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Lucky’s Market, a specialty grocery chain that is majority-owned by Kroger Co., filed for chapter 11 protection Monday with plans to sell at least some of its stores to Aldi Inc. and Publix Super Markets Inc. at a bankruptcy court auction, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Niwot, Colo.-based chain, which filed for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., listing about $600 million in liabilities, is keeping seven stores open with the hopes of selling them. The grocer said that it has received indications of interest for the sale of furniture, fixtures and equipment, and the transfer of leases for 26 stores to potential purchasers. It said that it has signed asset-purchase agreements with Aldi for five leased stores and one owned property, and with Publix for five leased stores. The deals are subject to higher bids and court approval. Aldi, which opened its first namesake store in Florida in 2008, said it is in talks to buy several Lucky’s locations in Florida as part of an expansion in Florida this year. Lucky’s has begun closing 32 stores, a process it expects to continue over three weeks. The stores slated to close were expected to lose about $30 million in fiscal 2020, Lucky’s said. Store closing sales began last week and will continue until the end of February, at which time Lucky’s said it would leave the store. The company has 3,015 full- and part-time employees in 10 states.

The operator of the Village Inn and Bakers Square restaurant chains has filed for bankruptcy after years of losses as it faces ongoing pressure from new casual dining brands and larger competitors, the Wall Street Journal reported. Restaurant operator American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The bankruptcy filing comes after Blue Ribbon said that it closed 33 underperforming restaurant locations and laid off about 1,100 employees. The Nashville, Tenn.-based company’s chapter 11 filing follows the bankruptcies of several family-friendly and casual-dining chains over the last several months including Marie Callender’s and Houlihan’s Restaurant + Bar. Blue Ribbon said that it still runs 97 restaurants in 13 states and franchises another 84 Village Inn outlets. At the time of the chapter 11 filing, Blue Ribbon said it employed about 1,500 full-time workers and more than 3,000 part-time workers.

Private-equity-owned gastrobar Bar Louie has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after closing 38 restaurants and arranging to sell its remaining locations to the chain’s lenders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bar Louie’s corporate parent, BL Restaurants Holding LLC, and three affiliates filed for chapter 11 yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., after facing increased competition and declining sales. Slumping sales cut into funds for much-needed restaurant refreshes and equipment modernization, according to Howard Meitiner, Bar Louie’s restructuring chief. The resulting “inconsistent brand experience, coupled with increased competition and the general decline in customer traffic visiting traditional shopping locations and malls,” prompted owner Sun Capital Partners Inc. to close 38 unprofitable Bar Louie restaurants immediately before Monday’s bankruptcy filing. The Addison, Texas-based company has put its remaining corporate-owned restaurants, about 72 in all, up for sale with its lenders agreeing to serve as a stalking horse, or lead bidder, in a bankruptcy sale, subject to higher and better offers. The lenders have agreed to acquire the restaurant’s assets with a credit bid of $82.5 million, court documents show.

Greeting card and stationery chain Papyrus is closing its stores in another blow to the ailing industry, USA TODAY reported. Most of the 254 closings will take place over four to six weeks, said Dominique Schurman, CEO of Papyrus parent company Schurman Retail Group, in a statement Tuesday. Founded by Marcel and Margrit Schurman in 1950, Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Schurman has about 1,400 employees at its stores. The retail group yesterday filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Court records show of the 254 stores, 178 are located in 27 states and Washington D.C. and the company has 1,000 U.S. employees. The other stores are in Canada. The Papyrus website advertised 20 percent to 40 percent off all items yesterday and said all sales were final. Earlier in the week, the discount was 20 percent off full-priced items.

