New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - Advanced Sports Enterprises Inc.

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Advanced Sports Enterprises Inc.

November 16, 2018

Another day, another retailer in bankruptcy court.

Advanced Sports Enterprises Inc. and several affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy on Friday in the District of North Carolina. The debtors are designers, manufacturers and wholesale sellers of bicycles and related equipment. The debtors utilize both online (www.performancebike.com) and brick-and-mortar channels (104 retail stores across 20 states) to sell their bikes.

The debtors blame their capital structure and the seasonal nature of their business for their fall into bankruptcy. Due to lack of liquidity, it sounds as if the debtors engaged in an operational restructuring that included stretching payables to suppliers and creditors. As you might imagine, once payments are delayed, suppliers and creditors get kind of pissed off and start imposing more aggressive payment terms. In other words, they’re not too keen on being creditors. When that happens, a company pushing the envelope is caught in a vicious cycle. Indeed, here, the debtors say that they are on pace to run out of money in January 2019.

So, the debtors intend to market their business to an array of potential purchasers: private equity funds, family offices, strategic parties, and liquidators. While that process plays out, they will close 40 stores. They seek approval of a $45mm DIP credit facility from their prepetition senior secured lender, Wells Fargo Bank NA, to fund the cases.

  • Jurisdiction: D. of North Carolina

  • Capital Structure: $37.9mm first lien credit facility (Wells Fargo NA). $7.375mm term loan (Advanced Holdings Co., Ltd.). Otherwise, see below.

  • Company Professionals:

    • Legal: Flaster/Greenberg P.C. (William Burnett, Richard Dressel, Harry Giacometti, Douglas Stanger, Damien Nicholas Tancredi) & (local) Northern Blue LLP (John Northen, Vicki Parrott, John Paul H. Cournoyer)

    • Financial Advisor: Clear Thinking Group LLC (Joseph Marchese)

    • Investment Banker: D.A. Davidson & Co. (Michael Smith)

    • Liquidator: Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC

    • Real Estate Consultant: A&G Realty Partners LLC

    • Claims Agent: KCC LLC (*click on company name above for free docket access)

  • Other Parties in Interest:

    • Senior Secured Lender: Wells Fargo Bank NA

      • Legal: Riemer & Braunstein LLP (Donald Rothman, Steven Fox) & (local) Williams Mullen (Holmes Harden)

    • Unsecured Creditors Committee: none appointed due to lack of creditors.

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Source: First Day Declaration.

Source: First Day Declaration.

New Chapter 11 Filing - Product Quest Manufacturing LLC

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Product Quest Manufacturing LLC

9/7/18

Product Quest Manufacturing LLC, a contract manufacturer of sunscreens and other sun care products, OTC drugs, prescription drugs, topical animal health products and cosmetics has filed for bankruptcy in the Middle District of North Carolina. At one point, the company produced $125mm worth of units per year, servicing the likes of drug store retailers (e.g., Walgreens, Rite Aid), big box retailers like Walmart and Target, and discount retailers like Dollar General. With an impressive customer list like that, what could've gone wrong?

The company provides a shockingly blunt reason:

These chapter 11 cases have been caused by ineffective senior leadership, employee turnover, extensive product quality issues and the subsequent recall of many products manufactured in the Daytona Facility due to stability and contamination issues and regulatory compliance issues affecting the Daytona Facility and the Kannapolis Facility.

Wowsers. You don't typically see such a harsh and to-the-point statement like that. But, the company apparently "suffered from operational cost overruns, ineffective production standards and poor pricing practices leading to significant margin erosion." Consequently, the senior lenders called a default and replaced the company's board of managers. It also received a Form 483 notice from the Food and Drug Administration regarding potential FDA violations that include, among other things, "potential cross contamination of human health and animal health products." And we were wondering why we recently started moo'ing. Now we know: it must've been the OTC treatments we purchased at CVS. This is f*cked up. And, accordingly and (apparently) appropriately, the company CEO got binned as a result. 

An investigation by King & Spalding revealed that there were, in fact, quality control issues. A little microbial contamination here. A little compliance deficiency there. Some out of specification products here. A little Staphylococcus aureus here and a little Pseudomonas aeruginosa there. The company implemented quarantines and initiated product recalls (including a CVS nasal spray product). The company also ceased operations at its two facilities. Jokes aside, we hope that no one was severely hurt. Luckily these issues were discovered before things became worse. 

The company will seek to sell its assets in chapter 11. 

  • Jurisdiction: M.D. of North Carolina
  • Capital Structure: $153.6mm secured debt (Madison Capital Funding LLC)    
  • Company Professionals:
    • Legal: Northern Blue LLP (John Northern, Vicki Parrott, John Paul H. Cournoyer)
    • Financial Advisor/CRO: Conway MacKenzie Inc. (Joe Geraghty) 
    • Board of Directors Legal: King & Spalding LLP
    • Claims Agent: KCC (*click on company name above for free docket access)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Financial Sponsor: Kainos Capital LLC
    • Prepetition Secured Lender: Bank of America NA