Beaudry RV Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in what the company says is mainly a bid to restructure its debt.
Company CEO Thomas Sylvester said that daily operations at the two RV Centers in Tucson and Chandler and at Beaudry RV Resort will continue. The company has sold off its local auto dealerships in recent years.
Although the current downturn in the recreational vehicle industry is a factor, the filing for reorganization "was undertaken primarily to restructure financing for real-estate related debt," Sylvester said in a prepared statement.
The filing was necessary, Sylvester said, to protect operations from the demands of lenders holding the secured debt on real estate and buildings that house Beaudry's operations. The banking crisis resulted in an impasse with these lenders, the company said.
People are also reading…
Beaudry said it has never missed a payment or been late in payments to lenders.
Beaudry has reduced its debt to the affected lenders from more than $42 million in 2006 to $13.3 million.
"In the long term, our ownership and management feel very optimistic about the recovery of the industry," Sylvester said.
The largest proportion of RV buyers are often over age 55, and the aging of the baby boom points to ever greater potential growth over the next decade, he noted.
Related businesses included in the filing are Beaudry RV Resort and four real estate holding companies: Palo Verde Ventures LLC, Gila River Ventures LLC, Witt Ventures LLC and Smart Ventures LLC. Two related car dealerships also have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Berry Good LLC in Tucson and Beaudry Chevrolet, Chrysler, Jeep & Dodge in Benson.