Chapter Bankruptcy for Nursery Supplier to Walmart and Home Depot Files

Consolidated Horticulture, a nursery that supplies large quantities of nursery goods to major stores like Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe’s, has filed for chapter bankruptcy protection.

The bankruptcy of Consolidated Horticulture comes through the filing of its affiliate, retailer Hines Nurseries, a company with based in California, Oregon and Texas.

Hines Nurseries has locations across California, as well as stores in Arizona, Oregon and Texas.

Consolidated Horticulture is based out of Irvine, California. Representatives blamed slow sales in a tough economy for their chapter bankruptcy filing. Specifically, Bloomberg cited “weak consumer demand, anemic home-building activity and pricing pressure” from customers as reasons for the bankruptcy filing as reported by the company itself.

The company listed about $179 million is assets in the bankruptcy petition, and about $87 million in debt.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Wilmington, Delaware.

This is not the first time that the Hines Nurseries have dealt with bankruptcy. The company on its own filed for bankruptcy protection, from which it subsequently emerged from in 2009.

A hedge fund, Black Diamond Capital Management, had bought the company out of bankruptcy in 2009, changing the name from Hines Horticulture to Hines Nurseries.

This time around, they hope to stay open through the course of the bankruptcy reorganization. To that end, they said that they have secured $5 million in financing so that they can continue to operations. The company also hopes to get up to $20 million in financing in the future.

The bankruptcy was an expected move, as in the weeks leading up to it the company had warned employees at its locations that layoffs could be on the way. The situation for whether the layoffs would occur depended on whether the company could get a line of credit. With it apparently getting the credit it was looking for, Hines would not say whether the layoffs would still take place.

Hines Nurseries had already announced that they would lay off half of its Irvine, California, staff by the time the year ended. They also said that they would discontinue their plant and shrub production operations that took place in Irvine.

Hines claimed to have between $100 and $500 million in assets, with $50 to $100 million in liabilities. The company’s largest creditor is owed more than $300,000 by Hines.

Hines made a statement about the bankruptcy organization, saying that “this decline in revenue streams stems primarily from weaker consumer demand for nursery products due to the overall sustained general weak economic conditions and significant increases in production and distribution costs within the industry.”

Other companies in the same industry–the nursery, plant and shrub producers–have faced financial troubles, as homeowners and business owners tighten their belts and spend less money on landscaping.

Hines Nurseries has been on the scene in Irvine for over half a century. The corporate headquarters will remain in the city, though they will no longer grow plants and flowers there. Several hundred acres of land that the company used for farming will have its lease run out, and likely be developed as residential property.

Hines still has growing farms around Sacramento and San Diego.

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