Lebaron Bonney

[rmk57]

  Heard they have filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. So how many are left that can supply original design fabric for our 57's?

[djfordmanjack]

what ? oh boy...

[rmk57]

       

https://www.inforuptcy.com/filings/mabke_491362-1-19-bk-10856-lebaron-bonney-company

[CobraJoe]

A post on The Ford barn from an employee:

"Hello. As a five year Emp of LBB, in Amesbury, Ma., this is no rumor. LBB closed their doors Friday the 15th. The Courts will do an inventory, and there will be an Bankruptcy Auction in 4-5 months. The first people to be "made whole", will be you all, the Customers. I parted ways with the Company on Sept 15, 2018, due to lack of purchasing raw goods. I felt that less than honest practices were used to keep truth from Employees and from Customers.
You can PM me if necessary. This sucks for the I industry, and more for those who didn't get their Kits.
I hope the best in this situation.
Respectfully, and, Sadly,"

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260609

[Ecode70D]

   I purchased my interior from ABC many years prior to their selling out to LBB Co. in Amesbury Mass.  Within the last few days I noticed on the Fordbarn, the news about the bankruptcy.  Further reading stated that ABC and another wing of LBB will still be in business.
So someone with more computer skills than I do should be able to find the information.
    In my honest opinion there may still be a light at the end of the tunnel.  Don't give up hope completely.         

[Jeff Norwell]

Jay..I have heard ABC is still in business.... and its well documented that SMS is a NIGHTMARE...... pay up front and wait 6-12 months(or more).......

[Ecode70D]

Jay..I have heard ABC is still in business.... and its well documented that SMS is a NIGHTMARE...... pay up front and wait 6-12 months(or more).......

     I don't like this method of doing business.  Pay up front, then hurry up and wait.  I heard that LBB was at a big flea mkt. in the fall taking deposits just before all of this happened.

[RICH MUISE]

Bankruptcy courts will decide if the company has a reasonable chance to restructure their debts and stay in business........as Jay said, some research required as to the type of bankruptcy they filed for. Closing their doors is not a good sign they are even asking for a restructuring.

[Jeff Norwell]

Chapter 7 is Liquidation Bankruptcy . all assets are sold to pay debts

[gasman826]

bankruptcy customs vary state to state.  Part of the Court's roll is to establish the hierarchy of creditors (who gets paid and how much).  GM was allowed to keep their assets and just relabel.  Obama decided the share holders get nothing.  I got $0.00 from my GM shares.  I would move on and not hold my breather for a check from LB.  If a check is received, treat it as 'found' money.  LB assets are minimal.  The inventory is already stripped.  The real estate could be leased or held by another company or polluted.  A few sewing machines and layout tables will be worth little.  The patterns might be the most valuable asset and likely been copied and moved off site.  If ABC is a separate company, look for it to prosper.

[jviera]

The owner Ron sold to LB because of health reasons, then was back doing  Mercury interiors,  hopefully he will start to do  the Fords again, he was the best in the business for those cars at the time. John V

[Ecode70D]

X2 What John just stated.

[CobraJoe]

From: HEMMINGS CLASSIC CAR
Upholstery supplier LeBaron Bonney files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy



" After closing its doors late last week, the LeBaron Bonney Company, a longtime supplier of reproduction interior and upholstery kits for Ford and GM collector cars, has filed for bankruptcy.

According to Josh Burnett of Kitaeff and Associates, the law firm representing the company, on Tuesday LeBaron Bonney filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, "which means that the company's assets will be assigned to a trustee and the assets will be sold" to satisfy any outstanding debts.

Burnett did not elaborate on what led up to the company's bankruptcy. Calls to the company went straight to voice mail and were not returned.

When brothers Lee and Jack Atherton founded LeBaron Bonney in 1938, the furniture company scions did so to provide rental bicycles to tourists from their summer home on Cape Cod. They later tried a number of direct-mail business models selling historic maps, replica sailing vessels, and handmade goods before they settled on the old-car upholstery reproduction business in 1959.

According to company lore, Lee Atherton had bought a Ford Model A to restore with his son Barry but found nobody local willing to reupholster the interior or restore the convertible top. The trimmers at his family's furniture business took a look, decided they could duplicate the interior and top, and their results went on to win praise at old-car shows. Atherton decided this was the business opportunity he'd been looking for and started packaging interior restoration kits that he could sell worldwide using the mail-order business model he and his brother had tried decades earlier.

By the mid-1960s, with business booming thanks to ads placed in Hemmings Motor News, Atherton moved the company from Haverhill, Massachusetts, into a 14,000-square-foot building in Amesbury, then later expanded into a 29,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by Biddle and Smart also in Amesbury. A carriage-building concern that dated back to the 1860s, Biddle and Smart's business switched to supplying coachbuilt bodies to automobile manufacturers in the early 1900s. According to Michael Lamm, writing in Special Interest Autos, the company reached its zenith in the 1920s and ended up becoming the de facto coachbuilder for Hudson for much of that decade. In a move to save costs, however, Hudson switched to other coachbuilders and, by 1931, Biddle and Smart had gone out of business.

While the company expanded with the purchases of Hampton Coach, ABC Auto Interiors, and EZ Boy Auto Interiors - all intended to expand the company's reach to owners and restorers of cars beyond its core Ford Model A business - the company also passed out of the Atherton family's hands, a move that some enthusiasts noted as detrimental to the company's customer service in recent years. Still, Scott Holbrook, owner and president of the company, had made plans for expanding the company into an existing building in Wilton, Maine, as late as last summer.

According to the bankruptcy filing, LeBaron Bonney had assets of $500,000 to $1 million against liabilities in the same range.

Burnett said the bankruptcy process "can take a few months, or significantly longer." A meeting for the company's creditors is scheduled for April 25 in Boston."

November 1963 HMN ad.