ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 26, 1996 TAG: 9604260047
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
Beverage company Quibell Corp. has temporarily shut down its Roanoke production plant, the result of a $600,000 dispute with its bottle supplier.
But the company, which produces sodas and fruit juices in addition to sparkling water, should be back in production by May 1, said A. Carter Magee, the company's Roanoke counsel.
The dispute began last fall, Magee said Thursday. Quibell's long-time bottle supplier, Zuckerman-Honickman Inc. of King of Prussia, Pa., said Quibell had never paid an invoice of approximately $600,000 for some 800,000 bottles.
Quibell borrowed what Magee described as several hundred thousand dollars from NationsBank Corp., its primary lender, and the two companies worked out a repayment plan. But several weeks ago, the bottle maker demanded full repayment of the invoice and refused to ship any more bottles until the bill was settled. Magee said he assumes Quibell missed a payment or didn't pay on time, or perhaps requested a new payment schedule that Zuckerman didn't approve.
Quibell was willing to finish repaying the bottle company, Magee said, but didn't have the necessary cash on hand. The two companies are working toward another payment arrangement, he said, and the bottles should be shipped by May 1, which will allow Quibell to resume selling its beverages and repaying the bill.
"The irony of it is, if Zuckerman doesn't ship the bottles, they can't get paid back," Magee said.
If the agreement goes as planned, the temporary shutdown shouldn't have any substantial negative effect on Quibell's sales, Magee said. A two-week supply of the sparkling water is already in the distribution system, so consumers should not face a Quibell shortage.
The bottle dispute is a "blip on the business radar screen," Magee said. As of January 1995, the most recent figures available, Quibell's production plant in Roanoke's Centre for Industry and Technology produced about 1.5 million cases per year. A case contains 12 to 24 bottles, depending on the size of bottles. And Quibell's sales have been increasing, Magee said.
"The good news is that the backlog [of orders] is the best it's ever been," he said. None of the plant's 20 employees has been fired, he said, and the company plans to hire additional workers once production resumes.
Neither Quibell president Ronald Quibell nor anyone at Zuckerman-Honickman could be reached for comment Thursday.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB