OGDEN, Utah -- Flying J's recent bankruptcy has disrupted its plan to open a chain of travel plazas across Europe that would be modeled after its outlets in the U.S. and Canada, reported The Salt Lake Tribune. The Ogden, Utah-based company had been mapping out its first expansion outside North America when a steep drop in oil prices and a lack of available financing suddenly brought on a liquidity crisis that forced it into bankruptcy last month.
"Due to the bankruptcy, Flying J is not aggressively pursuing Europe, but we do have property in Germany and may look [image-nocss] at the European market when the economy improves," spokesperson Peter Hill told the newspaper.
But Flying J's desire to establish a number of plazas was sketched out in two German publications recently, Der Spiegel, a German weekly magazine, and the Hamburger Abendblatt, a newspaper.
Flying J was planning five plazas in Germany as part of a larger strategy to eventually build 12 plazas in the country and an unspecified number of plazas elsewhere in Europe, Der Spiegel said. But plans to build the first plaza on a highway outside Hamburg appear to have been put on hold, according to Abendblatt.
Flying J, one of the nation's largest privately held companies, filed for bankruptcy protection December 22, citing a collapse in oil prices and trouble obtaining additional credit from its lenders. The bankruptcy applies only to itself and its refining and pipeline-distribution subsidiaries. Other subsidiaries, including the company that operates more than 250 travel plazas in North America, were not affected.
Der Spiegel said a travel plaza at an exit along a high-speed autobahn south of Hamburg would be a "showpiece," offering food, electronic games and overnight parking for hundreds of trucks. Abendblatt said the plaza would have a hotel, supermarket and a truck-leasing office. The magazine said Flying J had invested 12 million euros ($15.6 million U.S.) in land and other outlays for the plaza. The 30-acre property would provide parking space for up to 400 trucks and sell fuel at prices below those of domestic competitors, the magazine said, citing a Flying J representative.
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