COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) - Woodflour Corporation of Chicago has made a $2.75 million offer to purchase Sanderson Plumbing, a Columbus company that began manufacturing toilet seats in 1940.
The Commercial Dispatch reports (https://bit.ly/1fBfRjV) a federal judge in Aberdeen is scheduled to decide on whether to accept the Woodflour bid Tuesdays.
Sanderson Plumbing filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last October.
If the judge approves the bid, the next step will be an auction, at which other companies can out-bid Woodflour, said Fred Cross, managing director of Heritage Equity Partners, which is helping with the bid process.
Sanderson Plumbing owes more than $2.8 million in unsecured claims to creditors, according to court documents. CEO Tom Whitaker said the majority of Sanderson Plumbing’s 250 employees were laid off and the company’s shut down production Tuesday.
Whitaker said they hope to have plant operations resuming this summer, but it is uncertain how many employees the plant would have when that happens.
“We are still shipping product and will continue for the next week to 10 days,” Whitaker said Thursday. “As soon as we have a new owner, we will notify our employees and customers and start production again. Hopefully that will be soon.”
Cross said nearly 100 companies have shown interest and signed non-disclosure agreements so they can access data and as much information as possible on the company in preparation of making offers. He estimated fewer than 10 of those would consider overbidding Woodflour’s initial bid.
“It is my hope they’ll buy the company, close sometime in early June, buy the raw materials to re-prime the engine and within two to three weeks be up and running again,” Cross said.
About 100,000 toilet seats a month had been produced at the 360,000-square-foot facility.
“Those customers they have and still want their product, they’re put in a position right now where they almost have to go elsewhere to look for that product. The quicker we can open the doors to the company, the more those customers they’ll be able to save,” Cross said.
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Information from: The Commercial Dispatch, https://www.cdispatch.com
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