Swoozie's to close its doors

By Rachel Tobin Ramos

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An invitation to its own liquidation sale was not the greeting card that Swoozie’s wanted to send.

Enlarge photo

2005 AJC file Kelly Plank Dworkin founded Swoozie's with her husband, David Dworkin. Mr. Dworkin died May 2, 2007.

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But it is the outcome of the bankruptcy case filed earlier this month by the card and gift chain with 43 stores -- five in metro Atlanta -- and 350 employees in 14 states.

The Atlanta-based company sought protection from creditors, blaming the economic downturn as well as 13 poorly performing stores it acquired in the Northeast.

Last week, Hilco purchased the company's retail and other assets in a bankruptcy court-approved auction for $7.4 million.  The inventory has a retail value of $18.4 million.

Everything in the stores, according to bankruptcy court filings posted Tuesday, will be liquidated. A clerk at a store on Roswell Road said the liquidation sale had already begun. Most items are 10 percent off, while greeting cards are 30 percent off.

Kelly Plank Dworkin, the company’s co-founder, wrote a letter to customers on Swoozie’s Web site.

“While I kept a positive outlook throughout this process with respect to finding a way to emerge as a reorganized company, it doesn’t appear we are going to be offered that chance,” she wrote.

She founded the chain nearly a decade ago with her husband David Dworkin, who died three years ago, her letter said.

“I am a woman of faith,” she wrote. “I am confident that this has a larger purpose that will one day make sense.” In the letter, she also thanked customers and apologized “to any customer who did not receive that perfect service experience.”