LONE TREE, Colo. -- After six months of negotiations and courtroom extensions, an involuntary bankruptcy petition filed against convenience store retailer PCF Saleco LLC was dismissed. PCF Saleco reached "a satisfactory resolution of the disputes between the petitioning creditors" and itself on Feb. 28, according to court records accessed by CSP Daily News.
Since the filing of the involuntary petition in late August, PCF Saleco, a Lone Tree, Colo.-based owner and operator of 78 c-stores and gas stations, has received multiple extensions from the original response date of Sept. 27, citing a plan to reach a "successful conclusion" to negotiations with its gasoline supplier--Phillips 66--that would allow the company "to stabilize and focus upon its business operations."
"For the past several months, [PCF Saleco has] been in extensive negotiations with representatives of Phillips 66 in an effort to resolve numerous disputes and issues between and among the parties," the extension requests stated.
Although no details are provided in the court documents, PCF Saleco apparently has reached that conclusion and subsequently settled its issues with the three companies that filed the complaint. Court documents also note that none of the other creditors notified of the involuntary petition objected to PCF Saleco's motion to dismiss the case.
In the intervening six months, PCF handed operations of its stores in the Kansas City market over to GasMart USA, allowing the pumps and related c-stores to begin operating again. Financial problems at PCF Saleco had led to the temporary shutdown of the sites, which motivated the involuntary bankruptcy filing.
PCF Saleco, which purchased its 78 stores from ConocoPhillips on Jan. 30, 2009, allegedly owed the three suppliers involved in the involuntary petition more than $1.65 million, according to the Chapter 11 documents filed with the District of Colorado Bankruptcy Court on August 31.
Distributor Core-Mark International Inc., South San Francisco, Calif., claimed PCF Saleco owed it more than $1.64 million. D&H Pump Service Inc., a supplier of commercial fuel systems based in Albuquerque, N.M., said PCF Saleco owed it $10,778. And ACM Industries Inc., a restaurant-supply company, also of Albuquerque, claimed PCF Saleco oweed it nearly $3,000.
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