DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — The abrupt collapse and bankruptcy filing of Alfred Angelo Bridal, which dashed the wedding gown dreams of thousands of brides, is a cautionary tale of a once-storied business that failed to change with the times.
Its Chapter 7 liquidation filing shocked many in the industry — the company was one of the nation’s largest wedding dress retailers and the stores were highly regarded. Alfred Angelo operated at least 60 locations in the U.S., and maintained stores in Canada, Europe and Japan. Its dresses were placed with 1,400 retailers worldwide.
But today, a load of 10,000 dresses worth $1.2 million are locked away in a warehouse in San Diego, subject to a lien for unpaid shipping charges, lawyers say. The dresses were aboard a boat from China when the company collapsed
And on its website earlier this month, Alfred Angelo’s bankruptcy trustee posted a note warning customers that if a dress order has not been delivered, it will “remain unfilled” because of the “logistical and financial strain.” Deliveries, said the trustee, Margaret Smith, are “no longer possible.”
What led to Alfred Angelo’s demise?
Interviews with industry experts and the South Florida professionals the company hired to rescue it reveal a business that acted too late for a turnaround or sale. The company was losing too much money to do anything but permanently shut its doors.
Last month, Alfred Angelo closed its Delray Beach headquarters and its stores around the world. Brides stood outside stores, desperately hoping representatives would unlock the doors and let them have their chosen wedding dresses.
The lucky ones included Yadira Castro, 27, who said she finally connected with a store seamstress who had her dress, a Princess Jasmine-inspired design from the Disney line that had won her heart. She had invested a total of $1,250 in wedding attire at the store.
“I did get my dress and everything worked out perfectly, besides that whole situation,” said Castro, who got married in late July.
Miami bankruptcy lawyer Patricia Redmond said she and others had been “working hard” to reopen stores and let people get their dresses and accessories.
“We have been able to connect over 100 brides with their seamstresses and they are working together on finishing alterations,” Redmond said.
But those accommodations, in view of the notice posted by the trustee, appear unlikely to last much longer.
For more than a decade the company had been trying to open more Alfred Angelo brand stores, said Joseph Luzinski, senior managing director for Development Specialists Inc., a Fort Lauderdale restructuring company that tried to help with a rescue plan.
But that required more money for new store locations and more wedding dress inventories to better compete with companies including David’s Bridal, Luzinski said. Alfred Angelo made the move too late, and ultimately sought help too late as it tried to orchestrate a turnaround amid a rising tide of debt.
Under the Alfred Angelo system, brides visited the stores to try on sample wedding dresses. If they liked the look and the feel, they put a deposit on the dress and it was ordered, usually from China.
“They took deposits from people to ensure they were going to get paid,” Luzinski said.
But brides want gowns more quickly than they did in years past and may not be spending as much as the members of past generations, industry experts say.
More brides are searching online for vendors for their weddings and search for dresses and jewelry by browsing on the internet and engaging in social media.
“Today’s bride has a short fuse — they want things instantaneously from a store,” said David Wood, president of the Association of Bridal Consultants in Connecticut.
Then the U.S. real estate crisis hit in 2009-2010, knocking the company’s growth strategy off-course. More retailers began selling online rather than open new brick-and-mortar stores.
As a result, Luzinski said, the Alfred Angelo model “started to falter. They were not experiencing enough growth. The company started losing money.”
Meanwhile, the business had store leases, employees’ salaries, and manufacturing and shipping costs to pay.
Its principal investor, Czech Asset Management, attempted for years to restore the company to profitability. An investment banker tried to sell the business but had no meaningful offers, according to both Luzinski and Redmond.
Czech Asset Management is now Alfred Angelo’s largest creditor, having filed $54 million in claims with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in West Palm Beach.
The firm’s managing partner, Stephen Czech, did not return telephone calls seeking comment, but Redmond responded on his behalf, confirming $24 million and $30 million in loans made by the equity firm to Alfred Angelo since 2011. Czech was listed as Alfred Angelo’s chairman in a 2016 news release from his firm.
