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Glass tableware maker Libbey Inc. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after paying millions in retention bonuses to top brass and laying off the bulk of rank-and-file employees in the U.S., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The 202-year-old Toledo, Ohio, company sought chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., blaming the Covid-19 pandemic for causing a sharp drop in revenue. But Libbey, which recorded a loss of $65.2 million last year on sales of $782.4 million, was in trouble long before the pandemic. Its business was hurt by global competition across all its distribution channels and slowing economies in Europe, China and parts of Latin America, among other factors, according to court papers. The company was unable to refinance a $440 million loan and had started working with Latham & Watkins LLP and Lazard Frères & Co. on restructuring options, according to a court filing by Brian Whittman, a managing director at restructuring adviser Alvarez & Marsal. Libbey employs more than 5,500 people, about 70 percent of them outside the U.S. Because of the pandemic, the company laid off most of its roughly 1,000 U.S.-based hourly workers in March and furloughed about 280 salaried employees in April and May. The company halted production at its Toledo and Louisiana plants and closed its two U.S. retail stores in response to the outbreak. A limited number of furloughed employees have begun to return to the plants and retail stores as restrictions are beginning to be lifted, Whittman said. Before filing for bankruptcy, Libbey paid about $3.1 million in retention bonuses. Most of the cash, $2.35 million, went to four top executives, including $900,000 for Chief Executive Mike Bauer. The balance of $750,000 was earmarked for 16 noninsider — or lower-level — employees.

Vision Group Holdings, the management company behind two leading Lasik surgery brands, filed for bankruptcy protection and launched a sale process aimed at placing the business into new hands as its surgical centers reopen, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Carrying $160 million in debt, Vision, the holding company operator of the Lasik Vision Institute and TLC Laser Eye Center chains, said that it filed for chapter 11 on Friday over the “temporary and devastating shutdown” of the company’s roughly 120 Lasik centers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In a sworn declaration, interim Chief Executive Lisa Melamed said Vision has fired more than 800 employees, roughly two-thirds of its workforce, when elective surgeries were effectively banned across much of the country. As stay-at-home restrictions are now gradually easing, Vision is hopeful the bankruptcy will provide liquidity to reopen most locations “and pave the way to a successful sale of the company’s assets,” she said.

The company of John Barrett, known for styling celebrities such as Hillary Clinton and Martha Stewart, filed for bankruptcy in New York, Bloomberg News reported. John Barrett Inc. sought protection from its creditors a little more than a year after leaving its perch on the penthouse floor of Bergdorf Goodman, where Barrett cut and colored the hair of New York’s well-heeled elite for more than two decades. The company listed as much as $10 million in assets and up to $50,000 in liabilities, according to the bankruptcy filing. An affiliated entity, Mezz57th LLC, also filed for chapter 11, listing between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities. Barrett reopened his salon at a new location on 57th Street after leaving Bergdorf Goodman. It temporarily closed on March 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an Instagram post. The case is John Barrett Inc., 20-11318, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

The U.S. arm of the Belgian bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien won a bankruptcy judge’s approval to get out of leases for 59 restaurants shut down in the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey acknowledged it was uncommon for a company in chapter 11 proceedings to seek immediate freedom from the leases at issue in the case. “The relief requested is unusual, but these are unusual times,” Dorsey said. The decision to seek protection from creditors under chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code allowed Le Pain Quotidien to shed debt and carry out a $3 million sale, pending court approval, to Aurify Brands LLC. That $3 million will serve as the chain’s bankruptcy financing.

The U.S. division of bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien filed for bankruptcy protection as pandemic restrictions continue to wreak havoc on fast-casual dining chains, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Belgian company’s U.S. arm said in court papers that it hoped to avert a complete liquidation of its 98 Le Pain Quotidien locations with a proposed $3 million sale of the business to fast-casual restaurant operator Aurify Brands LLC. The sale to Aurify, which requires court approval, would allow for 35 Le Pain Quotidien restaurants to reopen and would allow some employees who had been terminated to regain their jobs, said Steven J. Fleming, the U.S. division’s chief restructuring officer, in a sworn declaration in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic kept customers from dining out, PQ New York Inc., which licenses the Le Pain Quotidien brand name from a Belgian division, was in financial trouble. More than half the company’s sales come from the New York City metro area, which is saturated with restaurants, Fleming said. He said that most of the dining industry’s recent growth has come from delivery and to-go sales, rather than Le Pain Quotidien’s casual dine-in concept. Fleming also blamed flagging investments in stores, a lagging digital platform and turnover within corporate management.