Alta Mesa Resources Inc.’s oil and gas pipeline and storage subsidiary Kingfisher Midstream LLC filed for chapter 11 on Monday morning, joining its bankrupt parent, with the plan of pursuing a joint bankruptcy sale, the Wall Street Journal reported. Kingfisher, which transports and stores oil and natural gas for drillers in Oklahoma’s Anadarko basin, had spent the past four months marketing its assets for a potential sale independent of its parent, receiving four initial letters of intent from interested bidders, according to a document filed by Kingfisher’s attorneys to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. However, as the proposed purchase prices weren’t enough to cover Kingfisher’s $224 million debt load, the company decided that the auction would have to take place in bankruptcy to deal with existing liens and claims on the business’s assets, Kingfisher’s Chief Financial Officer John Regan said in a declaration filed with the bankruptcy court. Also, most of the bidders wanted a deal for the company to be paired with Alta Mesa, for which Kingfisher already provides oil- and gas-gathering services. Alta Mesa and Kingfisher had lined up a $310 million joint stalking-horse bid from BCE-Mach III LLC, a venture between oil and gas producer Mach Resources LLC and private-equity firm Bayou City Energy Management.

Borden Dairy Co. filed for bankruptcy late Sunday, becoming the second major U.S. milk producer to do so in recent months as rising milk prices and other challenges made its debt load unsustainable, Bloomberg News reported. The Dallas-based company listed assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million in its chapter 11 filing in Delaware. The company, founded more than 160 years ago, said in a statement that operations will continue as normal during the reorganization. “Borden is EBITDA-positive and growing, but we must achieve a more viable capital structure,” Chief Executive Officer Tony Sarsam said in the statement, referring to the widely followed profit measure of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The bankruptcy filing comes less than two months after larger rival Dean Foods Co. filed for chapter 11 in Houston. Conventional milk producers have struggled amid rising milk prices and competition from almond, rice and soy milk. “The company continues to be impacted by the rising cost of raw milk and market challenges facing the dairy industry,” Sarsam said in the statement. “For the last few months, we have engaged in discussions with our lenders to evaluate a range of potential strategic plans for the company.” Private equity firm ACON Investments LLC and affiliates acquired Borden in 2017. ACON said in a statement at the time that the company received debt facilities from GSO Capital Partners and PNC Bank. The case is Borden Dairy Holdings LLC, 20-10011, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Iconic telescope maker Meade Instruments filed for bankruptcy protection last month after a years-long legal battle with a competitor, Astronomy.com reported. On Nov. 26, a jury for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found the company liable in an antitrust suit that Orion Telescopes & Binoculars filed against Meade and its parent company, Chinese-owned Ningbo Sunny Electronic Co. Orion is a California-based retailer that sells telescopes and related accessories. Its website sells telescopes under its own brand name, as well as products from Meade and other brands. Meade is one of the largest distributors and manufacturers of telescopes for amateur astronomers. In a legal complaint filed back in 2016, Orion accused Meade’s parent company of working with another major Chinese telescope manufacturer to fix prices and monopolize the American telescope market. The other company settled with Orion before the suit was filed and is not named in the complaint. After the jury’s verdict, a U.S. District Court judge on Dec. 5 ruled that Meade and Ningbo Sunny must pay damages to Orion. According to the jury’s verdict — linked to from Orion’s website — Meade owes the retailer at least $16.8 million. However, the amount owed could triple because of the Sherman Antitrust Act, bringing the total closer to $50 million. The text of Meade Instruments’ bankruptcy filing claims debts between $10 million and $50 million. 

High Ridge Brands Co. announced yesterday that it has filed for chapter 11 protection and is pursuing sale of the company, MarketWatch.com reported. High Ridge's portfolio includes Zest soap, Alberto VO5 hair care products, and the Reach toothbrush. High Ridge says that the company's U.K. business operations are not included in the bankruptcy filing. High Ridge has received a commitment of $20 million debtor-in-possession financing, and the company says that it has enough liquidity to continue with business obligations including making deliveries in full and paying suppliers.

Clover Technologies Group LLC filed for bankruptcy Tuesday to complete its pre-packaged plan for lenders to take full control of the technology recycling company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The private equity-owned, Illinois-based company filed for chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., with a debt-for-equity swap supported by more than 70 percent of its lenders. Owner Golden Gate Capital, which backs the plan, will see its equity wiped out as part of the restructuring. The pre-packaged plan entails lenders swapping their claims in Clover’s $650 million term loan into 100 percent of reorganized equity as well as a chunk of cash and a new $80 million take-back loan.