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While a $1 million loan from Nashville shareholder Robert Zelle is keeping the company temporarily afloat, executives at the debt-saddled Cooker Restaurant Corp. say they still have a ways to go to turnaround the company.
Even as executives acknowledged Cooker's recent Chapter 11 reorganization filing will carry plenty of negative connotations, they began their effort to stabilize the company's finances June 20 at court hearings opening in Columbus.
"The thing that pushed us to this point was a battle with the banks," said CEO Henry R. Hillenmeyer. "The company, back in 1998 before I came into this role, borrowed $42 million and bought in $42 million of its own stock. So the equity went down $42 million and the debt went up $42 million and the company at that point had some $70 million of debt.
"Six months after that, in mid-1999, the sales plummeted and the company couldn't service the debt," he said. "At that point the board brought me in and asked me to fix it."
The West Palm Beach, Fla.-based chain filed its voluntary Chapter 11 petition May 25 in the Southern District of Ohio because Cooker is an Ohio corporation. The case was assigned to Judge Donald E. Calhoun Jr.
Hillenmeyer was the founder of the original...