The parent company of Advantage Rent a Car filed for bankruptcy protection, the second big car-rental company to seek protection from creditors in less than a week as travel restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic continue to ripple through the economy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Private-equity-owned Advantage Holdco Inc. filed for chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., along with a half dozen affiliates, including E-Z Rent a Car LLC, a sister company in the low-price rental sector. Debts top $500 million, according to papers filed late in the evening Tuesday. Advantage follows Hertz Global Holdings Inc., one of the nation’s biggest rental-car companies, into chapter 11 as the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has devastated air travel, a key component of the rental car business. The pandemic has also caused big drops in the value of rental-car company fleets and virtually frozen the used-car market. Advantage, the fourth-largest rental car company in North America, is owned by funds managed by Catalyst Capital Group Inc., a Canadian investment firm based in Toronto. Hertz at one point owned Advantage, having purchased the assets of its smaller rival out of bankruptcy in a 2009 deal. Advantage was later divested so Hertz could get regulatory approval to acquire another bargain operator.

Hytera America and Hytera Communications America (West) filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy this afternoon in a move the company described as a “routine financial restructuring” to address financial issues associated with ongoing litigation and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its U.S. business, UrgentComm.com reported. Hytera filed voluntary petitions for chapter 11 bankruptcy relief in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California “for the purpose of preserving its U.S. business operations,” according to an announcement posted today on the Hytera America web site. Hytera America’s bankruptcy filing was executed less than three months after U.S. District Court Judge Charles Norgle of the Northern District of Illinois entered a judgment in March requiring Hytera Communications to pay Motorola Solutions $345.8 million in compensatory damages and $418.8 million in punitive damages. During the trial, a Hytera attorney reportedly described the financial compensation sought by Motorola Solutions as a “bankrupting amount.” In February, the jury unanimously awarded Motorola Solution the full damages the company sought, and Judge Norgle affirmed the verdict. Motorola Solution also is seeking a post-trial ruling for a permanent injunction that would prohibit Hytera from selling a substantial amount of its DMR product portfolio anywhere in the world. Attorneys for Hytera — representing China-based Hytera Communications and subsidiaries such as Hytera America and Hytera Communications (West) — are seeking a new trial. In addition, Hytera has argued that any U.S. ruling should apply only to Hytera’s U.S. business, not the company’s activities in other countries throughout the world.

A Dunwood, Ga.-based company that makes leather belts and wallets for Target, Disney and Under Armour has filed for bankruptcy, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. Circa of America reported about $10 million in liabilities compared to about $622,000 in assets, according to a document filed on Friday in federal court in Atlanta. The company generated about $24 million in revenue last year, a 21 percent decline from 2018. Circa makes products that were sold under different brand names and for various retailers, including The Gap and Nordstrom. The coronavirus pandemic forced many retailers and malls to close for weeks, which pummeled sales. Another Circa customer, J. Crew, itself filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.Circa did not provide an explanation in court documents for its bankruptcy filing. An increasing number of U.S. companies have filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks, including JCPenney and Hertz rental cars, as the impact of COVID-19 is felt throughout the economy. Most of Circa’s largest creditors are foreign companies that supply the company with raw leather, finished leather goods and metal accessories. Some of its largest vendors are located in China, Mexico, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The more than a century old car rental firm Hertz Global Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday after its business was decimated during the coronavirus pandemic and talks with creditors failed to result in much needed relief, Reuters reported. Hertz’s board earlier in the day approved the company seeking chapter 11 protection in a U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware, according to court records. Its international operating regions including Europe, Australia and New Zealand were not included in the U.S. proceedings, the company said. The firm, whose largest shareholder is billionaire investor Carl Icahn with a nearly 39 percent ownership stake, is reeling from government orders restricting travel and requiring citizens to remain home. A large portion of Hertz’s revenue comes from car rentals at airports, which have all but evaporated as potential customers eschew plane travel. With nearly $19 billion of debt and roughly 38,000 employees worldwide as of the end of 2019, Hertz is among the largest companies to be undone by the pandemic. The Estero, Florida-based company, which operates Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty car-rentals, had been in talks with creditors after skipping significant car-lease payments due in April. Forbearance and waiver agreements on the missed payments were set to expire on May 22. Hertz has about $1 billion of cash.