Parliament Bankruptcy Chapter 11

[truk4u]

Is this old news, I haven't heard this before?

http://www.freecourtdockets.com/Dock...6676-46676.htm

[Will Garner]

Tom,

Did not Parliament just buy Bluebird's intellectual property? And now they are filing for bankrupcy. I guess they won't bother trying to buy Country Coach's IP.

[garyde]

No Way! Say it ain't so! What can be done to stop this collapse of so many buisnesses. This is simply exhausting.

[Orren Zook]

Maybe this is an unrelated item, but Hillsborough County records show Parliament Coach being added as a defendant on 12/10/09 in a negligence suit that was filed 7/17/09.

http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/o...pCL=&pcLocnCL=

[Danss]

Had most all of my service done there. Was and still is a great bunch of folks. Hope they can pull thru this setback. Dan & Jo

[Loc]

Here is a letter from Parliament Coach dated December 31, 2009, discussing the bankruptcy filing.

http://www.parliamentcoach.com/122010.htm

[Jon Wehrenberg]

When I actually worked for a living I was a bottom feeder buying bankrupt businesses or their assets. Until I formed Jamestown Advanced from scratch in 1987 I was always working through someone else's problems.

I learned from other's mistakes. And I had to learn how to clean up after others made a mess.

The survival rate for a company that seeks protection under Chapter 11 at one time was in the single digits. Every one of the companies I bought and restored was still in existence when I quit working in 2000, but while we were never on food stamps, we lived very modestly while restoring businesses to health and plowing virtually all our cash flow above what we needed to live on into the business.

Across the board I see businesses (not only converters) being run by folks that have a pretty impressive life style. I see businesses in which the owners can take time to golf, ski, go hunting and do all the things I never did because I never took the time away from the business. I know we have to balance work and play but when times get tough (they always do, in cycles) it seems the companies that have been the personal lifestyle funding machine get in trouble very fast.

I am not saying Parliament has been mismanaged or was plundered by its owners, but having the benefit of seeing how others ruin perfectly good companies I can understand how every converter today is suffering. Their customers, those who have had a high lifestyle, are suffering great financial distress and it is impacting all the converters disproportionately because they not only have customers in tough shape, they have potential customers that cannot get financing because of the banking mess. I am surprised any converters are still standing. These have been very tough times.

When a business runs into a situation where the customers are few and far between, and debt piles up, cash flow disappears, and the business cannot survive without a cash infusion, the only option available is to bite the bullet and cut spending, lay off good employees, stop taking a paycheck, sell unused or underused assets, and redirect the company to go after work previously not attrractive. If I was a converter today I would be undercutting Prevost on maintenance and doing as much of that as possible, I would be seeking customers who want upgrades and new interiors, I would be going after the little projects customers want done but have not previously been attractive.

Like all cycles this one we are in will end. But while we are in it those who own coaches still will need air bags changed, floors redone in wood or carpeting, and couches reupholstered.

[rickdesilva]

They were at Pelican Lake this weekend for the RV show. They all seemed upbeat. I guess tht the next few weeks will tell how they will operate going forward. I have an appointment for some upgrade work next month. I'll monitor the situation. I think they ran into the same problems that everyone who sells anything with wheels that has to renew lines of credit annually. The banks love you in good times and can't run away fast enough when times get difficult.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Banks are all about Banks, it's all about Money and Control.

He who has the Money has Control!




.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

It's easy to trash the banks (Obama does it too) but down at our level our businesses need to have access to cash and the banks we deal with have to #1 see we have the cash flow to retire the debt, and #2 in the event #1 fails needs to have hard assets they can sell to recover their money.

That's where this particular economy has screwed up the purchasers of buses and in turn greatly impacted those who buy and sell buses.

Would any of us wanted to be a bank when the secured assets were losing value almost by the minute, while at the same time the debtor's income or cash flow was drying up?

That was why I previously suggested I would try to work out of this as a converter by going after maintenance and repair business along with coach upgrades. That work does not require the customer to borrow money so the converter does not rely on having financing available for customers, and it does not require the converter to go out and invest a million dollars building a bus minimizing the converter's need for financing his operations.

As businessmen we all had to react to all the changes that were taking place all the time and we are in a situation now where the old methods that were used successfully for years are not going to work. Those who have avoided debt, and have conserved cash are going to not only survive they are going to thrive because as soon as businesses regain confidence and the economy returns to normal the pent up demand is going to let loose. Any time a business is in a growth period its needs for cash are extensive.