After national distributor of lawn and garden care products, Commerce Corp., lost its largest supplier, we helped M&T Bank recover its investment and mitigate losses through an orderly wind down process. Commerce Corp. lost its distributorship for the Scott’s® range of products, which had historically represented some of its most attractive offerings and its loss triggered a decline in the company’s business.

After acting in a consulting role on behalf of the bank for the initial phase of the wind down, Commerce asked us to scale up our involvement and manage the entire process. In this enhanced capacity, we were able to provide a maximum recovery to the company and its lender by renegotiating contractual agreements, preparing wind-down budgets, and managing logistics, distribution and sales functions.

Over the course of fifteen weeks, we managed all aspects of the wind-down while monetizing the company’s assets including inventory, outstanding accounts receivable, equipment, furniture, fixtures and rolling stock. In addition to Commerce Corp.’s existing customers, our industry relationships ultimately led to several major retailers and distributors purchasing the majority of the inventory. We helped reduce a projected $5 million loss by the bank (lender) to a loss of less than $1 million.