Court OKs GOB sale for DD Huber
Liquidator also will fill back orders
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, October 7, 2008
SOUTHAMPTON, N.J. — A U.S. Bankruptcy Court has approved the going-out-of-business sale for DD Huber Furniture & Design here.Jerry Cohen, attorney with New York-based Cohen Tauber Spievack & Wagner, which represents liquidator Planned Furniture Promotions, said the sales at the 10 Philadelphia-area stores will begin as quickly as possible, most likely in about two weeks.
PFP has the right to run sales for 170 days to liquidate inventory at the stores and in DD Huber's two area warehouses. In an unusual move, PFP also is assuming billing on DD Huber's backlog of customer orders to make sure customers receive those goods, Cohen said.
DD Huber is the brand name of the merged operations of D&D Home Furnishings and Oskar Huber Furniture, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September. The companies merged operations in March, hoping to gain from each other's strengths in merchandising and back-end operations.
Instead, the new company was crushed by declining business, noting in court documents that within a few months of its merger, sales plummeted 40% to 50%. Inventory costs and delivery costs jumped and its primary factor changed the company's lending terms, saying it "would no longer finance further inventory expansion dollar for dollar."
An attorney for DD Huber, which filed for protection under the umbrella name DD-OH Family Partners, has said the retailer will evaluate whether it can reorganized and get back in business with fewer stores.
Under the GOB deal, PFP guarantees a payment of about $4.6 million to the debtor and its banks. PFP will set aside $500,000 of that amount to pay for the pre-bankruptcy orders and will pay an additional $500,000 on top of the value of the inventory, to be distributed to creditors, Cohen said.
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We purchased two special order couches from their store in hatfield on 9/1/08, being told they...
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