Libbey Files Chapter 11 Amid ‘Dramatic’ Slump

Libbey, a single of the world’s largest makers of glass tableware, submitted Chapter eleven bankruptcy on Monday, citing the “unprecedented” influence of the coronavirus pandemic on demand for its goods.

The business experienced been pursuing a restructuring of its equilibrium sheet even in advance of the pandemic pressured it to near its factories in Toledo, Ohio, and Shreveport, La., and practically shut down its cafe product sales channel.

A seven-12 months, $440 million personal loan was scheduled to mature last month.

But Libbey reported Monday that it experienced been “unable to offset the steep decline in sales” ensuing from the pandemic, leaving it with no option but to file bankruptcy for the initial time in its 202-12 months record.

“While we entered 2020 with positive momentum from our potent finish in 2019, the extraordinary and prolonged influence of COVID-19 on the demand for our goods and on our small business is actually unparalleled in Libbey’s more than 200-12 months record,” CEO Mike Bauer reported in a news release.

Libbey’s loan providers have agreed to present up to $a hundred and sixty million in financing to hold it running through the Chapter eleven approach. “Entering this approach is a essential phase to deal with our liquidity, fortify our equilibrium sheet and much better situation Libbey for the foreseeable future,” Bauer added.

The business, which was established in 1818 as the New England Glass Corporation, sells goods these types of as tumblers, stemware, mugs, bowls, shot glasses, canisters, and candleholders by food items-assistance, retail and small business-to-small business channels.

Food-assistance product sales in the U.S. and Canada have been declining due to “take-out and supply raising in popularity relative to in-cafe eating,” Brian Whittman, Libbey’s restructuring advisor, reported in a court docket declaration.

Other headwinds, he reported, have integrated the migration of purchaser obtaining from brick-and-mortar stores to on line commerce and “increased competitive pressures in Latin The usa, as Chinese suppliers divert product sales of their goods from the U.S. marketplace to Latin The usa in order to prevent the amplified tariffs imposed by the United States on Chinese imports.”

Bauer reported Libbey is currently seeing some improvement in demand with the gradual lifting of continue to be-at-property limitations and the resumption of manufacturing in Toledo and Shreveport.

chapter eleven, coronavirus, Libbey, Mike Bauer, pandemic, tableware