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Remember when David’s Bridal declared bankruptcy (for the second time) back in April? Well, the retailer's sale to Cion Investment Corp. was approved last Friday by a New Jersey court.
The no-cash transaction between David’s Bridal and Cion comes after months of speculation that David’s Bridal might shutter all its stores, but the new arrangement allows the retailer to keep 195 stores open.
It will also retain 7,000 of its 10,000 employees, after the company had previously announced it was laying off 9,236.
But let’s go back a second: David’s Bridal’s second go-round with bankruptcy comes after emerging from its first Chapter 11 in 2019. The retailer restructured its debt and has since tried to modernize its marketing and retail strategies.
It introduced a quinceañera line in 2021 as part of an effort to update its business. But where it seemed to have faltered was in appealing to a younger generation of consumers, especially post-pandemic, who sought experiences over possessions and are increasingly turning toward alternative wedding attire and the secondhand market.
“For Gen X and baby boomers, success was often defined by possessions and assets that you were able to accumulate over your lifetime…now that you’ve shifted forward, that experiential piece is a bigger definition of success to a lot of newer generations,” Michael Felice, associate partner in the communications, media, and technology practice of Kearney, previously told Retail Brew. “And so, I’m spending more money on the wedding itself, the destination I choose, than I am on tokens, or assets…that would sit in my closet for 40 years.”