Judge to Review Top Bid for Zelenka Farms -- Week Ahead

By Katy Stech

Lawyers who put Zelenka Farms, a plant grower for big-box retailers including Lowe's Cos., Kmart, Shopko and Home Depot Inc., into bankruptcy could get permission to sell its operations at a hearing on Tuesday.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Barbara Houser is scheduled to look over the top purchase offer for the Irving, Texas-based company, which is operated by BFN Operations LLC. It employs 1,519 people at farms located in Tennessee, Oregon and other states.

Ohio-based LM Farms LLC put in an early $15 million cash offer. It is unclear whether other bidders emerged to challenge that bid at an auction that was scheduled to begin on Thursday. Lawyers involved with the sale process were not immediately available to comment.

Zelenka Farms filed for chapter 11 protection on June 17, blaming financial troubles on an unexpectedly rainy April and May that left it without enough money to pay down part of a loan before a June 3 deadline.

With roughly 5,000 types of container-grown plants, Zelenka Farms ranks as one of the nation's largest wholesale growers and distributors of shrubs, trees, perennials, roses and other plants within the country's $2.2 billion wholesale nursery products industry. Zelenka Farms takes in roughly $130 million in annual sales, including from its largest customer, Lowe's.

Founded in 1993 under the name Berry Family of Nurseries, the company grows plants on a total of 3,577 acres of land.

Katy Stech can be reached at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 12, 2016 12:16 ET (16:16 GMT)

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