Posted by Randall Reese on Monday, September 28, 2009 Labels: bankruptcy, business, chapter 11, concrete, corporation, law, petition, schwing, schwing america

Schwing America, Inc., a St. Paul, Minnesota manufacturer of concrete equipment including concrete pumps, recyclers, truck mixers and accessories, filed a voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy petition today in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. The company is a subsidiary of Schwing GmbH and was founded in 1974.

Today's bankruptcy petition listed assets of $130.6 million and debts of $90.9 million (both as of July 31, 2009). Accoridng to a corporate profile, the company's operations include:

    * engineered systems for underground applications, including tunneling and mining

    * pumps that are used for mucking out spoils or backfilling mine paste

    * boom and trailer pumps, placing booms, truck mixers, batch plants, and plant mixers, as well as weigh belts, feeders, and reclaimers

Major customer groups include ready-mix producers and municipalities. The company is represented in the bankruptcy cases by Ravich Meyer Kirkman McGrath & Nauman.

http://www.netdocketsblog.com/2009/09/schwing-america-files-for-chapter-11-in.html

I have had a long and very pleasant love affair with Schwing. This news brought tears to my eyes. My only hope for Schwing is that this makes them a stronger company in the future.

I feel for those who have lost their jobs in our industry. Today I felt a new depth of lose and a feeling that maybe we have not seen the worst of times as of yet.

Our hearts are all sadden to hear such news.

I don't know about the other manufacturers,these people are 1st class.I think it was inevitable,the economy stopped to fast for anyone to forsee.For me,this goes down with Montgomery-Wards,Woolworths and many other companies.I trust they can survive,good luck SA.

Todd, this news is incredibly shocking to me . I actually teared up a bit while reading this.

  I will never forget the first day I went to work for Schwing America may 4th,2001 . Chuck Witte hired me as a field Boom Inspector/welder. It was the happiest day of my working career,then a few months later Schwing moved me and my family to Penn state to represent the north east USA.

  The people at Schwing treated me with so much respect and patience that I have never felt at any other company,it was an incredible honor to work for this company and the management there with people like Tom Anderson/Hank Klein and Tony Haider to mention a few. The last 18 months have brought so many changes to Schwing that the place is almost unrecognizable from when I first worked for them.

  This news saddens me to the core,I will pray for the people still there holding on tightly to there jobs. And I desperatly hope that Schwing will recover some how to there position as the best made concrete pump manufacture in the world.

  Best wishes to all my freinds left at Schwing America ,mush love and respect to you all.

regards

Todd Usher

They have been here before.  1990 I believe.

Wells Fargo just put the heat on them along with going from a 500 pump company large and small to a 30 pump company this year would do a number on anyone.

This is just the start. This will be a long and very cold winter no matter what the outside temp is. This industry is still digging down and the bottom is not close yet.

Schwing has been a great part of our industry. Even in these times. You can sell a Schwing before anything in the world. The demand around the world for used pumps is Schwing hands down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11,_Title_11,_United_States_Code

I look at it as an unpleasant task that more are going to have to go through.

First in, first out.

GM did it, Chrysler too.

Airlines have been there.

Any truth to the rumour that there was a big (fire) sale of Schwing iron just last week?

Schwing America like all manufactures find themselves going through trying times, nobody is immune to this crisis.

My hat is off to them as last week they were the only other pump manufacture to show full support at the ACPA Education Conference.  That expense did not have to happen, but they stayed the coarse and showed support for an industry in hard times where other did not.

Thank You

Bob Miller

CIFA USA, Inc.  

I doubt there is any truth to a fire sale of Schwing.  Chapter 11 is reorganize; Chapter 7 is liquify or sell off.  Someone probably saw a bunch of Schwings at auction and over-reacted. 

Chapter 11 isn't that bad.  Many big corporations are taking this opportunity to file Chapter 11 to reorganize their debt and loans so they can get out of high interest and failing investment situations.  The biggest problem for a company filing is tons more paperwork during the next few years because the banks that hold the reorganized loans become the trustees and want proof you are really turning things around and trying to get out of the red.  The company I used to work for filed Chapter 11 and emerged 2 years later with a better credit rating than before.

This will probably make Schwing stronger when it is all over in a few years and they are out of bankruptcy.  The banks don't want Schwing to fail...they want their money.  Schwing filing Ch 11 is Schwing saying they don't want to quit yet but they need to renegotiate the debt or they will fail and no one gets paid.

I was informed of this about six months ago from a very reliable source,but I sure as hell wasn't going to post it because I hoped and prayed it wasn't true.  What a shame, hopefully they will come back stronger than ever.  After Nov. 2010 things will start to get better.

I just got off the phone with Brian Hazelton - Chief Executive Officer of Schwing and I have to tell you I like him a lot. Good guy. Schwing is 1st class.

It's just a re-organization they're not going anywhere.