Save The Tourist Wear! Fresh Produce Clothing Line Looks for Buyer

Bankruptcy professionals are scrambling to find a buyer who will save Fresh Produce women’s clothing line—colorful, roomy and reminiscent of that time you took the grandkids to Sarasota, Fla., for a beach vacation—from shutdown.

The Boulder, Colo., company could close by the end of August it doesn’t find a buyer to take over Fresh Produce’s 27 stores located in vacation spots like Florida, Arizona and South Carolina.

In court papers, Fresh Produce Holdings LLC Chief Financial Officer Jo Stone blamed the company’s financial troubles on an “aggressive overexpansion” and high turnover in key positions.

“Financial oversight and control suffered as personnel had to be replaced with individuals without sufficient institutional knowledge,” Ms. Stone said in documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver.

Fresh Produce, which employs 270 people, targets a tourist customer base. It made $37.9 million in sales during its most recent fiscal year.

Aside from tourists themselves, Fresh Produce clothing line is also meant to “appeal to non-tourist customers for whom a ‘vacation state of mind’ resonates,” Ms. Stone said. Its T-shirts have palm trees on them, its capri pants tie with drawstring waists and its selection of tunics drape nicely for that magician’s “now you see it, now you don’t!” effect. Most items are cotton.

As the company began to struggle last year, it closed a store, laid off workers and cut employee pay by 10%. But that wasn’t enough to prevent Fresh Produce’s parent company from filing for bankruptcy protection on April 4.

Without a buyer to rescue its operations, Fresh Produce officials have already made a deal with Illinois sales expert Yellen Partners to begin going-out-of-business sales no later than May 15. Yellen Partners promised that the company would get 86% of the value of its merchandise, give or take some money for fine print.

Some of that sale money could pay off some of the company’s roughly $15.1 million in debt, including a $3.9 million loan from Wells Fargo.

Under the proposed deal, the doors would close for good by Aug. 31.

Any plan for Fresh Produce—rescue or shutdown—would need approval from Judge Michael Romero.

Fresh Produce got its start at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles selling white T-shirts with custom pastel designs that paired with the event’s the color theme. Today, roughly 80% of Fresh Produce merchandise is made in the U.S. using fabrics that are also made here, according to its website.

Fresh Produce also sells clothing online and through roughly 400 wholesale customers. Most merchandise moves though a distribution center located in Gardena, Calif.

Write to Katy Stech at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @KatyStech