Plastic pallet company files for bankruptcy

ORLANDO, Florida—Plastic pallet pooling company Intelligent Global Pooling Systems Company LLC (iGPS Co) has petitioned for bankruptcy.

The Orlando, Florida-based company took the financial step as part of a sales process. It intends to sell its assets to a joint venture formed between Balmoral Funds (a Los Angeles, California-based private equity company), One Equity Partners (the private equity division of JPMorgan Chase & Co), some of their affiliates and two individuals: Jeff and Robert Liebesman. The joint venture has taken the name iGPS Logistics LLC.

US bankruptcy rules state that before the sale can be finalized, it must be subjected to higher and better bids and Court approval.

According to iGPS Co, “iGPS will continue operating its business without interruption during the sale period,” and its “customer care will not be affected”.

Thomson Reuters reports that iGPS ran into financial trouble after it encountered inventory problems.

“In late 2011 the company found it could not account for 1.5 million of its 10 million pallets, which its lenders alleged was a default under its credit facility, according to documents filed with the US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware,” writes the news agency.

Some of those missing pallets were eventually found by police. In December 2012, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Industrial Plastics Theft Task Force made arrests at two plastic recycling companies, and recovered over $250,000 worth of pallets, including “some owned by Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS) Company LLC”, according to a statement issued by iGPS.

Details and photos of the theft recovery are available on the sheriff’s website, where one officer, Sergeant Nabeel Mitry, described how such thefts usually occur:

“The plastic trademark products are often stolen from the loading docks behind businesses throughout Los Angeles County and the entire region…Additionally, either employees steal the plastics themselves, or leave them in a place outside the business so their crime partners can pick them up.”

Captain Mike Claus is also quoted on the website. At the time he reported that over $5 million in “stolen trademark plastic” had been recovered during a four month period, and estimated the total value of plastic thefts in the LA area could total more than $10 million over the course of a year.

City funding for the task force was originally set to expire in January 2013, but an extension was granted until the end of the city’s fiscal year, which falls on June 30, 2013.