Cooper-Booth Wholesale Co., which delivers to convenience stores across the Mid-Atlantic, filed for chapter 11 protection in Philadelphia earlier this week, according to Convenience Store News yesterday. The Mountville, Pa.-based company owes about $10.7 million in bank and credit card debt, in addition to about $22.8 million worth of trade debt, according to court papers. The company said that a major customer had been accused of smuggling cheap illegal cigarettes, leading authorities to obtain a seizure warrant on the company’s bank account to recover money that the customer had recently made. Bank officials who saw the seizure warrant declared Cooper-Booth to be in default of its borrowing agreements. Cooper-Booth officials have asked Bankruptcy Judge Magdeline D. Coleman for permission to spend cash that would otherwise be off-limits. The company and its affiliates "will lose significant revenue if they cannot immediately purchase supplies to fill their customer orders as needed," Cooper-Booth's attorney, Aris Karalis, stated in the court documents.
