Just months after getting new owners and a new name, a furniture retailer that recently announced it is closing three stores in the Valley has now filed for bankruptcy.

Loves Furniture and Mattresses, has filed a Chapter 11 petition in bankruptcy court.

Just last month employees at a dozen locations, including the former Levin stores in Niles, Boardman, and Hermitage, were told that they are no longer employed by Loves.

At the time, Love’s CEO Mack Peters told 21 News that they were downsizing operations and planned to only keep 12 stores open near the company's headquarters in the Detroit area. 

The other 12 stores are conducting what Peters called “consolidation sales” being overseen by Planned Furniture Promotions, a Connecticut-based company that offers services that include liquidations, store closings, going-out-of-business, and bankruptcy.

It has been eight months since Loves Furniture and Mattresses took over 27 stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and four other states after the parent company of Art Van, Wolf, and Levin stores announced it was going out of business.

In the bankruptcy filing, Loves said difficulties developed in locating, obtaining, and delivering merchandise to its customers.

Many of Loves’ suppliers refused to ship further product, much of which had been ordered in May and June so that items that were expected to be received on which customer deposits had been taken were longer expected.

"For some of those items, the unreceived shipments included items that would complete a customer’s order without which it was rendered unsaleable. For example, a customer may have ordered a three-piece sectional, Loves had received only 2 pieces, and the third piece needed to complete the set might be in the unreceived shipments which the supplier was unwilling to ship due to lack of payment."

Peters says the problem of customer cancelations was exacerbated by Loves’ decision to close the PA stores and the liquidation of another 13 stores in November. This led many customers to believe that Loves was closing all locations, according to the filing.

“Customers’ uncertainty as to whether Loves would remain in existence, led to numerous cancelations to the point where daily cancelations often exceeded daily sales,” according to the court document.