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Philadelphia Energy Solutions LLC, the owner of the largest U.S. East Coast oil refining complex, announced to its employees on Sunday that it plans to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters. The bankruptcy would come six years after private equity firm Carlyle Group LP and Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Sunoco Inc. rescued Philadelphia Energy Solutions from financial distress, in a deal that was supported by tax breaks and grants that saved thousands of jobs. Following an agreement with its creditors, the company has secured access to $260 million in new financing, and said that it expected the bankruptcy filing to have no immediate impact on its employees, according to the memo. Philadelphia Energy Solutions owns two refineries, Girard Point and Point Breeze. It can convert about 335,000 barrels of crude oil per day to products such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. It employs about 1,100 people.

The Los Angeles, Calif.-based Eclipse Berry Farms and it subsidiaries Rosalyn Farms LLC and Harvest Moon Strawberry Farms have filed for chapter 11 protection, The Packer reported. Ryan Du, accounts payable for Eclipse Berry, said on Jan. 18 that the firm will continue to operate but gave no timeline on the company’s future plans. The company filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 16 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. It estimates that it has more than 200 creditors and liabilities of more than $50 million. Estimated assets are between $10 million and $50 million, according to the filing.

Parker School Uniforms, an 87-year-old Houston company that closed unexpectedly during the first week of 2018, has filed for bankruptcy, the Houston Chronicle reported. Employees still haven't received paychecks originally scheduled to be deposited on Jan. 4. According to an email the company sent employees, those "payroll obligations are now likely to be addressed by the bankruptcy court during the liquidation process." A lawsuit has been filed against the company in the District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division for violating Section 2101 of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that requires employers to provide 60 days written notice to each affected employee prior to ordering a plant closing or mass layoff.

EXCO Resources, Inc. yesterday filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, according to a press release. EXCO intends to operate in the ordinary course of business during the restructuring process. EXCO continues to engage in discussions with its creditor constituencies regarding the terms of a financial restructuring plan. In conjunction with this process, EXCO said that it will explore potential strategic alternatives to maximize value for the benefit of its stakeholders, including the marketing of the company’s assets, which may result in a sale of certain or substantially all of its assets under §363 or as part of the plan of reorganization. EXCO has received a commitment of $250 million in debtor-in-possession financing from some of its existing lenders including Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited and its affiliates; Bluescape Resources Company LLC and its affiliates, including Cove Key Management; and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., and certain of its affiliates.

Current Newspapers Inc., a 50-year-old publisher of weeklies serving northwest Washington, D.C., filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, just months after Gannett Co. sued it over unpaid printing bills, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Current Newspapers owes almost $1.3 million to unsecured creditors, including about $180,000 to Gannett, and has assets of less than $50,000, according to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Washington, D.C. In the bankruptcy filing, Current cited “an interruption in cash flow resulting from outside printing costs” as a reason for seeking to reorganize in bankruptcy court. Gannett sued Current last September in Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and the court record shows Current Newspapers Chairman Davis Kennedy pleading for more time to pay off the debt and warning that it could end up in bankruptcy.

A company that grows, packs and ships potatoes in Oregon’s Klamath basin has filed for chapter 11 protection, the Capital Press reported. In its bankruptcy filing, Wong Potatoes of Klamath Falls reports owing between $1 million and $10 million to fewer than 100 creditors. It reported assets between $1 million and $10 million. The company, which was founded in 1930, produces 16 varieties of organic potatoes as well as several cultivars of conventional potatoes on nearly 5,000 acres. It employs between 50 and 100 workers, depending on season. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Renn has approved a motion for Wong Potatoes to use cash collateral and a meeting of creditors has been scheduled for Jan. 10 in Eugene, Ore.

Polara Golf, the maker of one of the most controversial products in the modern history of golf, has filed for chapter 11 protection, the Washington Business Journal reported. The company — whose legal name is Aero-X Golf Inc. — has less than $1 million in assets and nearly $3 million in liabilities, according to a chapter 11 petition filed Dec. 13 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Polara makes unusually dimpled golf balls the company says will help correct a golfer’s slice by as much as 50 percent. It makes no bones about it: The company’s brand of “ultimate straight” balls are printed with an arrow showing players how to line up the ball for the maximum chance of a perfectly straight drive. Polara's inventors patented their first version in 1974 and began selling the ball in 1977. The U.S. Golf Association wouldn’t approve the ball for use in tournaments, however, prompting Polara to sue the association. The case stretched on for seven years, until the USGA settled the case and agreed to pay Polara $1.4 million to remove it from the market. The bankruptcy case is related to a dispute with one of the company’s former executives. The largest claim is a $1.3 million judgment owed to David Felker, who was listed as the chief executive of Polara in articles about its products from 2011 through 2013.

Rentech, Inc., an owner and operator of wood fibre processing and wood pellet production businesses, announced yesterday that it and its subsidiary, Rentech WP U.S. Inc. filed chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to a press release. The purpose of the bankruptcy filing is to seek to sell the assets of the company’s Fulghum Fibres and New England Wood Pellet subsidiaries and facilitate an orderly wind-down of Rentech Inc. The subsidiaries of the company conducting its Fulghum Fibres business in the U.S., which have not filed for bankruptcy protection, entered into an asset purchase agreement on Dec. 15 with an affiliate of Scott Davis Chip Company, Inc. for the sale of substantially all of the assets of that business. The closing of this transaction is subject to specified closing conditions, including the approval of the bankruptcy court.

Expro International, an offshore-focused oil and gas services company, filed for bankruptcy on Monday with plans to hand control of the business to lenders owed more than $1 billion, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Expro Holdings US Inc. and several dozen affiliates sought chapter 11 protection at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, becoming the latest oilfield servicer to seek help weathering a sustained drop in oil and gas prices. Earlier this month, Expro reached a restructuring agreement with about 65 percent of key lenders that, if approved, would wipe out some $1.4 billion in obligations through a deft-for-equity swap, a common remedy for heavily indebted businesses. The deal would free Expro from about $80 million in annual interest payments.

J.G. Wentworth Co., known for its “877-Cash-Now” television ads, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday citing challenges ranging from unsustainable debt obligations to new competition that is easily able to find customer leads online, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. It marked the second bankruptcy filing in less than nine years for J.G. Wentworth, which last month announced a debt-for-equity swap with lenders that the specialty finance company warned would involve another chapter 11 reorganization. Earlier this month the Chesterbrook, Pa.-based company, which offers mortgages and buys life insurance policies and other hard-to-sell assets, began conducting voting on a restructuring deal that it had reached last month with lenders. J.G. Wentworth said in court filings yesterday that its pre-packaged reorganization plan has received enough votes from lenders and others.