Ernst To Close 11 Western Washington Stores

SEATTLE - Eleven Western Washington Ernst Home Center stores will be among the 25 the company will close as part of its effort to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as a smaller, leaner home-improvement chain.

Stores in Auburn, Aurora Square in Shoreline, Bonney Lake, Issaquah, Kent, Puyallup, Sea-Tac Village in Federal Way, South Point Plaza in South Everett, and Tacoma on Bridgeport Way have already been shut down.

"Two more are slated to close pending court approval," said Jim Fox, Ernst's vice president for marketing. Those stores are in Bellingham and Mount Vernon, though employees there were unaware of the decision.

That will leave the company with 26 stores in the Puget Sound area. Company officials said the remainder of the closures will be spread throughout the nine states where Ernst operates. "We're transferring as many (employees from the closed stores) as we can to existing area locations," Fox said, adding that it was still unclear how many layoffs will be necessary.

The Seattle-based home-improvement chain filed for bankruptcy protection Friday in the face of diminishing market valuation, increasing competition and mounting losses. The company has lost about $116 million in the past three quarters. Ernst said it has obtained $80 million in financing from Congress Financial Inc., which it plans to use to reorganize the chain.