BIRMINGHAM, AL (May 9, 2012)—Adams Produce Co. LLC, a Birmingham-based distributor more than a century old, has filed for bankruptcy.
Adams Produce distributes fresh fruits and vegetables to restaurants, schools, and other places around the Southeast, according to a company filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Birmingham. The company, which employs 400 workers, has distribution centers serving Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
It emerged at a recent hearing that the wholesale produce company's Birmingham-area workers hadn't been paid in the three weeks up to the May 4 bankruptcy filing.
The company owes fruit and vegetable suppliers $10.2 million, half of which is owed to foodservice distributor Pro*Act. Adams owes $4.4 million to other creditors.
Adams Produce was founded in 1903 by Edwin Calvin Adams. The Adams family sold the company to executives and a private equity firm in 2010. In its filing, the company said it had more than 200 but fewer than 1,000 creditors; assets ranging from $10 million to $50 million; and liabilities from $10 million to $50 million.
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