UPDATE: 'Sad day' as judge rules on MC Sports bankruptcy

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Michigan Sporting Goods Distributors, which operates 68 sporting goods stores in seven states, has begun store liquidation sales at its MC Sports, MC Sporting Goods, MC Sport Outdoors Centers and Traverse Bay Tackle stores.

The liquidation sales coincide with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition the company filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of West Michigan on Tuesday, Feb. 14.

MC has been unable to compete with "online resellers, the expansion of competing distribution channels and specialty retailers and changing consumer preferences," according to the petition filed by Bruce Ullery, the company's president, CEO and largest shareholder for the past 28 years.

Founded in 1946, the Grand Rapids-based sporting goods chain employs 1,300 full-time and part-time workersm operating 68 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The chain has been advertising heavy discounts and clearance sales in recent weeks.

Headquartered at 3070 Shaffer Street SE, the company also operates an onsite ski shop at Cannonsburg Ski Area in Belmont. The company owns no real estate and pays $1.2 million a month in rent, according to the petition.

The company lost about $5.4 million on sales of $174.6 million in its latest fiscal year, according to the petition.

"After a valiant and concerted effort by MC Sports' associates, vendors, landlords, and outside professionals to restructure the company's balance sheet and operating performance, the company was unable to reach an agreement on a viable out of court proposal," Ullery said in a press release.



"The only alternative to address our immediate liquidity issues is to commence liquidation sales at all stores, while concurrently expediting our pursuit of alternative financing and going-concern sale options under the protections of Chapter 11," Ullery said.

"To lead our exploration of alternative options, the company recently retained the independent advisory firm, Stout Risius Ross Advisors, LLC."