Content area
Full Text
Badger Northland--the once proud farm equipment manufacturer which made competitors as green with envy as the company's forage equipment paint scheme--came to an unceremonious end recently.
The assets, one by one, were sold off to satisfy nearly $5 million of debt. Despite a $20 million contract with implement giant John Deere, Badger Northland Inc. couldn't dig itself out of a liability hole that included scant funds, an oversized facility, and management decisions by its former president Robert Hartsock.
Hartsock, when reached at his new job in Fulton, Mo., refused all comment to MARKETPLACE on Badger Northland. "I won't make any comment on Badger Northland and I wont help you with the story in any way," Hartsock said when reached by phone.
Hartsock took over as president in 1994 and appeared to hold promise for the failing farm equipment manufacturer. He was able to secure contracts for Badger, and even in the time of a sagging farm economy produced a $20 million agreement with John Deere to produce manure spreaders. He even bolstered workers' hopes with an Employee Sock Option Plan.
Despite the contract, Badger Northland went through a rocky 1996 with a heavy debt land of $5 million. In September, the company filed for bankruptcy, and although the Deere contract was the, the workers got an unwelcome lay-off notice just before Thanksgiving, shortly after Hartsock left the company.
At the time of the bankruptcy filing in September, the company listed assets of approximately $7 million, but liabilities of $11.8 million.
The building, Deere contract and manufacturing equipment inside were about the only tangible items around, and three suitors arrived for a Jan. 30 hearing and bidding proceeding in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Milwaukee.
The odds-on favorite was Paul Luber, president and chief executive officer of Meger Machine...