3 firms seek $1.6M
they say Allens owes
Three produce suppliers for the now-defunct Allens Inc. have asked a bankruptcy court judge to compel the vegetable company's legal advisers to pay them $1.6 million they say they are still owed.
Hartung Brothers Inc. of Wisconsin, H.C. Schmieding of Springdale and D&E Farms of Pennsylvania recently settled claims with Sager Creek Vegetable Company, Allens' new owner, for a little less than $12 million. The settlement did not include a projected $1.6 million in accrued interest and attorneys fees.
In a filing Friday, attorneys for the companies contend that Freeborn & Peters, a Chicago-based law firm; New York attorneys Greenberg & Traurig; and the law practice of Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates and Woodward in Little Rock all took payments from Allens ahead of creditors with valid claims under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. The act regulates the sale of fresh and frozen produce.
Valid claims are given priority in bankruptcy cases.
California-based Del Monte Foods purchased Sager Creek this month for $75 million. Sager Creek bought Allens at auction in February 2014 for $123.8 million.
Siloam Springs-based Allens filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2013.
-- John Magsam
Heber Springs resort
announces closure
Lindsey's Resort on the Little Red River is closing its business, the Heber Springs firm said on its website Monday.
Lindsey's indicated that its bank had filed a foreclosure notice on the resort. Lindsey's didn't name the lender, but in a November article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Billy Lindsey, an owner of the resort, said the resort had borrowed money from Jonesboro-based Liberty Bank to help fund an aggressive growth and improvement plan.
Liberty was sold to Centennial Bank of Conway in 2013. Centennial had threatened foreclosure in November.
The resort was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
-- David Smith
Index dips to 403.16;
Deltic, Wal-Mart up
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 3.84 to 403.16 Monday.
"The major market averages closed fractionally lower after trading modestly higher until the last 15 minutes of the session," said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Simmons First Investment Group Inc. in Little Rock.
Both Deltic Timber and Wal-Mart managed to eke out minimal gains on low volume, he said.
P.A.M. Transportation fell nearly 4 percent in light trading, Williams said.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 03/24/2015