Sportcraft, the maker of recreational sports gear like pool tables, air hockey and horseshoe sets, filed a Chapter 7 petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court of New Jersey to liquidate. According to a report in The New York Times, the liquidation stems from increasing manufacturing costs in Asia and sluggish sales.
In the filing, Sportcraft's board said it had decided that a liquidation sale would generate the most value for creditors, instead of trying to reorganize under Chapter 11 protection.
The firm is majority owned by Wasserstein & Company, the private equity firm that manages money
for the estate of the late Bruce Wasserstein and other investors. According to a report in the Times, Wasserstein & Co. provided Sportcraft with additional cash last year, and earlier this year tried to sell the company.
A spokeswoman for Wasserstein said in a statement released to the Times:
“As a small provider of specialty products into mass channels,
Sportcraft was not able to overcome the effects of the protracted
difficult economic environment, in particular sustained high
unemployment and depressed housing markets, which have impacted demand
for table games and other home recreational products.”
The company is based in the Budd Lake section of Mount Olive, N.J., and
maintains an office in Shenzhen, China. It has close to 80 employees
based in the United States and roughly 60 employees in China.
