Armstrong Flooring hopes to get $84,000 from the sale of equipment from its tech center that was not scooped up in the $107 million bankruptcy sale of its North American assets.
The company said in court documents this week it intends to sell equipment from its Freedom Road tech center in East Lampeter Township to Lancaster-based Armstrong World Industries and a Maryland manufacturer. Objections to the sale of the equipment can be filed in Delaware bankruptcy court until Monday.
Armstrong World Industries spun off its iconic flooring division in 2016.
Armstrong Flooring is selling pilot line equipment for evaluating new UV coating on flooring products. According to former tech center staff, the equipment was used to run 18- to 20-inch-wide material before scaling up to 12-foot wide in the manufacturing plant. It could also be used to run small hand samples.
If there are no objections by Monday, Armstrong World Industries would pay $32,000 for 10 items including a nitrogen generator, large grieve oven, Aetek curing unit and a cooling tunnel, according to court filings.
Miltec UV in Stevensville, Maryland, wants to pay $52,000 for a conveyor line made by Leistritz with all accessories related to cooling, material handling, and conveying, and parts.
Armstrong Flooring has more than 2,900 claims since declaring bankruptcy in May. It owed creditors $317.8 million in debt, including $160 million to pre-bankruptcy lenders, Pathlight Capital and Bank of America, and another $24 million to the same lenders for bankruptcy financing. The lenders are first in line for payment because those loans are secured by property that was sold.
Armstrong Flooring had leased the design center and headquarters and its research and development pilot center in East Lampeter Township from High Properties Inc. It once housed about 60 employees from the company’s new product development, innovation and engineering teams.
Meanwhile, as part of Armstrong Flooring’s bankruptcy wind down, the company said in court filings that the few remaining employees had vacated its headquarters at the end of August, leaving furniture and other items to High Properties to dispose of because it was cheaper than paying another month’s rent.
Armstrong Flooring told the Securities and Exchange Commission that general counsel Christopher Parisi had left the company on Aug. 31. That leaves CEO Michel Vermette as the remaining executive.
In July, Armstrong Flooring sold its North American assets to a consortium of buyers consisting of West Hempfield Township-based AHF Products and Boston-based Gordon Brothers Commercial & Industrial LLC for $107 million.
Armstrong Flooring’s Australian operation was sold to Cowes Bay Group for $31 million in cash and the assumption of certain liabilities. The Chinese operation was sold to Zhejiang GIMIG Technology Co. Ltd., also known as the Giant Group, for $59 million in cash.
Armstrong Flooring valued the entire sale at $203 million.
