ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140034
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
THE ROANOKE BEVERAGE COMPANY filed Chapter 11 and announced its sale to Matrix Capital Market, which will retain the Quibell name, facility and employees.
Quibell Corp., the beleaguered Roanoke beverage company that has been shut down since mid-April, on Thursday filed for bankruptcy protection and announced its sale to a Richmond investment firm.
The Chapter 11 reorganization, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western Virginia, will facilitate the sale of the company to Matrix Capital Markets Group Inc. of Richmond, said Andrew Goldstein, the bottled water company's attorney. No one at Matrix was available for comment Thursday.
Filing for protection under Chapter 11 allows a company to continue operating while negotiating new terms with creditors and restructuring debts. Quibell also will be able to renegotiate existing contracts, perhaps under more favorable terms. With such protection, Goldstein said, Matrix plans to have Quibell's Roanoke operations up and running again in the next few weeks.
The new owner, which Goldstein said has the management expertise and financial backing Quibell needs, will retain the Quibell name and its facility in Roanoke's Centre for Industry and Technology. Quibell employees also will be brought back to work.
The two companies have not yet hammered out what role, if any, president Ronald Quibell and other Quibell management will play in the new company, Goldstein said.
Quibell expects to come out of bankruptcy in a "fairly short period of time," Goldstein said, perhaps three to four months, or six months at the longest.
"This could actually be called a good-news bankruptcy," he said.
Good news for Quibell, perhaps, but not necessarily the best news for its creditors, who will have to wait for repayment until Quibell files its reorganization plan.
Quibell listed assets of $4.5 million and liabilities of $3.7 million on its Chapter 11 petition. The company's debts include almost $900,000 owed to NationsBank Corp., which last month was granted a temporary injunction - negated by the Chapter 11 filing - to keep the water company from selling any assets. Quibell also owes almost $22,000 to Corrugated Container Corp. of Roanoke County and more than $24,000 to the law firm of Glenn, Feldmann, Darby & Goodlatte of Roanoke, as well as smaller amounts to a number of other creditors, Goldstein said.
Additionally, Quibell's bottle supplier, Zuckerman-Honickman Inc. of King of Prussia, Pa., said Quibell owes it approximately $600,000. Quibell suspended operations at its Roanoke plant in mid-April, when Zuckerman refused to ship any more bottles.
Quibell said last month it was negotiating a sale of the company to Soho Beverages Inc. of Herndon, a privately owned company that, like Quibell, produces sparkling water and fruit beverages. Despite Thursday's sale to Matrix, Soho isn't out of the picture, Goldstein said. The Northern Virginia company perhaps may manage the plant for the new owners, he said.
No one at Soho could be reached for comment Thursday.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB