Tom Thumb Convenience Store Chain Files for Bankruptcy
Thursday, March 11 2004
Published on AllBusiness.com
MINNEAPOLIS -- Tom Thumb Food Markets Inc. has filed for bankruptcy after closing its 131 stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin in recent weeks, reported the Associated Press.
The Hastings, Minn.-based convenience store chain, a subsidiary of Polka Dot Dairy Inc., submitted a Chapter 7 petition Tuesday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which indicates that the company plans to liquidate itself.
Tom Thumb joins a growing number of regional convenience store chains falling victim to high fuel prices, dwindling tobacco money and intense competition from supermarkets, gas stations and discounters, according to the AP.
Sales, which topped $148 million in fiscal 2002, were projected to fall to $76 million in the 12 months that ends in May. According to court documents, Tom Thumb had $13.4 million in assets and $17 million in debts.
Wallace Pettit, who along with Herbert Koch founded the convenience store chain in 1957, is among Tom Thumb's largest secured creditors.
Pettit owns and runs Polka Dot Dairy, which supplied Tom Thumb stores with dairy products. Tom Thumb owes Pettit approximately $574,000, reported the AP.
It's unclear how Tom Thumb's bankruptcy will affect Polka Dot Dairy. That company generates about $300 million in annual sales, according to the Fact Book, a guide to Minnesota's public and private companies.
Attempts to reach Pettit and Michael McGrath, a lawyer who is handling Tom Thumb's bankruptcy case, were unsuccessful.
The Hastings, Minn.-based convenience store chain, a subsidiary of Polka Dot Dairy Inc., submitted a Chapter 7 petition Tuesday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which indicates that the company plans to liquidate itself.
Tom Thumb joins a growing number of regional convenience store chains falling victim to high fuel prices, dwindling tobacco money and intense competition from supermarkets, gas stations and discounters, according to the AP.
Sales, which topped $148 million in fiscal 2002, were projected to fall to $76 million in the 12 months that ends in May. According to court documents, Tom Thumb had $13.4 million in assets and $17 million in debts.
Wallace Pettit, who along with Herbert Koch founded the convenience store chain in 1957, is among Tom Thumb's largest secured creditors.
Pettit owns and runs Polka Dot Dairy, which supplied Tom Thumb stores with dairy products. Tom Thumb owes Pettit approximately $574,000, reported the AP.
It's unclear how Tom Thumb's bankruptcy will affect Polka Dot Dairy. That company generates about $300 million in annual sales, according to the Fact Book, a guide to Minnesota's public and private companies.
Attempts to reach Pettit and Michael McGrath, a lawyer who is handling Tom Thumb's bankruptcy case, were unsuccessful.