Coyne International Enterprises Corp. is progressing in its Chapter 11 case filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York in Syracuse on July 31, 2015, and remains on track to complete three planned sales of its operating units in a balance sheet restructuring.
The three planned sales are: New Bedford, Massachusetts, which will be sold to Clean Uniforms and More!; Richmond, Virginia and Greenville, South Carolina, which will be sold to Prudential Overall Supply; and the remaining plants and service centers — Bristol, Tennessee, Buffalo, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, London, Kentucky, Syracuse, New York, and York, Pennsylvania — which will be acquired by Coyne’s existing senior management team. All the above is subject to higher and better bids.
Coyne is operating under the supervision of the Bankruptcy Court, and Coyne’s current management team is leading the company throughout the Chapter 11 process. Coyne recently filed notices under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act); these were part of ensuring a seamless transition to buyers with no service interruption to customers.
“The WARN Act filings were a formality because there will be a change of control in Coyne's business entities,” said Mark Samson, Coyne’s CEO. “There are buyers lined up for all of Coyne’s facilities. There are two locations that could be impacted by possible layoffs — New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Greenville, South Carolina. Under the existing deal, approximately 525 jobs will be preserved out of approximately 620 positions.”
Subject to Bankruptcy Court approval, NXT Capital, LLC has agreed to provide Coyne with $3.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing to finance the company’s operations in Chapter 11.
Herrick, Feinstein LLP is representing Coyne as lead bankruptcy counsel. Phillips Lytle LLP is local counsel. Coyne’s financial advisor is CohnReznick LLP, and its investment banker is SSG Capital Advisors, LLC.
Headquartered in Syracuse, Coyne was founded in 1929 by J. Stanley Coyne and grew into one of the largest privately owned industrial laundry companies in the United States. Coyne currently operates nine plants and 15 service centers in 23 states. Coyne provides comprehensive uniform sales/rental and laundry services to more than 10,000 customers in a wide variety of industries. Products offered by Coyne include workplace uniforms, career apparel, protective garments, shop towels, floor mats, treated dust mops and wet mops. Coyne also provides linens, mats, towels and restroom hygiene products.