company will close these initial stores by Sept. 30.
The challenges facing the business were outlined in a declaration filed Monday by Jeremy Aguilar, chief financial officer, regarding the state of business for the 45-year-old company.
The company was founded by Eric White in 1979 as Garden Ridge Pottery, later shortened to Garden Ridge. Garden Ridge emerged from its own Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005 and rebranded to At Home in 2014 “to better reflect the company’s core focus on home décor and enable its aspirations for future expansion.”
About a year after this rebranding, the company filed for an initial public offering and was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2016. After opening its 100th location that year, it doubled in size three years later with the opening of its 200th store. It sought to grow at about 10% per year, with plans of having 600 or more locations over the long term, the declaration said.
In July 2021, the retailer was acquired and taken private by global private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC. The purchase occurred as the company and others in the industry were “experiencing a period of strong growth and financial performance, largely due to macroeconomic and consumer trends during the Covid-19 pandemic, including strong home sales, nesting and de-urbanization, high demand for home décor products and governmental stimulus support provided to customers.”
The declaration went on to note that this growth slowed in the period after the height of the pandemic. Like many retailers, it said, the company dealt with a number of financial and operational headwinds, including “inflationary cost pressures driven primarily by dramatically elevated industrywide freight rates (which could in some instances exceed the value of the goods being transported)” combined with rising materials and labor costs and softening consumer spending in the home furnishings market that followed a time of historical and unprecedented demand.
In addition, the declaration noted, consumer buying habits shifted away from brick-and-mortar stores and “towards the convenience of online shopping.”
In May 2023, the retailer raised $200 million in new capital to further fund the business moving forward.
In December 2023, then CEO Lewis Bird III retired and At Home appointed Brad Weston as the new CEO in June 2024. Among his first steps was to recruit a new senior management team and “recalibrate At Home’s strategy and operational focus,” said Aguilar, who was appointed chief financial officer in December 2024.
Still, the company faced ongoing financial roadblocks relating to its liquidity and overall growth related largely to the larger macroeconomic factors.
“While the new senior management team has made progress on both short-term initiatives and a longer-term roadmap for the business, the growing challenges described herein have limited the bottom-line improvements for At Home’s initiatives,” Aguilar noted.
Aguilar said after he was appointed chief financial officer in December 2024, he “analyzed the company’s growing liquidity constraints and impending maturity of the Prepetition ABL (asset-based lending) Credit Facility in July 2026. Given its strained liquidity situation, the company initiated discussions with the Prepetition ABL Agent in early 2025 to start renegotiating the terms of the Prepetition ABL Credit Agreement as the company likely would not have sufficient funds to meet this debt obligation on the maturity date.”
Following the presidential election last November, it became clear that tariffs also would become a challenge to the business moving forward.
As part of the aforementioned discussions, the declaration said, the Prepetition ABL Agent retained Gordon Brothers Asset Advisors LLC to complete an appraisal of the net recovery value of At Home’s retail inventory.
“In February 2025, due to the Company’s existing liquidity issues and uncertainty surrounding impending tariffs, the Prepetition ABL Agent indicated that the inventory appraisal may result in a reduction of the borrowing base under the Prepetition ABL Credit Facility and the implementation of discretionary reserves,” the declaration said. “In the months leading up to the petition date, the company and the Prepetition ABL Agent continued to engage in constructive discussions on how to best address the Prepetition ABL Agent’s concerns without further exasperating the Company’s liquidity position.”
As it was attempting to address its liquidity situation and implement a transformation of the business led by the management team, the declaration said, “tariffs began to adversely impact the retail industry.”
This started with a 10% tariff imposed on all Chinese imports, which rose to 20% in early February.
Then, it continued, “Tariffs were raised to elevated levels on April 2, 2025 — ‘Liberation Day’ — with the introduction of two new types of tariffs, including a 10% universal tariff on all countries as well as individualized reciprocal tariffs on approximately 60 countries who are trade partners with the United States.”
These tariffs were paused for 90 days, starting April 9. However, tariffs on China rose to 145%, which remained in effect until May 12, when they were lowered to 30% temporarily. The U.S. then announced an agreement with China on June 11 that raised this to 55%.
Aguilar said that of At Home’s total sourcing in fiscal year 2025, about 45% of its merchandise was purchased through trading companies and wholesalers and about 55% was purchased directly from foreign manufacturers in source countries including China, Vietnam, India, Turkey and Mexico.
“At Home’s product partners are critical to the company’s success and operations, and the company would be materially and adversely impacted if At Home were to encounter delays or difficulties in securing significant volumes of merchandise on a timely basis, especially during the summer months when critical inventory for Christmas and other seasonal holidays is in production or being shipped,” he wrote.
“At Home, a company that relies heavily on foreign suppliers, was — and remains — significantly impacted by these tariff policies,” Aguilar added. “Accordingly, while At Home has had to deal with tariffs for some time given the nature of its business, the volatility of the current tariff environment came at a time when the management team was working to address the company’s existing issues. These newly imposed tariffs and the uncertainty of ongoing U.S. trade negotiations intensified the financial pressure on the company, accelerating the need for a comprehensive solution.”
These factors combined ultimately led to the retailer’s decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a process in which it will be able to restructure the business while also meeting some of its financial obligations.
“Amidst the rapidly changing tariff landscape, persistent macroeconomic headwinds and internal pressures associated with the Prepetition ABL Credit Facility, the company determined that the best path forward to address its liquidity position and maximize value for all stakeholders was to engage with the Ad Hoc Group on a comprehensive restructuring of the company to address all its challenges at once,” Aguilar wrote.
The Ad Hoc Group was identified as Redwood Capital Management LLC, Farallon Capital Advisors LLC and Anchorage Capital Advisors LP. In March, this group sent the company “a comprehensive restructuring proposal that contemplated a nearly complete deleveraging of the capital structure and a new money investment.”
“Entering Chapter 11 with strong consensus and support across its capital structure will allow the company to move swiftly through Chapter 11, maximize the value of its business and access sufficient liquidity to implement a go-forward business plan,” Aguilar added. “The expeditious consummation of the restructuring transactions is therefore in the best interests of the debtors, their estates and all interested parties.”
At Home is listed at No. 31 on Home News Now’s 125 Furniture & Bedding retailers with estimated furniture and bedding sales of $606.5 million in 2024, down 2.2% from $620 million a year earlier.
