Bankruptcy forces sale of Weiser packing facility

The Four Rivers Onion Packing facility near Weiser is listed for sale as the company pursues liquidation of assets under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
 First Fruits Holdings LLC purchased the onion packing plant in 2015. The company filed for bankruptcy in April of 2018 in North Carolina, listing assets of $1 million to $10 million and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million.
 The Four Rivers Onion Packing property is located along U.S. Highway 95 three miles south of Weiser. The sale includes the main packing building and four separate storage facilities with 16,000 bins on 11 acres. The current asking price is $4 million for the land, buildings and all equipment. 
 The Bristol Group, with offices in Boise, is handling the sale for the bankruptcy trustee. The property has been on the market for about six weeks, broker Trevin Rasmussen said.
 There is some interest in the property, but no firm offers were pending as of last week, he said. Any offers on the property will have to be approved by the creditors and the bankruptcy court, he said.
 Rasmussen said letters were sent to 300 farmers and onion packers notifying them that the business was on the market. The ideal situation would be to find a buyer or buyers who can operate it again as an onion packing plant, he said.
 “The right scenario has not come up yet,” he said.
 In a perfect storm of problems, the packing company was hit hard by the winter of 2017 at nearly the same time onion prices were depressed. 
 Court documents filed in the bankruptcy case note the business was “adversely affected by unprecedented snowstorms.” At least two buildings suffered major roof damage from heavy snow. The damaged buildings housed the onion packing lines.
 At nearly the same time, the business weathered some of the lowest onion prices in November and December of 2016 that growers and packers had seen in years. 
 Four Rivers Onion Packing shut down operations in January of 2018 and filed for voluntary bankruptcy three months later in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in North Carolina with the intent to liquidate assets.  
 The company employed 40-60 workers during the peak onion processing and packing season and packed 500,000 to 700,000 bags of local onions annually.
 Onion industry veteran Tracy Fowler incorporated First Fruits Holdings in 2015 in North Carolina to buy Four Rivers Packing. Fowler renamed the company Four Rivers Onion Packing. 
 First Fruits Holdings purchased the business and assets from the Idaho creditors, which provided seller financing. Additional financing was obtained from a nationwide bank.  
 The Idaho creditors and bank hold liens on most of the company’s real and personal property assets and are the largest secured creditors in the case, according to court documents.
 The Weiser Signal American reached Fowler by email and asked for comments on the sale and bankruptcy. 
 He said he was not at liberty to say anything during the bankruptcy proceedings.
 In June of 2018, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Warren denied a motion to transfer the case to the district of Idaho. 
 The collective “Idaho creditors” sought to move the proceedings closer to the location of the assets and creditors. They were opposed by First Fruits Holdings, which argued the majority shareholders of the company were located in North Carolina.

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Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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