Judge to Review Top Bid for Zelenka Farms -- Week Ahead
August 12 2016 - 12:31PM
Dow Jones News
By Katy Stech
Lawyers who put Zelenka Farms, a plant grower for big-box
retailers including Lowe's Cos., Kmart, Shopko and Home Depot Inc.,
into bankruptcy could get permission to sell its operations at a
hearing on Tuesday.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Barbara Houser is scheduled to look
over the top purchase offer for the Irving, Texas-based company,
which is operated by BFN Operations LLC. It employs 1,519 people at
farms located in Tennessee, Oregon and other states.
Ohio-based LM Farms LLC put in an early $15 million cash offer.
It is unclear whether other bidders emerged to challenge that bid
at an auction that was scheduled to begin on Thursday. Lawyers
involved with the sale process were not immediately available to
comment.
Zelenka Farms filed for chapter 11 protection on June 17,
blaming financial troubles on an unexpectedly rainy April and May
that left it without enough money to pay down part of a loan before
a June 3 deadline.
With roughly 5,000 types of container-grown plants, Zelenka
Farms ranks as one of the nation's largest wholesale growers and
distributors of shrubs, trees, perennials, roses and other plants
within the country's $2.2 billion wholesale nursery products
industry. Zelenka Farms takes in roughly $130 million in annual
sales, including from its largest customer, Lowe's.
Founded in 1993 under the name Berry Family of Nurseries, the
company grows plants on a total of 3,577 acres of land.
Katy Stech can be reached at katherine.stech@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 12, 2016 12:16 ET (16:16 GMT)
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