The ongoing bankruptcy case of American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD) has taken another step forward, with a judge agreeing that the proposed sale is satisfactory and can proceed.
During a hearing on Feb. 10, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Goldblatt said he was “completely satisfied that the order that’s in front of me is appropriate.”
David Gremling, an attorney representing ATD, said the U.S. wholesale distributor targets Feb. 28 as the date to close the sale with an entity that so far has been identified in court filings as “Asphalt Buyer LLC.” That entity was the lone qualified bidder in the sale.
There were no objections to the sale order during the hearing, though several parties are still working through agreements and details in the contracts. Those parties include landlords to ATD’s leased warehouses, and even tiremakers and other vendors who continue to seek payment for their products that remain on warehouse shelves.
Attorney Patrick Jackson is representing two of those tire manufacturers — Nexen Tire America Inc. and Continental Tire the Americas LLC. Jackson noted that the tire companies have “active contracts” with ATD, and as a result the total dollar amount owed to those tiremakers is a rolling and fluctuating figure.
The bankruptcy covers not just the assets related to ATD’s warehouses and wholesale business, but also its retail Tire Pros franchise, the online portal of TireBuyer.com, Hercules Tire & Rubber Co., plus its more recent ventures like Torqata Data and Analytics LLC.
