Tiger Group’s Remarketing Services Division and Reich Brothers are now accepting offers for the assets of Creations Garden Natural Products, Inc., a natural products manufacturer based in Valencia, Calif. Tiger and Reich are conducting the sale in cooperation with Brian Testo Associates.
At its peak, Creations Garden posted annual sales of approximately $50 million, with its products sold at such retailers as Target, Sam’s Club, BJs Wholesale Club, Walgreens, Duane Reade, Hi Health, TJ Maxx, and AM/PM. The bankrupt company’s product lines include skin care, hair care, nutraceuticals, organic supplements, tattoo and piercing skin care, organic pet supplements, beverages, powdered drinks and energy shots. The business is being offered for sale as a going concern, or in lots during a live webcast auction scheduled for February 12 and 13.
Assets being offered include the global company’s brand names and other intellectual property; more than $8 million of finished goods, component and raw inventory; more than 200,000 square feet of state-of-the-art filling, mixing, packaging and support equipment; as well as office, laboratory, warehousing and transportation equipment.
“This sale represents a tremendous buying opportunity for a broad audience,” said Jeff Tanenbaum, President of Tiger Remarketing Services. “We are always hopeful a going concern buyer recognizes the opportunity and steps up to put the company and its employees back to work. However, if this does not occur, the components of this operation appeal to many audiences – from national competitors and related packaging operations who will appreciate the late-model, well maintained mixing, processing and packaging equipment, to any local and regional business interested in warehouse, distribution, facility and office equipment.”
The trade names being offered include the Creation's Garden® brand of nutritional supplements, body cleansing supplements and other natural remedies; Rocco’s Old School Products,® a natural and organic skin care line devoted exclusively to the tattoo, piercing and body art marketplace; and The Flying Basset,™ the first organic whole food pet supplement line.
Finished goods inventories include the company’s own brands as well as products under retail private labels. The multi-million-dollar component and raw material inventory includes bottles and caps, tubes, jars, and ingredients, as well as materials purchased from domestic vendors.
The filling equipment features 11 single and dual head HMC Bartelt machines (rebuilt by HMC between 2008 and 2011) equipped for liquid and/or powder and tablet filling; a 2006 Norden 420HA Tube Filler; and a complete Kalish Swiftpack line. The company’s complete liquid bottling line includes an Accutek bottle sorter, Biner Ellison filling machine, a Kaps Plus capper, conveyers, heat tunnels, and Video Jet Ink coders. Tablet equipment includes a 2007 O’Hara Fastcoat coater, four Stokes tablet presses, three Bosch high-speed encapsulators, and three Schaeffer encapsulators. Also available will be packaging equipment that includes an ALS automatic tube labeler; an Axon shrink sleeve label applicator; two Belco heat tunnels; and two complete pill bottle fill lines with lane counters, neck banders, labelers, sleevers and accumulation tables.
Among the mixing equipment will be two B Cast 3,000-gallon stainless steel mix tanks; thirty 275-cubic-foot ribbon blenders; and assorted stainless steel-jacketed mixing tanks and kettles. Lab equipment includes five late-model Shimadzu HPLCs, two Shimadzu gas chromatographs, a Rotovapor, and numerous platform and benchtop scales. Plant support equipment for bid includes a Torit dust collector, an Air Foxx dust collector and three Puretec Aquafine DI water systems.
Other assets include executive office and reception furniture and furnishings, file cabinets, telephone systems, copiers, and desktop and notebook computers, along with servers and presentation equipment.
Vehicles being sold include an International 26-foot box truck with lift gate, an Isuzu 16-foot box truck with lift gate, a 2010 Chevrolet Suburban, a 2008 GMC Express Cargo Van, as well as seven electric and lpg Toyota forklifts. Warehouse and support equipment includes more than 400 sections of pallet racking, floor scales, electric pallet jacks, manual pallet jacks, rolling ladders, merchandise carts, stock shelving, and commercial refrigerators.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 20, 2013 in the California Central Bankruptcy Court.