UPDATE: Weave Corp. closes after defaulting on loans

Has agreed to turn over assets to lenders

Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, November 10, 2009

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Weave Corp., a well-known fabric suppler to the upholstered furniture industry, has closed after defaulting on loans to a Pennsylvania creditor.

Weave's president and CEO, Roger Berkley, who also is chairman of the National Textile Assn., did not return phone calls to Furniture/Today. A recorded message on the company's headquarters says, "We are sorry to tell you that the Weave Corp. has ceased operations. We regret any inconvenience you may experience as the result of this closure."

According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the family-owned textile mill has turned off its boilers and shut its computer system, and has agreed to turn over its assets to its lender, Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank.

Documents show that the bank is calling in two loans - one for $6.5 million and the other for $2.2 million - executed last Dec. 22 and refinancing loans originally made in September 2006.

The bank held Weave's assets as collateral. There was no word from PNC as to what they might do with the company. But court papers said that the value of Weave's collateral declined by nearly $1.2 million from March through August, 2009, although the documents did not disclose the total asset value.

As a U.S. producer of upper-end fabrics, Weave has faced the same severe economic conditions and competition from imports that have forced a number of other domestic mills to close.