Textile Converter Declares Bankruptcy

H. Greenblatt & Co., a textile converter that was once listed by “Entrepreneur” magazine as one of the country’s hottest small businesses, declared bankruptcy and shut its offices recently in the California Market Center.

The company was forced into an involuntary bankruptcy Chapter 7 filing by some of its creditors, who listed as much as $2.4 million in claims.

In addition, CIT Group Inc., commercial factors owed more than $3 million, seized some of Greenblatt’s inventory, such as its massive library of prints and screens, to recover some of their funds, according to sources. CIT sold much of that inventory to AGX Corp., the New York–based textile converter owned by Alfred Greenblatt, the brother of Howard Greenblatt, founder and president of H. Greenblatt & Co.

H. Greenblatt was started in 1996 with $450,000 in capital and four employees. It supplied printed fabric for primarily the swimwear and intimatewear market. In 1998, “Entrepreneur” magazine cited it as one of its hottest small ventures.

In June 2002, H. Greenblatt acquired Twin Rivers Textile Printing, in Schenectady, N.Y., which included the Guilford Mills/Gilbert Frank screen library. Twin Rivers was a state-of-the-art textile printing facility housed in a historic complex of heritage buildings near the Hudson and Mohawk rivers.

In the documents filed by Attorney Alan Harris with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles on May 6, creditors were listed as Charbert, a division of NFA Corp. in Alton, R.I., owed $184,000; Como Textile Prints Inc., of Paterson, N.J., owed $263,000; Darlington Fabrics Corp., of Westerly, R.I., owed $1.85 million; Lebanon Valley Engraving Inc., of Lebanon, Penn., owed $72,460; and Somitex Prints of California Inc., of City of Industry, Calif., owed $252,000.

Assets for H. Greenblatt & Co. were not listed in the bankruptcy filing. A status conference is scheduled for July 6 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in downtown Los Angeles. —Deborah Belgum