Woodinville Tully's to Close, Company Files for Bankruptcy Protection

Tully's Coffee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday and announced plans to close its Woodinville store along with eight other Seattle-area locations.

The Hollywood Vineyard location in Woodinville will close Sunday, as will the Bella Bottega Tully's and the Bridle Trails store in Kirkland, a company spokeswoman confirmed to Patch via email.

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As The Seattle Times reported, the Seattle-based chain is strapped for cash and has been working to renegotiate its leases at several locations.

In addition to closing several stores, CEO Scott Pearson told the newspaper Tully's is working to reduce costs by eliminating positions through attrition and renegotiating contracts with suppliers.

“We’re at a point where we need to position Tully’s for the future,” Pearson told The Times. “We need to be able to keep this company operating, and this is the best option for us.”

The Tully's in Woodinville occupies prime real estate in the official tourism district, near the Hollywood Schoolhouse, across from The Station Pizzeria and in the same building as Purple Cafe and Wine Bar and several wine tasting rooms.

At Bella Bottega, Tully's appeared to be ready to expand its drink menu after applying for a liquor license earlier this year. Company spokeswoman Diane Geurts told Patch as recently as last week that those plans were still in the works.

Geurts also said last week that each Tully's store employs about 10 people and that the company was "making every effort to relocate staff" from the Redmond Town Center location to other stores. Those sentiments were re-issued Wednesday regarding the new round of closures, with the company saying it expects to be able to place the majority of employees in other Tully's locations.

 "Our priority is retaining our team," Geurts said via email.

The full list of Tully's stores to be closed at the end of business on Sunday is listed below:

• Wallingford 
• Columbia Center
• 4th & Union
• Madison Park
• Bella Bottega
• Bridle Trails
• TRC (Tacoma)
• Port Orchard
• Hollywood Hills (Woodinville)

Were you a regular customer at the Woodinville Tully's location? Where are you planning to go now for coffee? Tell us in the comments section.