Web posted
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Printer files for bankruptcy
Central Plains organizer hopes to find a buyer
By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
Central Plains Book Manufacturing filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week and the company's 70 workers have been laid off.
The last day of production at Central Plains' Strother Field plant was last Wednesday, said Gunter Hansen, the company's general manager.
Central Plains filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Kansas, in Wichita, on July 30, a court clerk there said. A first meeting of creditors was scheduled for Aug. 24 at the district courthouse in Wichita.
Hansen said today there are two buyers interested in purchasing the company, and he hopes the plant will be operating again soon. One of the potential buyers is from Wichita; the other is from St. Louis.
"I would do anything I can to make sure the company and employees stay here," Hansen said.
He said Central Plains now has three-quarters of a million dollars worth of orders to complete for its customers. So far, customers have been patient with the company's situation, he said, and Central Plains has "good rapport" with them.
Hansen said he was "blindsided" by the company's financial troubles as were his employees. He organized the company in 1999 after Gilliland's Printing in downtown Arkansas City closed.
Hansen organized the group with former Gilliland employees who pooled their resources and funds.
In 2004, Hansen said the company was doing well and represented one of the business success stories of Cowley County.
At that time, the company occupied a 56,000-square-foot facility and was planning to make additions to the building.
Central Plains is one of only about three dozen specialized book printers, meaning that book printing is its entire business, not just a side business, he said.
Its work includes trade books, catalogs, education books, cook books and directories.
One of its biggest customers has been Queenship Publishing, a California-based religious book publisher, which has a distribution center next door to Central Plains.
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